The three of us went aboard Olivia’s rental and started in the direction of the nearest Soul Bank outpost. We had to stay off the main road out of fear of bumping into Tchadd’s soldiers, but the ride went smoothly otherwise.

The bank sat aloof in the middle of the interdimensional highway and forced anyone in the area to drive through its sliding doors, maneuvering between civilians before leaving through the complementary door on the opposite end. Lining its sides, the building had waterfalls of liquid gold, of water, of mercury, and of a fluid that I hadn’t seen before but that I was pretty sure was some kind of medium to carry souls judging by the agonized faces flowing through.

When we drove inside, though, the building was entirely empty. I had assumed from its location that the place would be a bit more lively, so I was a bit disappointed to find out that there wasn’t anyone here to scam into taking our loan. There were no furnishings - not even a styrofoam cup water dispenser - and the teller refused to glance in our direction.

Paige took the lead and walked toward the teller at the front desk, who, although I hadn’t noticed initially, was an enormous dragon. He began speaking to us once we were about a hundred meters away.

“Welcome to the Soul Bank. What are you here for?” He remained fixed on the wall behind us.

“Hello! We’d like to take out a loan.” Paige stepped forward with punctuality.

“They always are. How much do you want?”

“I think 400 souls is good for what we’d need.”

“And whose name will this go under?”

“Emma Longstone, please.”

I twitched. “What the fuck Paige?”

“Think of it as your court fees.”

The dragon’s breath filled the entire room with the stench of tuna. “Emma Longstone, huh? You’re not in our database. To gain the edge in the eyes of the invisible hand of the free market and push our services above that of our competitors, I’m going to have to give you a briefing about the company before I can let you take out a loan.” The dragon sighed, “First of all, we don’t do deposits or withdrawal here. The word ‘bank’ is just marketing, and doesn’t represent the business model; all we do is high-interest loan sharking. If you don’t pay off your debt in the allotted time, your soul is forfeit to our company.”

That was a bit unsettling, but I figured that since Tchadd already had the rights to my soul, the debt would be his problem if I didn’t end up winning my freedom.“Okay, sure. Those terms are acceptable. Just soul me, baby.”

“Whatever you say. The interest rate is 200%, compounded daily. You have one year from now to pay it off.” He placed a jar under a tap labelled ‘Souls’, and the same fluid that I had seen along the walls came pouring out like soda. “Four hundred souls. Good luck with whatever you need them for.”

We walked toward the elevator, the teller paid too little to care, and pressed the button with the letters “CEO” engraved.