The art was merely a reflection of me, of my soul, my darkness. I shook my head to focus. I looked into myself. Usually, my visualizations changed somewhat with each visit, but it looked the same as last time, with one minor difference, if you could call it minor. The calming pool of invisible energy wasn’t so invisible. It had transformed into a muddled, dirty black.

I hurried to its edges to inspect it. An occasional bubble floated to the surface and popped as if it were a brew in a witch’s cauldron. I wanted to reach out and touch it, but there was a wrongness to it, like it’d burn my finger off if I tried. That jetski-loofah-atari guy must have tainted my energy somehow.

A distant scream that made my shoulders tense came from the roiling pond. He must still be in there somewhere. I didn’t like the idea of someone else living in my soul, even if he were in agony, but I had no idea how to get him out. A pull brought me back to reality.

I turned to see Al’s rage-filled face, as she picked me up by the front of my shirt. She lifted me and my back slid up the wall as I rose into the air until my feet no longer touched the floor.

“What did you do to Jesse?” She asked in a low threatening voice.

“Al. It’s me.” I replied with difficulty.

“Bullshit.” She said.

“Language.” Even in the precarious situation I was in, I wouldn’t drop my disdain for swearing. She eyed me curiously. “Al, it’s me. I promise.”

“I don’t believe you.” She spat.

“Listen. I’ll tell you what happened in prison, and if you’re not satisfied, please don’t kill me.” I pleaded. She waited a long moment, then slowly lowered me to the floor. Her eyes were stuck to me as she cautiously stepped back. She gestured for me to sit on the couch, but still within pouncing distance. I hesitantly sat where she motioned.

“So…” I started. “As I was saying, I tell Bucket a little about my situation and he decides to take advantage of my talents.” I went into an accurate accounting of my prison adventure, with only a few minor embellishments.

“Then I threw a table, pinning him to the wall. In one fluid motion, I threw a serving tray like a throwing star. It severed his spine like an archer shooting an apple from 100 yards away. Bullseye caught the falling head, before it could touch the floor and flung it at me. Naturally, I twisted into the air with my insane reflexes and caught it, as if we were playing an intense game of dodgeball. While still in the air, I whipped around and struck Poison in the face. Things were getting dicey. I knew if I didn’t do something fast, Atom would hurt the nurse. She’d fallen in love with me, and her fragile heart couldn’t take any measure of pain. I had no choice. I had to cross a line that I promised I’d never cross.” I closed my eyes and bit back the pain, forcing myself to continue. “While Poison was down, I reached into him and tore out his soul.”

“No.” Dale gasped with rapt attention.

“It’s true.” I said. “But the gamble paid off! I was able to stop the others, by using his ability. However, it turns out, I’d played right into his hand. He knew I wouldn’t be immune to his poison, and I fell to the ground coughing blood. The nurse rushed to me, but there was nothing she could do, I was going to die.” I teared up and turned away. “The creature in my soul cackled at my misfortune, then he whispered in my ear. ‘I can save you, Ghost – if you give me your soul!’ He laughed bitterly. I couldn’t let him use me like that, so I shot back: ‘I’d rather die than let you control me!’ I had to fight on two different fronts, inside and outside of me. A battle raged in my soul, while my body, still assaulted by the other monsters, deteriorated from the noxious cloud surrounding me. I couldn’t stomach letting that woman down, and I refused to fall.

As you know, the soul is my domain and poison made a fatal mistake. There was a brief window where he was vulnerable, and I took advantage of it. My power overwhelmed him, and he was finished. He staggered back and fell to the ground. ‘You may have won the fight, but you haven’t won the war.’ He said, then jumped into my massive pool of energy. I tried to stop him, but it was too late. He didn’t know just how strong my soul was. It’d spell his doom. My power tore him apart and devoured his soul. He screamed in agony, but with his final breath, he cursed me. He used the last of his essence to infect my energy.”

“Oh no.” Dale reached out to try to comfort me, but I shied away and stuck my palm out to stop him.

“Don’t. Let me finish.” I said sadly, with a dramatic sniff to hold back tears, I collected myself. “It may have been a masterful strike, but there was a silver lining. It made me immune to poison. So, while the demons melted, I survived. The nurse was saved, and she jumped into my arms. I set her down and turned away. ‘I’m sorry Henrietta, my friends are in trouble, and they need me.’ She reached out to stop me, but I walked away without looking back. I had to let her go, and I couldn’t bear to see the tears running down her cheeks. I left the prison, but it wasn’t over yet.

One more obstacle stood before me and freedom. Bullets flew at me from every direction as I made my escape.” I pointed to the two slits in my prison uniform. “As you can see, of the thousands of bullets fired, only two managed to graze me. I shed the shackles of captivity, but I couldn’t get escape reality. After so many trials, I finally succumb to the exhaustion.” I lowered my head, signaling the end of my tale.

“Wow.” Dale said clapping.

“I know.” I nodded appreciatively. “It was a truly harrowing experience, but I survived.”

“That’s not what happened.” Al commented.

“What do you mean?” I asked. “That’s exactly what happened.”

“No, it’s not.” She said. “You were in prison all of a few hours. Let me tell you what actually happened: You got attacked because said something stupid. You were injured and ran away screaming. You called me because you couldn’t handle it and said something stupid. You tried to order pizza, but they wouldn’t deliver to the prison, so you told them to come find me. They found you and you were forced to stall, but your stupid plan didn’t work, and you got injured. Somehow you got lucky and escaped, but not before you got injured – again. Then, I picked you up off the street and here we are.”

“That is not what happened.” I pouted.

“No, that sounds much more likely than whatever you said.” Shawn agreed.

“Actually, that does make a lot more sense.” Dale added. “And you didn’t explain how you lost your hand.” I glowered at him for a moment.

“Shut up, Dale.” I said petulantly.

“Well, at least you convinced me that you’re still yourself.” Al said with a sigh. “Nobody would come up with such an elaborate, and obviously fake, story – except you.”

“I take offense to that.” I commented.

“You would.” Al replied. “More to the point, can you fix whatever happened to you?” I shrugged.

“Does that mean you can’t heal my face?!” Shawn exclaimed desperately.

“I think you look better this way.” I shot back to what looked like an expression of constipation. It was hard to tell by the way he looked – and not just because his face was swollen. “Speaking of your face, how did you manage to screw up watching a teenage girl?”

“Yeah.” Dale asked accusingly. “I was wondering about that.” Shawn looked back and forth between us, most likely because he was going to be embarrassed by the stupid words that were about to spew from his face.

“Some woman knocked on the door of your apartment.” Shawn said. He continued, but mid-sentence he focused on me. “She was pretty cute, and I thought she’d come to see me. She said she was your sister.” My heart dropped into my stomach, and Al spun toward him.

“What did she say?” I asked eagerly.

“Well, I got the impression she was trustworthy, and she told me I could go take a break. So, I went for a walk.” I stared at him incredulously. “When I got back, she was gone, and Cara was happy to see me.” He squinted as if trying to remember. “Then she was gone and Dale came back. I nodded to him – then I was in the lobby.”

We considered Shawn for a moment, each of us with different expressions on our faces. I wanted to find out more, but I wasn’t sure what else to ask. Cara sat up and groaned, clutching her head. Al was about to knock her out again, but I held a hand out to prevent it. I didn’t want to believe what Shawn’s claim about Selena, but I had to know.

How could she know about Cara? Had she done something? That would mean she had some involvement with demons. I refused to believe that. I didn’t even want to think about it. Afraid that I’d draw other inane conclusions and convince myself of Selena being involved in something nefarious, a brilliant idea crossed my mind. Something that could pull away my attention.

I stepped forward to look into Cara’s eyes. They were the silver gray of the metal art that showed me my true nature. She jumped back in alarm with my face so close to hers. I smiled at her.

“Hey Cara, I think I have a way to help you with your little demon problem.” I suggested. She appraised me curiously. I grabbed her hand. “Come with me.” I said but didn’t pull her to her feet to guide her anywhere. Instead, I dragged her consciousness with me – into her soul.

For me, going into a mindspace was like walking into a building, it was a place like any other. The threshold was like a door. Even if I’d lost my ability to heal, this was my real power. Having pulled Poison into my soul, I was confident I could do the same with anyone else. I took Cara to the place inside her soul where Jascia resided. As I remembered, it was a dark rocky room that looked more like it belonged to a cult than someone’s home, even if she were a demon.

Jascia sat on the steps leading to her throne of stone. She moved slowly, as if it pained her to do so. It was almost like she had a hangover, with her head in one hand covering her eyes, as if the lights of the dim cave were too bright and she was nursing a headache. Cara surveyed the scene in confusion, trying to take it all in.

“Hey Jascia!” I almost shouted. She put her hands up to shield herself from the loud greeting. “I want to introduce you to someone.” I pulled Cara in front of me. She looked shell-shocked by the scene and the monster in front of her.

“What do you want?” Jascia asked weakly. Her hands dropped so she could see me and my guest. Her eyes shot open in alarm when she saw Cara. “Is that – ?”

“Yeah, Cara’s consciousness.” I introduced. “Cara, I’d like you to meet Jascia, your demon.” They both stared at each other in disbelief. “I’m here to broker a deal.”