Title: Parting Souls- Sequel to Passing Souls

Summary: Heaven just isn’t Heaven anymore when your soul mate is gone.

Rating: PG

 

          “I want you to send me to him now!” I yell.

 

          The space around me ripples and the marble floor beneath my feet quakes. The voice comes from everywhere and no where at the same time. He chuckles and I don’t know if I should be amused or irritated.

 

          “You have been here so long and yet you have no patience,” he says.

 

          My bottom lips trembles and I feel the tears scratch in the back of my throat.

 

          “I miss him,” I whisper and I know he will hear me anyway. That’s the thing with omniscient beings.

 

          “You love him,” he says.

 

          “Is that what this is? Nothing feels right, everything is too tight and hard and bright. Without him here it-” I stop not knowing the right word.

 

          “Hurts. You hurt without him,” he says.

 

          I nod and tears tremble on my lashes, falling to my cheeks. I don’t know what that word, hurt, means but it seems to fit.

 

          “I want him back. I need him,” I whisper.

 

          He sighs and in that one instance he ceases to be a voice in a room. He is just an old man, a tired, old man sitting in a great chair. He’s wearing a robe of some sort that might have been white at one time. He beckons to me with a tired hand and I step closer. In all the time I have been here, this is the first time I’ve seen him in this form.

 

          There is a foot stool in front of the chair. He pats it and I sit down. His hand drifts to my hair.

 

          “My child, come let me tell you a story,” he says.

 

          I nod and wait patiently for him to start speaking.

 

          “A long, long time ago, when the realms, dimensions, were brand new there was a hall of souls. A hall I filled but I made a mistake”

 

          I arch an eyebrow at him. This is-well lets just say he doesn’t make mistakes.

 

          He chuckles and it’s one of those sounds that fill you up with warmth. “Yes, my child, on occasion even I make mistakes. It’s part of humanity and I encompass all of humanity. I made a mistake, call it whim but some souls were so strong, so brave, I halved them. I didn’t think of the consequences. I didn’t assume there would be any. Some wouldn’t call it a mistake, in this case it is a grave one,” he says.

 

          He sighs and his hand strokes my hair softly. I lean into his touch. It brings contentment, warmth and it makes me feel…safe.

 

          “The halves of the souls are always attracted to each other. They long to rejoin. They fall-”

 

          “In love,” I finish for him.

 

          He smiles down at me and for one small second I forget about going “there” to Angel, for one second.

 

          “Angel taught me love, here. He taught me words for emotions that I didn’t know, like happiness, joy. I want that again, even if means I leave this place,” I say.

 

          “Yes, the halves of the soul fall in love and what a love. Scholars will and have called it many things, soul mates, destiny, fate.  Time, death, circumstances may separate those souls but it can not dampen that love. Those souls will always clamor to rejoin, to be one,” he says.

 

          “And Angel is the other half of my soul,” I say.

 

          “Yes, as one piece the soul was so strong there would have been nothing it could not have conquered. I halved it because if the soul were corrupted in anyway, it could have wrought such evil and still those halves are the strongest souls I have ever seen,” he says.

 

          “Then send me to him! Let our souls find each other and we can be a force for good, real good,” I wail at him.

 

          The man sighs. He seems to grow older, wearier before my eyes. “If only it were so simple, my child. If only it were so simple,” he says.

 

          “It can be,” I say.

 

          The man shakes his head. “You won’t remember this conversation that is why I can afford to be so frank. When Liam, Angel as you call him, came here, his body did not die. He was turned into a vampire. A demon inhabited him, forcing his soul out. And when he left it was because a band of gypsies ripped his soul from this realm and forced it back into his body,” the man says.

 

          I furrow my brow and look up at him. “Angel is a vampire?”

 

          “With a soul, the only one currently in existence” the man says.

 

          I look down and ponder what he has told me.

 

          “But-I mean-I get it’s complicated but-” I stop.

 

          “But you still want to go to him” the man says and the weight he carries on his shoulders fills his voice for a moment.

 

          “Please,” I plead.

 

          The man nods. “I was going to send you soon. I’ve been putting it off because I was afraid of this. I have been waiting for a very special vessel. You, Liam, are a very special soul.  You will save the world, my child. You will save the world many, many times,” he says.

 

          “Then that means so will Angel”

 

          It is my last coherent thought.

 

*

 

          “Oh, Hank, she’s so beautiful”

 

          “She is. Just like you. What are we going to call her?”

 

          “Buffy”