Prologue Michael's Point of View (POV)

I was sitting in my alleyway feeling sorry for myself. Despite these negative thoughts that I just couldn't push away, I was still very aware of my surroundings. When you have been a war zone, some part of you never quite believes that you have left. Surprises had made me react instinctively and violently which is why I was in this alleyway and away from anyone I could hurt accidentally.

Standing in front of me was a young girl, wearing jeans and a denim jacket with a backpack on her shoulders and a violin case poking out of it. I could have sworn that she had just appeared out of nowhere. There was no way that I would have missed anyone walking towards me, but there she was looking at me with warmth and compassion.

I looked around just checking that there was no one else.

“I need your help,” she said to me gently.

My first reaction was an immediate fear and loathing. Fear that she was close to me, a monster, and that I would hurt her and loathing towards myself. She frowned at me and I felt a sense of peace wash over me.

“You are a good man,” she said decisively.

“No, I am not. You need to leave me alone,” I said. Part of me wanted to shout that to her and drive her away, but I just couldn't bring myself to do that to a young girl, especially while I was enjoying this strange sense of peace. It wasn't my peace, it was hers and she was somehow sharing it with me.

“You cannot lie to me and I cannot lie to you. I have touched your soul and I know you are a good man. I need your help,” she repeated.

She was right though. As soon as she had appeared I had felt some weird connection to her and I knew that everything she said, she believed.

“What do you need me to do?” I asked. I could see that she was stubborn and wouldn't leave me alone until I had done what she wanted, so the only solution was to help her and get it over with.

“First we need to get you cleaned up. I have some cash, do you know a cheap hotel where we can stay for the night?” she asked.

“Where are your parents?” I looked around again, checking. No girl her age should be on her own. It was dangerous.

“I am travelling to the mother of my heart and that is why I need your help,” she answered.

That didn't explain why she didn't have anyone with her but suggested that she was on her own and that meant I had to help her. I levered myself up and stretched out my kinks.

“I know a place, but it will cost fifty dollars for the night, do you have enough?” I asked.

She nodded so I led her to a backpackers that I knew. We organised a room and then went out to get some shampoo and a razor. She even took me to a charity shop for some new clothes. When I had cleaned myself up we went out again, first to a barber for a haircut and then to a restaurant for some food. She had given me two hundred dollars that I used to pay for everything.

While she was directing me and getting me to do what she wanted, the peace that had felt artificial slowly became a part of me. It was like she was healing me on a soul level. Initially, I didn't want to leave her presence, worried that my fear and loathing would come rushing back, but as the peace continued, I started hoping that it was a permanent change.

As I started to feel more like the old me, the one who I was before I went to war, I also felt more mentally present. My vague curiosity about this girl was turning into a more responsible adult demand to know. She promised to tell me, but first, she wanted to practise with her violin. We walked to a park, she pulled out her violin, spent a few seconds tuning it and then started playing this haunting music. The peace that I had been feeling left me as I felt this wave of sadness. I listened, tears running down my face. My life changed as I listened to this angel, who had pulled me out of my depression. It was a cleansing sadness that pulled me so low that I rebounded with a determination to get my life together again.

“What have you done to me?” I mumbled to her when she had finished.

She smiled sadly. “I have healed your soul,” she admitted.

“How can you heal someone's soul?” I asked. I didn't disbelieve her or question that I had a damaged soul.

She sighed. We sat at the bench she was playing in front of.

“It's a long story,” she warned.

I just looked at her, willing her to continue.

“You probably won't believe me,” she added quietly.

“You can't lie to me, just as I can't lie to you,” I said with a smile, repeating her words.

She turned to face towards me, so I turned a bit as well. She looked me in the eyes. “About six months ago, I was a passenger in a car when the driver, my violin teacher, had a heart attack. The car swerved off the road and hit a tree.” She clutched my hands in remembered pain. “I died,” she said softly.

Chapter 1 Eric's POV

It happened so quickly that I didn't have a chance to do more than glance at Graham in surprise as the car headed off the road at speed. Graham's eyes were closed and his hand was clutching his chest. I looked out the front to see a big tree rapidly approaching and then blackness. I don't remember the actual collision, just confusion, overwhelming pain and then nothing.

I had an opportunity to go somewhere else, somewhere that was full of love and acceptance, but I sensed that my body wasn't quite dead and I knew my mother and my sister needed me, so I resisted the pull stubbornly.

The next part of my life was a very strange existence. I was deprived of all my senses, and I know that sounds horrible, possibly even mentally damaging, but my emotions remained calm and if anything, curious. I presumed I was in some kind of coma and was just waiting for my body to heal so that I could wake up.

Time has very little meaning when you can't sense anything, so I don' know how long I was in that state, but I know I got bored very early on and tried to listen. I wasn't listening for a sound necessarily, just any type of input at all.

Finally, my efforts were rewarded and I started to sense emotion. I was pretty sure it wasn't my emotion because I had no reason to feel overwhelming terror, followed by shame and humiliation. At first, the emotions I felt were faint, but I listened with all my attention and my emotional sense grew stronger. It was at this point that I realised I was surrounded by someone else. Someone who was in a lot of emotional pain. My conclusion was that my body had died and some part of me had been transplanted into another body. When I made that observation to myself I wasn't upset, but like before, I still had this calm centre, so it was a logical note, rather than a soul-destroying discovery.

I had another opportunity to go to the light, although there was no sense of light, just a different place to go, somewhere not of this world. There was no fear involved or any emotion holding me back. The only reason why I didn't go was because the person I was within was having a terrible life and wanted to help. All I felt were negative emotions, she almost never felt love, happiness or joy.

I stretched myself, pushing myself to become more than I was so that I could help her. I constantly strained my emotional sense and tried to listen for more than just emotion. I accomplished two things fairly quickly, an ability to project my calm, peaceful feeling that came from my centre and I started feeling the emotions of other people when they were close to my host. This allowed me to start understanding what was going on and try and help.

From what I could tell, I was in a child's body, that went to school for a period of the day. I guessed that from the number of different emotions that surrounded me then with childlike innocence. That appeared to be the best part of the day for my host. There were times at school when I sensed some fun, joy and friendship. At home there appeared to be two other people in the house. I guessed the mother and father. The mother seemed diminished, like someone had trodden on her and there was no spirit left. I didn't feel love from her or even caring, just apathy and fear when the other person was present. The father was a nasty piece of work. Most of the time I felt anger, satisfaction and boastful pride from him. I was pretty sure he was at least physically abusing the woman and knew for a fact that he was raping my host. He could have been a step-father, an uncle or some other male figure, but I presumed he was either the father or step-father.

I started developing an energy sense to go along with my emotion sense which allowed me to connect the terrible emotions that my host was suffering with a disgusting energy penetration of my host's bottom. It wasn't just terror, shame and humiliation, but helplessness and hopelessness as well. His very presence evoked a panic reaction.

The energy of my host was becoming damaged. I tried with some success to manipulate my host's aura and fill in the holes that were forming, but every new attack didn't just create new damage but undid all my healing attempts. My host was dying, energetically. I didn't know if that meant the soul was dying or something else, but I equated it to the soul.

I had to do something so the next time I felt him come in for another attack, I reached out and tried something new, I shared my peacefulness with him, taking away his anger. It wasn't without cost as it meant I had to touch his disgusting soul, but it stopped his intended attack cold. His soul was also damaged, but he had somehow filled up the damaged sections with something vile and evil.

I couldn't sense time exactly but got some kind of idea by the number of emotions that I experienced and things like going to school and feeling all these innocent souls around me. Mostly innocent, there were a few that had evidence of damage and touches of nastiness. I started reaching out to those and attempting to heal their auras and remove the nastiness.

I think a month passed and my host was doing much better. I was able to heal the aura and without any attacks, lighter emotions started becoming more frequent. I tried to heal the mother, but there just wasn't any energy for me to use. I may have helped a little, but I didn't notice any real change. I tried once to heal the man of the house, but those evil sections rejected me forcefully.

Then he attacked again. I tried to reach him, but his soul rejected me. I tried to project peacefulness onto my host but their emotions were too strong. All the healing I had done, evaporated and I felt the soul give up in despair. The soul energy that was surrounding me left and I was almost sucked up out of my location to fill the void.

Slowly I became aware of other sensations. First I felt touch, which wasn't that pleasant since I felt pain coming from my wrists and my bottom. Then I could hear, mostly my breathing, but other soft sounds. My sight may have come back at some point, but it wasn't until I felt able to move and turned my head that had been buried in a pillow, that I realised I could see. Not a lot, since it was very dark, but when you are used to not being able to see, anything is a pleasant surprise.

The man was long gone, but when I stretched out my senses I could feel him next to the woman in another bedroom. I checked my bottom to see if there was any evidence that I could take to the police, but my bottom was mostly dry. I smelt my fingers realising that all my senses were working. I smelt something that reminded me of a condom. I wondered if that would be enough evidence. Should I get up, find a phone and call the police? I knew the woman was aware of what the man was doing to my body. I had checked her emotions during an earlier attack and felt her guilt and self-loathing.

My emotions up until that point had been mostly calm, but it seemed that now I was in a body my emotions were amplified and under a lot less control. The idea of getting caught by the man scared me in a way I had never been scared before. I wasn't just scared, I was terrified, like a phobia of that man and his disgusting soul.

I took deep breaths to calm myself down, but I knew I didn't have the courage to sneak around the house. I didn't know what to do. This body was not mine and the real owner could come back at any moment. I wanted to help this body so that when its owner returned, we would have a good time together. I just needed to work out how to do that. Clearly, I couldn't stay here, in this house with that monster.