Heaven On Earth

Everyone always talks about 'Heaven On Earth' but I never thought there would be Earth on Heaven. Heaven on Earth is bliss, it's beautiful, it's peaceful, it's good. Earth on Heaven is horror. It's cracks in the clouds which people fall through, it's thunder in the sky which pounds in your head, it's a soul, lying in the dirt, bleeding blackened blood.

I drop to my knees and brush strands of hair from the little girl's face. The shimmer that we all have up here is fading, turning her stunning silver hair, grey. Like that of an old lady's on her death bed. This girl has already died too young once, she doesn't deserve and she shouldn't be able to die again. If I just look at her face I can pretend she is sleeping but the blood running from her chest seeps into my jeans. A human's blood is hot and sticky but a soul's is cold, like the water from the deepest part of a lake, where colour is gone and nothing lives. The girl's skin turns translucent as the dark liquid leaves her body. I can no longer pretend she is sleeping and my heart burns.

Normally, by the time I find the bodies, they are already dead. Their souls a black puddle by their sides. She is not even the first child I have found. I've been hunting the killer for so long, following the trail of bodies she's left in her wake, that I have seen every type of soul that has had the misfortune to die twice.

She kills because she is angry. Her life was taken too soon so she takes those of others in return. I think it started out a twisted search for justice as she hunted for the man who sent her to heaven. He was her third kill and he was one of the few souls who was still alive when I found him. He was crying. He said he was wrong, that he shouldn't have touched her, that he shouldn't have hurt her but if he had the chance, he'd do it all over again. Then he laughed and the last of his bleeding soul spluttered from his body. It wasn't hard to watch him die. Not like it is now.

Pressure is building on the bridge of my nose as tears gather in my eyes. My hand shakes as I smooth my thumb over her cheek, wiping away a smudge of blood. I don't know why she continued to kill after she got her revenge and I don't know why I continue to hunt her when finding the souls she kills is slowly killing me. I don't think I can watch another soul slip away but I no longer think I can stop her from killing.

Normally, by the time I find the bodies, they are already dead. But this little girl is a fighter and she is holding on. She has strength, more than me and she is so, so young.

I pick up the knife from the dirt and slice a line down my palm. I grit my teeth and hiss. I place my hand over the wound on the girls chest and let my soul bleed into her. The colour returns to her skin as it drains from mine. My vision blurs and I see her open her eyes.

"What is your name?" I ask.

She draws in the air that leaves my lungs.

"Rebecca," She whispers.

My body sways but I keep my hand on Rebecca's chest.

"There is a woman, Rebecca, the woman that did this to you. She is doing the same to others. You need to find her Rebecca, you need to make her stop," I tell her.

The muscles in my arm give out and I collapse onto the ground beside the little girl. I close my eyes and the tears that had gathered there fall. I shouldn't have done that. I shouldn't have asked that of her. She was too young to be hunting a killer but she was also too young to die again. I couldn't watch her die again.