• Allen leant against the wall, playing with leaves as they fell from the tree on the other side. Maggie sat cross-legged on the pavement to his left. She had an elastic band stretched between her fingers in some kind of cat's cradle.
    Chester's funeral was on the other side of town. Both of them had decided to pass the day like any other; the only difference was that he wasn't there with them...
    "My my, aren't we a couple of reprobates...?" a child's voice said. Maggie sighed and gave up on her cat's cradle.
    "What are you doing here?" she asked in reply, as if a kid in a witches hat was the most normal thing in the world. In her day to day life, it could well have been. Allen was used to odd people showing up. Maggie was a blood-witch, so strange things often happened around her.
    "There is a disturbance in the Void. Somebody died..."
    At least, he always thought that was the reason. The hairs on the nape of his neck inexplicably stood on end as he watched the girl in the hat. Somewhere inside he knew that she was not completely alive.
    "...Who should not have."
    Maggie got to her feet, biting her bottom lip. "Does it involve...?"
    "The Lone Angel."
    Both sets of eyes were on Allen now. He asked Maggie what was going on, but when his gaze met the stranger's he knew that he did not need to ask.
    "Eight years ago, somebody who should have died did not..."

    And that was how the girls began to explain. Lauren was the girl's name, and she was what was known as a Void-witch, or a black-witch. It was their task to watch the edges of the world, and Lauren herself had been chosen by her predecessor as Lady Death.That meant that she was the one who kept track of the departed souls that made their way into mother Gaia's realm, and also had to collect those that got lost along the way.
    They told Allen that eight years ago a plane had crashed and everyone aboard should have perished. But a single six year old boy had survived with little more than amnesia, and a sudden gift to see the souls of the dead.
    His eyes widened as he listened, but he believed every word. Ever since the beginning of time humanity had believed that everyone had something watching over them - spirit guide, guardian angel, call it what you will. The witches told him that the creators of everything were called Lost Souls. They were ancient, wise beings that dwelled in the void, and every one of them had some kind of link to a single human being. In some cases it evolved into a bond stronger than love.
    Eight years ago Allen had been killed in a plane crash, but the feelings that one particular Lost Soul had for him as a child were like none ever recorded. The guardian had sacrificed it's own existence so that Allen might live, merging with him. The witches had a name for him, now that he had no Lost Soul to watch over him. He was the Lone Angel.

    Maggie's eyes seemed torn, but little Lauren was grinning.
    "...That is why we three must go into the Void," Maggie finished. Silence swallowed them for a few moments, until Allen broke it.
    "This is like some greek legend," he said suddenly,not knowing what else to say. "Having to go to the underworld so that the gods leave the living earth in peace."
    Maggie looked mildly uncomfortable. She knew more than she or Lauren were letting on. "Not exactly, Allen..."
    "...Mags, I'll be able to see Chester again. If he wasn't supposed to die, then maybe I can bring him back!"
    The hope in his eyes burned her to her core, but she kept her mouth shut. Lauren turned her back and laughed silently. Humans...


    Part One.
    Part Two.