The Soul Eater

By M.D. LaBelle

10 years earlier, Jason Hathaway drives down a dark deserted road on his way home from his nephew's birthday party, when he sees a red-haired woman walking alongside the road. Picking her up, he finds out that she is not what he thinks she is. Instead, he ends up losing his soul. Spending the next 10 years of his life looking over his shoulder, he eventually comes to the realization that the only way to get his soul back is to kill her. Along the way, he finds out that she is just playing a game. So, now the question is, does he find and kill her, or does she haunt him for eternity? Find out in The Soul Eater who wins.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Casper Publishing
• Release date: Feb 13, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215614990

M.D. LaBelle

M.D. LaBelle is an international award winning, and bestselling author who has her works on all the major online book retailers and even walmart.com.  Also, they are on over 200 paid web novel platforms and several other smaller bookstores.  Her genres include horror, fantasy, thriller, romance, erotica and children's books.  Follow her on her social media accounts o Instagram, TikTok, FaceBook and Youtube.  Also make sure you visit her bookstore at https://www.mdlabelle.com/bookstore

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To my loving husband, mom, sister and all my family that believed in me enough to push me to make this all possible.  Thank you.  I love you all.

Prologue

Caw

Caw

Have you ever noticed a flock of birds singing around you so loudly that it made your head hurt, and then suddenly you hear nothing?  So quiet that the dead could wake, and you would hear their caskets creaking as they open them?  Or better yet, have you had just a strange feeling that something very bad is about to happen? 

That is exactly how I felt when I heard the crows cawing outside of my room at the hotel.  One minute they were giving me a migraine and my head felt like it was about to burst.  The next, it was dead quiet, and I could swear I heard a hiss coming from behind the bathroom door.  It is so quiet that it freaks me out a little when I get the feeling that She will poke out from under the bed or leave a present for me to find in the morning.

Looking up from my book, I listen for them again.  I strain my eyes as I try to look out the window to see where they went, but all I see is Darkness.  Seeing no movement, the ringing in my ears starts to get to me.

Thinking about it more, I realize that it is just plain eerie, and it gives me the creeps.  Trying to get my mind off it, I decide to go to bed.  As I lie there, I keep thinking about it, how strange it all is.  So, finally I get up and watch a little television.

A few hours later, I look at my watch and realize that it has been longer than I thought it was and climb into bed after shutting the television off. 

Ugh. 

I lay down on a particularly lumpy part of the bed and it pokes me in the back.  Not being able to remember the last time I found a comfortable bed in one of these seedy hotel rooms, I ask myself aloud, What do I expect?  When you pay 50 bucks for a room that normally anyone else in the city pays 200 for, there must be a catch, right?

Shaking my head, I realize that this time, it ends up that the beds are lumpy and old.  I mean they have more lumps than my mother's mashed potatoes and that's saying something.  Really.  

Laying my head down on the pillow, I go through my mental checklist of the room.  Door locked, check.  Windows locked, check. 

Did I do a once over of the grounds?  Check.  I think that's about it.  This is something I must do every night, because if I don’t, I won’t sleep a wink knowing that she could show up at any time or place right behind me. 

The last thing I do before I close my eyes, is count to 20 and then feel myself relax as the darkness takes me, while I fade away.

Chapter 1:  10 Years Earlier

Ten years earlier, as I’m driving home from my nephew’s 5th birthday party partially drunk, I happen to notice that it’s getting close to 9 pm and it is completely dark out.  Wow, where has the day gone?  I murmur under my breath, before turning on the radio and settling on one of my favorite classic rock stations. 

The whole time I can’t help but to think that this feels wrong.  It’s too dark, the moon is nowhere to be found.  A little further down the road, while I stare out over the dark highway and watch the shadows move, I see someone alongside the road walking and I immediately slow down.

She is a young woman walking alone.  I look her up and down and notice right away that she looks like she has been traveling like this for quite some time.  Stopping to help her, I realize that she must be homeless. 

Her clothes are all wet, stained, and tattered.  Her amazing, blazing red hair is wet too, and before I could ask her where she was going, she opens the door and I find myself face to face with her.  The very first thing I notice is that she is so pale, she looks inhuman.

As I look her over, I notice one thing very quickly.  Her eyes are completely black, there is absolutely no pigmentation at all.  It’s such a stark contrast to her brilliant red hair, that I must take a second look deep into those big black holes.  She touches my hand with something sharp and then I feel nothing at all.

I must have been staring for quite a while because the next thing I know, I hear a loud noise and I jump nearly out of my seat.  Quickly looking around, the woman is nowhere to be found, but I have this feeling like I have been lost in those eyes for hours and hours.  Looking over at the clock on the dashboard, I notice that it is flashing 1 am. 

A few seconds later, my phone starts to vibrate against my leg, and I quickly look down at it in surprise.  Figures, my sister always calls at the wrong time.  Why on earth would she be calling me at 1 am though?  I had better call her back.  I say as I scan the area around the car for signs of what happened.

Pressing the button to call, I wait to hear her voice, but instead there is only silence.  Hmm, must be in a dead zone. I say softly to myself. 

Putting the phone down, I drive off after looking around once more to see if the strange woman was to be found anywhere.  While I drive, I take a mental note of how strange I feel.  I must have fallen asleep if I sat here for four hours. 

Scratching my head, I murmur, I knew I had drunk a little at the birthday party, but I didn’t realize I had been affected that much.  I guess it’s a good thing I stopped to help her, otherwise I might have fallen asleep at the wheel. 

As I drive home carefully, I find myself trying to figure out where the woman went to.  Perhaps she found another car to take her, one will never know.  But there is something that is still bothering me.  What pricked my hand and when it did, why didn’t I feel anything afterwards?

Still contemplating it, I pull in the driveway and notice that my neighbor's lights are still on.  Their dog Benny, who is always loud, is bellowing out into the night.  I think it’s because he is a full-blooded hound, but at least he is such a beautiful dog with a caramel-colored hide.

That dog just won’t shut up when the moon is full, and he is stuck outside on a chain. I say as I find myself laughing, just thinking about it.

Before I get out of the Jeep, I hesitate for a few minutes because a strange wave of fatigue comes over me almost as if I’m not quite myself.  I shrug it off as just being a little drunk.  After all, I did misplace a couple hours where I must have fallen asleep alongside of the road.  When I feel like I can make it to the house, I retrieve my coat from the back seat and lock up the car. 

Upon entering the house, I immediately fall to the floor before looking up while everything swirls around me and then I pass out.  Time stands still for me, as I lay there for 2 days.  The only thing that brings me back is when my sister Tara manages to wake me.  

Groggy, I look up into her face and I’m convinced, I must still be drunk.  Of course, I didn’t realize it had been days since the birthday party. 

Get up Jason.  What happened?

I try to shake the fuzz from my brain and answer her, half out of it, I don’t know.

Well, let’s get you up off the floor and check you out.  Alright? She looks at me in that way a mother dotes on her child when they have an injury.

Tara, really.  I’m fine.  I think I am just still a little buzzed from the party.

Jason, you do realize that was two days ago.  Now she looks really concerned as she helps me up off the floor and to the couch. 

Tara is my older sister by a year and three months.  She is 34, and any man would be lucky to have her, but she has yet to find that right one.  She is pale, and it matches with her long dirty blonde hair and her beautiful green eyes. 

With all it combined, it makes her absolutely lovely to look at.  Her son Max is the love of her life.  Without him, I suspect she would never have been able to get past our parents passing. 

On the other hand, at 32 I have had several loves already and honestly don’t want to get in any kind of relationship, any time soon.  I am happy being by myself even though others look at me and think I am weird and quiet, just because I keep to myself.  Frankly I could care less if a woman walks into my life. 

The only thing I regret is when our parents died, my mother made me promise on her death bed.  She made me swear, that I would find a woman and give her grand babies to look down upon.  At that point in time, all I wanted to do was make sure she was happy when she passed away, because she had already been through enough trauma to last a lifetime.

Briefly, I remember just before the birthday party I had looked in the mirror at myself and vowed to get a haircut the next day.  I don’t know exactly why, but it might have been because my dark brown mop of hair was getting unruly.

I guess that’s out. I mutter under my breath, while smiling. 

That is the one thing that makes my blue eyes sparkle.  Everyone says that my eyes are the most amazing blue they have ever seen, the minute they meet me.  Even my third-grade teacher, Mrs. Mansfield said so at the beginning of the first day of school.

As I snap back to the present, I pay attention to Tara while she helps me onto the couch.  I comment, Thanks.  I don’t have a clue what happened, all I remember from the night of the party, is on the way home I stopped to help a young woman who was walking along the side of the road.  She jumped in and I looked into her eyes.  I pause to sigh and take a deep breath before finishing, The next thing I know, it was several hours later, and she was gone.  I am assuming I fell asleep after drinking at the party.  But I am just glad I didn’t cause a wreck if I was that tired.

Jason!  Did you check to see if you still have your wallet?

I quickly check my pockets to find that my wallet is missing and silently curse myself for not thinking of that. 

Boy, she must have done something to me. Scratching my head unconsciously, I try to figure out what the hell I’m supposed to do now.

You’re going to have to call the police right away.  I think you should get checked out too at the hospital, just in case.

Glancing over at her, I smile before saying, Tara, I don’t know what I would do without you.  Who knows how much longer I would have laid there out of it, if you hadn’t come and checked on me?  Thank you, I love you so much. 

Giving her a big hug and a peck on the cheek, I lean back on the couch as she pulls out her phone and calls the police station.  While she notifies them of what happened, I start to feel off.  It’s hard to put my finger on it, but it reminds me of when you are in a dream, and you don’t feel anything touch you. 

I start to stare into the corner after noticing something strange.  When I put my hand to my chest, I don’t feel a heartbeat.  Am I imagining it, or has she done something horrible to me while I was out of it?  As I return my gaze to my sister, I watch her talk to them and after she lets them know that I will be at the hospital for questions, she drives me there. 

The minute we arrive, it seems like the air changes and when we step into the emergency room, it is like walking into a movie.  She finds a seat for me and points to sit down.  I look over to my side and see a man sitting there with a shirt tied around his lower arm to stop the blood from gushing out. 

A young blonde-haired girl who looks to be around ten, is throwing up in the trash can in the corner while her mother tries to calm her down by rubbing her back.  Looking further around the room, I spot another older man in his fifties who seems to be showing signs of a heart attack while sitting there as his face has become pale and he clutches his chest. 

Maybe we better come back later Tara.  Mine isn’t an emergency.

Still pointing for me to sit, she shouts, Hell no, remember the police are meeting you here for questions and you need to be checked out in case she did drug you.  Plus, I am worried about you.  You are not acting like yourself right now.

After rolling my eyes at her and frowning, I place my hands in my pockets and state, Oh, come on Tara.  I may be a little fuzzy, but other than that I am my lazy ass self.

She leans in closer and says more quietly now, No.  We are staying here no matter how hard you protest.  You’re my little brother and I am really worried about you, so hush.  She turns around and gives me a fake smile, trying to reassure me that it will be o.k.

Well, alright.  Just remember that the next time something happens, I have your back. I state rather sarcastically, as I sit hunched over in the chair.

As I sit back quietly, I watch her check me in at the counter.  Starting to feel a little bored, my eyes wander around the room again and they settle on a young woman who doesn’t look like she belongs in this room.  I can’t tell if she is a patient or is waiting to see someone who is already in.  Either way, she just doesn’t fit in with this scene. 

Staring at her, I notice that she has a red Coach handbag sitting next to her designer high heels.  Her foot taps impatiently, I can only assume because this is taking too long.  As my eyes wander up her long pale legs, they stop at the hem line of her short red mini skirt.  Might I add, also designer as far as I can tell. 

My eyes continue up and over her abundant curves, all the way up to her pouty blood red lips.  I watch her eat a strawberry as intently as a woman who wants to attract attention from a man.  Devouring it, she sits licking the juice and then she sucks it in her mouth.  Then, and only then, I notice her pitch black eyes. 

When I do, it’s too late and I can't look away.  Her eyes bore into me as they pierce right into my soul, while she stares at me smiling with a sick smile.  Feeling dizzy, the room starts to spin and then I black out.

Chapter 2:  In Her Clutches 

The next thing I know, I am in one of the E. R. rooms and they are shaking me violently.  When I glance around the room, it is dark all around me except for the big spotlight that is trained over my face, and it is blinding me.  I hear Tara’s voice in the background, and it sounds like I am underwater. 

She is talking to the police officers while she fills them in on what happened.  As I listen, cold settles in my bones, and when I cough, I breathe in the purified air that feels somehow foreign.

I just went up to the desk to sign him in and when I came back, he had blacked out.  So, your guess is as good as mine when it comes to it. 

Hearing Tara's shaky voice as she converses with the officers, I just want to get up and hug her to let her know I’m fine.  Yet, at the same time I find that I am too weak to move and that frightens me.  I have always been physically strong, so this new development is strange to say the least.

Don’t worry ma’am.  We are on the case now.  As soon as Jason is coherent, we will get his statement and then go from there, then maybe we can figure this all out.

Thank you so much.  I don’t know what I would have done if he would have died.

The one officer glances over at me before returning his gaze to Tara, and states, He seems to be waking up and the doctors did say that he will make a full recovery, but they need to take some tests to find out what is going on and if the woman used any drugs on him.  That might be why he has been blacking out, but we won’t know till the tests come back, either negative or positive.  Till then, we suggest you stay calm and take care of your brother.  Alright? 

The officer looks over to me and nods with a weird little smile, when Tara shakes her head to thank them.   As soon as she notices that I am awake, she rushes over to the side of my bed and stares at me.

Hey, bro.  You scared the shit out of me.  Don’t do that again, O.K.?

Yeah, I don’t know what happened.  One minute I was watching you at the counter, the next I blacked out.  The last thing I remember was looking over at a young woman in the waiting room.  She was just sitting there eating strawberries.  It was one of the oddest things, I have ever seen.

Jason, you must quit looking at women.  This is two times now that they have knocked you out.  She starts laughing at her own joke, desperately trying to take my attention away from the fact that she is worrying about me incessantly.

Well, you know, I am all male.  I smirk and sucker punch her in the arm playfully.  I love you sis. I say as my voice trails off.

As she leans closer, she says softly, You’re my little brother and I am supposed to be looking after you.  Mom made me promise before she died, you know that.  If something ever happened to you on my watch, I wouldn’t ever be able to forgive myself.

We both sit there quietly for a few minutes because I don’t know what to say to that.  I scan the room now that the doctor finally has moved the light from blinding me, and then I return my attention to her and notice that she is looking right at me.  Feeling bad because I made her cry, I notice that her mascara is smeared down her cheeks and her face is a little flushed.  So instantly, I just want to give her a big brotherly hug again. 

Someone walks in while I am not paying attention and when I glance at the nurse taking my blood, chills run down my spine.  Panic starts to set in, and I realize something strange.  The fair, red-headed nurse and the woman from the waiting room are one in the same, except this time when I look into her eyes, I feel nothing.

Tara, can you have the officers come in now, please?  I’m sure they have plenty of questions for me. I ask in hopes of alerting them to the situation at hand.

Oh, ok. She hurries out of the room to locate the officers without even asking why. 

When I return my attention to the nurse, I find myself in a bit of trouble.  She is staring at me menacingly as she hovers over my I.V., her hand holding a needle filled with a clear fluid of some kind.  Just before she injects it into my drip, I shove her hand aside and force her to drop it.

Crash

It shatters all over, the glass shards shine on the hard tile floor.  The watery fluid spreads everywhere and then pool around my bed. 

What the hell was that for?  The nurse looks upset as she walks over to the cabinet of medicine and pulls out another syringe. 

Making an awful hiss, she quickly refills it with the medicine from a new vial.  However, I am not quite sure if the hiss was from the medicine vial, the syringe being filled, or she hissed at me with her mouth.  Once again, she tries to fill the I.V. with it, but I move my hand to stop her too late.  She dodges and hits her target with the needle.  Filling the drip, I watch as the fluid slowly slides down into the tube that leads directly to my arm.

I feel helpless, because I am sure that what she just gave me is meant to end my life.  So, I watch her silently, and lay there waiting for the inevitable.  While I do, surprisingly my sister returns with the officers and then the nurse discreetly exits the room before I get to tell anyone.  Looking around as paranoia sets in, I stare at the I.V. in my arm and just hope that I am not about to die right in front of my sister. 

In a last-ditch effort, I rip the tube from my arm before she says sweetly, Here they are Jason.  

Placing my arm under the covers, I hide the fact that I have blood dripping out of my arm and reply smiling, Thanks. And she gives me a hug before walking over to the side so the detective could ask me the questions.

Ok, Jason.  I am Detective Larson, and this is my partner Detective Miller.  I heard from your sister that you got mugged last night.  Please tell us the whole story from when you left the birthday party till now.

I sit up a bit and try not to feel flustered because the officers are staring at me intently.  Hesitating for a moment, I glance around the room to make sure that the nurse is really gone and then I answer, I was driving home from the party, and I remember looking at the clock, it was around 9 pm.  When I looked up, I saw a young woman walking on the side of the road with wet clothes on.  I didn’t want her to get sick, so I pulled off to give her a ride and I really don't remember too much after that.  That is, except she got in the car and stared at me intensely.  After that, I don’t remember a thing till I woke up in my car several hours later.

Swallowing hard with a dry mouth, I try to clear my throat before I continue, "I woke up later in the middle of the night, realizing I had been