Free Hunting a Soul by Viola Grace

Chapter One
     
     
    Leadra watched her brother fall to his death. Nine people were dead at his hand, and he had killed himself. There was only one horrifying fact—he hadn’t been the only soul in his body.
    She watched the two souls separate and go their separate ways.
    The shadowy darkness that had started the horror cruised upward and entered one of the security officers standing nearby.
    Leadra ran at him and screamed, “You killed him!”
    She could see the original soul clawing to be free, but the shadow wrapped him tightly. He struck her and whispered in her ear. “It is too bad about Frelmer. He was a fun host. I suppose I will just have to make do.”
    She fought him until she was beaten unconscious, and when she woke, she was in the assessment centre with electrodes on her head.
    A voice came out of a speaker on the wall. “Miss Brikar, you have been accused of being a telekinetic, a pusher and a psycho. How do you plead?”
    She was confused but she shook her head. “Not guilty?”
    “Are you asking me?”
    “I don’t know where you are? Where is the officer I was fighting? He can explain things.”
    “He already made his statement, and then, he committed suicide, citing your confrontation with him as the final straw. He said he felt your influence and that you had urged him to die. That is punishable by death.”
    She snorted. “Right.”
    “However, in light of the devastating catastrophe of your family’s demise at your brother’s hands, we are willing to give you an altered sentence. You will be sent to the dome where you will live out your life with other uncontrollable talents.”
    She tried to deny her ability to see souls, but one walked through her cell. Her mother came forward and took her hand in both of her own. Do it. Go to the dome; you will be able to learn what you need to learn if you just go to the dome.
    Her mother disappeared a second later, before Leadra could reply.
    “We have just observed talented activity, so we will alter your plea to guilty of being a talent and your entry to the dome will be carried out immediately.”
    Leadra had nothing more to say.
     
    Three years went by before Leadra faced the woman in glowing white. She stepped forward to volunteer to fight and was swept into the air with the other twenty-four members of the dome-banishment club.
    She had learned a little about hand-to-hand combat in the dome and gotten her body into fighting shape. When Trala asked for help fighting, Leadra could only nod quietly and agree to try.
    She looked for a purpose and did what she was told. Fighting for her world’s freedom might be the pathway that her mother had mentioned, though the conversation had dimmed with time.
    Helping wake up the sleepers gave her a chance to scan them for the soul shadow she was looking for. There was no sign of it, but she needed to find it. Death and destruction followed in its wake. She needed to kill it, but she didn’t know how. Strengthening her body was the first step. She needed to find out what happened next.
    “You seem confused.” A woman, in flowing robes with a raptor on her shoulder, put a hand on her shoulder.
    Warmth and compassion flowed out of that small contact, and the first voluntary touch in three years sent a shockwave through Leadra that had her bawling in the strange woman’s arms.
    The bird on the woman’s shoulder chirped and rubbed his head against Leadra’s. Warmth and strength flowed from him as well. That made Leadra jerk upright.
    She stared at the animal, and he looked back at her with patient eyes.
    “His name is Fixit. He is a Yaluthu. He is part of a designed species mutated from a much smaller creature, and he is self-propagating. That was a disturbing few weeks.” The woman smiled at her. “He would like to know if he can ride on your shoulder. You are hurt and he wants to help.”
    Leadra blinked and blushed. “I am not hurt.”
    “Your soul is. Can he come on board?”
    She gave in to the