Unfinished (Historical Fiction) - By Harper Alibeck Page 0,1

locked on Lilith. A deep, unsettling silence filled the room.

The muscles on Miss Wolf's face slid down, taking skin with them, changing her look from that of a haggard, working class phony to a blank slate, a putty face that held no real humanity. Lilith's body flushed suddenly with crawling skin, less from the chill and more from the eyes that peered like a hawk's, making Lilith her prey, from that mask of skin.

“Why have you come?” she asked.

Margaret cleared her throat. “My daughter. Julia. She is twenty years old and was born with a feeble mind. We see glimpses of more in her and I wish to channel a spirit that understands her.”

The medium said nothing, which made Margaret speak more. “And my husband wishes to institutionalize her, but I do not agree. I feel that there is something – ”

And then Miss Wolf opened her mouth and took in Lilith's dismay at the entire spectacle, making matters worse by grasping Lilith's hands in her own, as if she were drowning.

The putty face molded into an intense, squinty shrunken head, the change in affect causing Lilith to gasp.“You do not believe,” Miss Wolf said, her voice a monotonic chant that belied her furious eyes. “But you do not need to believe. The world you denigrate continues with or without your understanding of it.”

“What? No – I am not the daughter she is talking about!” Lilith exclaimed, pulling her hands back. The medium clung to her, nails raking her palms, a sharp pain of pierced skin filling Lilith.

Marjorie let out a gasp, then exhaled, sending warm air that smelled of brandy and beef into the room, making Lilith nearly gag. The nausea was a welcome break from Miss Wolf's intensity, which both fascinated and revolted her.

“But you do not believe.”

One forceful pull released her from Miss. Wolf's grasp. “I do not care whether my belief matters to your 'world',” Lilith replied angrily.

“Of course not. The soulless never do.”

Margaret let out a small squeak and grabbed Lilith's shoulder, then pulled back sharply when Miss Wolf shouted “No!” Squeezing Lilith's shoulders as if grasping ropes to pull a ship to docks, she continued, listing to and fro slightly as her words came out in a slight sing-song.

“You are a conduit. You are a channel for a very, very old spirit. This spirit comes back every century, seeking closure. I...I do not know its mission. Perhaps we're never meant to know. But you are not a single soul like all the others here. Everyone in this room is a single soul, meant to live and die and go back into the souls’ cloud, shattering upon death into thousands of fragments. When a new child is conceived, the remnants gather together, mixed portions of thousands of slivers of different souls, creating a new one.

“That is not what happens with you.” Her dark eyes turned black, narrowing, casting an evil feeling at Lilith that made her want to crawl out of her clothes and run naked through the streets to avoid the medium's scrutiny.

“You are a whole, formed soul that never shatters. It inhabits a new child in its entirety, bent on completing a journey that is not of your doing. You are not like the rest of us. And you will never know its goal.”

Hushed murmurs filled the room as her mother's friends bent their heads together, eyes boring into Lilith's skull. Why had she come here? She shook her head with regret, but could not bite her tongue.

“If – if – any of this is true, then what on earth is my 'soul's mission'?” An act of sheer will prevented her from rolling her eyes.

The medium flinched and pulled her hands away from Lilith's. The chill that filled her bones began to recede. “To ask that question is dangerous.”

Lilith huffed dismissively. “Now I cannot ask my own soul a simple question?”

“Lilith! Stop it,” her mother chided. A quick glance at Margaret showed she was terrified, her body leaned away from her daughter, friends' faces taut with horror.

“Stop what?” Lilith's tone softened. Her mother's heart was a concern, and Margaret looked as white as Belgian lace.

“Your soul is not your own. All you can do is to remove the obstacles that prevent it from its journey,” the medium continued, as if under a spell.

“Obstacles?” Now Lilith was merely amused.

“Yes. Most souls that use people as conduits have unfinished business. They spend centuries inhabiting conduits, using them to fulfill what could not be completed in