Fresh Cuts

Max let out a loud gasp. His friends quickly turned.

“Max?” Ben asked. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?” Max broke down trembling.

“Cold…” he said.

“Huh?” Ben asked. “What are you saying?” His friend drew his knees to his chest as he sank to the ground.

“Cold… Cold…” he said. Ben reached out for his shoulder.

“Don’t!” Natalia shouted. Ben looked behind him.

“What’s wrong with him?” he asked.

“I think I have seen something like this before,” she said. “Masayuki has touched his soul.”

“Cold…” Max whimpered through chattering teeth.

“What should we do?” Julia asked. She put up her hands and jogged over to the closet. Julia came back with a large blanket. The woman tossed it over him. Izumi could see inside his soul.

“There!” she said. Her eyes trailed the thread to the center of the circle. The other end looked like it was being pulled on. Izumi shook her head.

“Not a good plan, dude,” she said to herself. Natalia turned around and spotted what her roommate was talking about. Yoshiko came up beside him for a look.

“You have to get him to let go of the string,” she said. “It’s going to kill him!”

“Right,” Natalia said. She pressed her fingers to her forehead and closed her eyes.

Meanwhile, Max’s friends huddled around him. Kris bit on her nails.

“What do we do?!” she asked. Gordon held onto her hand. Lisa frowned as she looked at her phone.

“I’m not getting a signal,” she said.

“Huh?” Kele asked. He pulled out his phone a look. All the humans did the same thing. Ben had confused look on his face.

“How long has it been like this?” he asked.

“You haven’t notice?” Robyn asked. The humans all looked at each other. She held up his phone.

“You weren’t going to say anything?” Matt asked. His twin shrugged. She tried not to giggled she held out her phone closer. Matt threw back his head and groaned.

“Robyn!” he shouted. His twin giggled. Gordon held Matt back as the other man started to march over to Robyn.

Meanwhile, the three angels had plus-crosses on their heads.

“Shut up!” Natalia shouted. The room goes quiet. The angel clenched her right fist by her sides.

“Be quiet and tend to your friend,” she said. “I need to concentrate.” The humans said nothing as they turned their attention back to Max. Natalia took a breath.

“Thank you,” she said. The angel put her finger on her forehead and closed her eyes again.

“Masayuki, can you hear me?” she asked. “Masayuki. Come to me. Talk to me if you can hear me. Masayuki. Masayuki!”