A few moments passed, until he said, “These are incredible, did you do them by yourself?” Tom slowly nodded. Alex still sat there staring intently at the art.

The different colours of the leaves, the detail in the trunk. Running your mind’s fingers down the bark, the rough texture slowly scraping your fingers. The colours weren’t right. But were so beautifully in harmony. Every part of it was both chaos and order, branching and joining, connecting and separating. There was nature and mathematics on one page and at the same time. Through the pictures Alex could hear what Tom saw.

‘Hi’ I replied sheepishly. I looked at her. She looked like someone who loved sport. You know that feeling when you look at someone and say to yourself, it’s obvious, you don’t have to tell me. It’s just something about you that gives it away. Yes? Well I got that feeling. Her dark copper hair was tied back in a slick ponytail, giving her a look of confidence. Instead of proper school shoes she was wearing all-black Nikes and on her wrist was an apple watch.

‘You’re one of the new ones, correct?’ I nodded silently.

Below the cliff edge, sharp jagged rocks were scattered along the base of the ocean. And with every little wave that collided with them, foamy water scattered onto the rocks faces. Sometimes I wonder if certain things have thoughts and what they’d think about it. I know it’s probably weird, but I actually really like putting myself into other people’s shoes and feeling their thoughts filling every single limb of my body.

‘Why would you want to know that dear?’

‘Just out of interest,’ she replied airily.

‘Hmm,’ he thought, not buying it.’ Yes he does. Quite a few in fact. There’s The Grim Reaper, Soul Collector, the Shadowy, no-faced one, the stuff of nightmares, the Shadow Torturer, the Web of Horror, and that’s not all! But the next two are so horrifying that they would haunt your dreams…’ he trailed off, not wanting to say more. ‘Please tell me’ she pleaded.

‘Fine, but don’t say I didn’t warn you,’ he said. ‘The Skeleton Guzzler and the Soul Devourer’

A shiver ran down Rosemary’s spine.

He spent days searching, until one dark thundering night he saw something light up for a split second, a fragment, ‘of what?’ He thought sprinting over. It came to him suddenly, it was the first piece of his soul. Ripping it from the ground, he thrust it into his chest and immediately felt rejuvenated and with new knowledge.

Charlie landed with a big THONK. ‘What the…’ he whispered to himself. He rubbed his eyes and tried to focus on what was going on around him. There were loud cheers and boos, and he realised, he was in a stadium!