TITLE: The Light of the Soul
AUTHOR: Snark
E-MAIL: snark_911@yahoo.com


CLASSIFICATION: Pre-ep and companion for SUZ/Closure.
RATING: PG


SPOILERS: Very large spoilers for the SUZ/Closure episodes.
I cannot state this point strongly enough--if you have not 
yet seen SUZ/Closure and wish to remain spoiler free, turn 
and run right now. 


SUMMARY: Can the souls of the dead heal those of the living?


DISTRIBUTION: OK to forward to the Spooky's, ATXC 
newsgroup, Xemplary and Gossamer. Please ask permission 
before archiving anywhere else, please. If you already have one 
of my stories, permission is granted, but still let me know 
you are grabbing this one too.

DISCLAIMER: If you feel the need to sue, my wind-up Corvette
and plastic Gumby are all yours--they're all I have.

FEEDBACK: Mail all comments to snark_911@yahoo.com.

AUTHOR HOMEPAGE: 
http://www.smartania.com/snark/index.html


-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-


Warmth.

Enveloping, all-consuming warmth spread from her hands 
upwards through her body. It was an odd sensation, as though 
she were being immersed slowly in a steaming bath, even though 
she could still feel the bed beneath her. She felt it flow across her 
chest, wrapping itself around her heart before traveling down her 
legs. As the heat reached her lower body, she finally opened her 
eyes to glance down at her feet... except they weren't there 
anymore.

Nor was the rest of her body.

She jerked fully awake, reaching underneath herself to push into 
a sitting position. Even though she could feel the weight of her 
body as she pushed against the sheets, even as she felt the air 
whisper across her face as she rose, she could see nothing of her 
body. She threw the light cover away and leapt from the bed. 
Trembling, she lifted her hands to her face. At least, she thought 
she did--she could feel her fingers covering her face, but she 
could still see the door across from her. Ohhhh, wake up, wake 
up, wake up...

"You are awake."

She whirled to look behind her, but saw no one. Turning again, 
she slowly retreated towards the wall, stopping only when she 
had pressed her back flat against it. She glanced from side to 
side, but the room was darkened, the objects within it covered 
with a blanket of soft indistinction.

"Don't be afraid."

Her eyes flew to the left. This time, the voice had been 
accompanied by the slightest glint of luminous movement.

"Wh- who... are you?" she asked, her voice quivering. Another 
glint to her right, another over by the shelves. Soon, the room 
was awash with shimmering flashes, as if a crystal had been hung 
under full sun.

"We're your friends," the voice said, directly in front of her. A 
shape began to form, appearing from the center outwards as light 
shown from within it. She felt her fear begin to recede as the 
image grew more defined.

A few moments later, a young girl stood before her, dressed in a 
flower-patterned dress, bright ribbons in her hair. The young girl 
smiled at her, lifting a hand as though calling for an audience to 
rise.

Within seconds, the room was filled with shining children. Some 
were dressed as if for school, some for play, and many as though 
they had just woken from their night's sleep. As each appeared, a 
bit more of her apprehension slipped away until she was left with 
only curiosity.

"Why are you here?" she whispered. They began to draw closer, 
each reaching a hand towards her as they approached. Glancing 
down, she gasped as she saw her body becoming visible again 
with each touch. 

But she was not the same--her skin no longer bore the scars from 
years past, her body no longer wasted from a lifetime of fear. She 
was now bathed in the same white glow, a soft translucence 
softening her body. The young girl reached a hand to her face, 
smiling as she spoke.

"We're here to set you free, Samantha."


   *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * 


Quickly, the children taught her to control her new form, to mask 
the energy's light when moving among the living. Thought, 
energy and matter are all interchangeable, they told her--believe 
you cannot be seen and you will not be seen.

They smiled and laughed, patting her arms and legs in 
congratulations as her form faded to invisibility. They told her 
she would later learn how to remain visible only to them, as they 
each did, but it would take more time than they had. The children 
led her from the room, their voices as veiled as their bodies--
believe you cannot be heard and you will not be heard. The night 
staff passed by them, oblivious to the children's presence.

Soon, they were outside, running across the huge parking lot to 
the grass on the other side. Samantha laughed as she ran, the 
clear, light tone surprising her--when was the last time I laughed 
like this, she thought as they all tumbled to the soft ground to 
rest. Probably not since that day when I was playing outside and 
tricked F-...

She felt the thought disappear before it even had a chance to 
come to life. They would often come to her like this, these half-
formed images from a life before the one she remembered all too 
clearly. Before the tests, before the pain... before. No matter how 
hard she had tried to catch the fleeting impressions as they 
appeared, they had always escaped her grasping hands, taking 
with them whatever happiness had once been hers.

Only the stars had remained. At night, after she had been 
returned home, she would sneak out to the backyard and stare at 
the sky for long hours. Sometimes, the stars' light had been too 
bright for her harshly-tested eyes, but she had refused to stop 
looking--they won't take this from me too, she had thought as 
tears had streamed down her face. 

The stars had helped her stay alive, helped her believe there were 
still places worth dreaming about, places she might someday get 
to see. She remembered thinking that one day, she might even 
visit the stars themselves.

"But you can," a young boy's voice said.

Samantha turned to look towards the voice, seeing a boy of about 
ten sitting beside her. "How can you hear what I'm thinking?" she 
asked, curious without being angry.

"You'll learn it as time passes, just like everything else," the boy 
replied. "Just like you can hide your body, you can hide your 
thoughts. The energy inside you just needs to be controlled."

She glanced up at the velvety night sky, the bright light of the 
moon shining as though from the sun itself. "You said... you said 
I could visit the stars," she whispered. "How is that possible? It 
can't be possible."

"Come on, I'll show you," the boy said eagerly. He jumped to his 
feet, grinning broadly as he turned to the rest of the children. 
"Samantha wants to see the stars, everyone--who wants to come 
along..."

Within seconds, Samantha found herself surrounded by every 
child present, each jumping and shouting joyously. The boy 
reached to take her hand, helping her to stand. The young girl 
with the ribbons came over and stood by her other side.

"Are you ready?" the girl asked, raising her voice to be heard 
over the others.

"What's going to happen, what is it like?" Samantha asked, 
nervous and excited at the same time. She gasped as the children 
around her began to transform--each became a sparkling pinpoint 
of light, almost like a jewel, before streaking into the starry sky.

"What's it like to be free?" the girl responded, taking Samantha's 
hand in her own. Samantha watched, awed, as her body began to 
collapse inwards on itself, a white light flowing from both the 
girl's and the boy's form into her own.

"It's like this..."

Infinity exploded. 

In the merest blink of an eye, the ground beneath her disappeared 
as if it had never been. The hospital parking lot was replaced by 
the expanse of the universe, the Earth itself a quickly receding 
globe in the star-lit darkness. Samantha wanted to grip her 
friends' hands tighter, but she found neither her hands nor her 
friends were still there. Unlike in the hospital, when she could 
still feel the weight of her body, the touch of her own fingers, she 
now felt absolutely nothing. 

"Samantha! Over here!" a voice called out. She recognized it as 
the young boy's voice.

Without knowing quite how she did it, Samantha looked behind 
her to the right--she didn't really have a head to turn, yet she was 
now facing another direction. But instead of her new friend, she 
saw only a huge panther, larger than the Earth itself, its black fur 
gleaming in the starlight.

"Catch me if you can!" the panther yelled, turning and loping 
away towards the moon.

"How?!" she called after him. She tried to run, but quickly 
remembered she had no form--she was without legs to propel her 
towards him.

"Just think it!" another voice yelled. Samantha turned to see a 
dragon soaring alongside her, blowing a river of fire from its 
nostrils. The dragon then giggled, banking and disappearing 
behind the sun. Samantha laughed too, and not just at the 
absurdity of a giggling dragon. 

Just think it, she repeated to herself. Just think it, just think it... 
how do I catch a panther? She looked around for the boy, finding 
him as he circled the moon. He laughed as he saw her, throwing 
his weight onto his back paws to stop himself. Turning, he raced 
straight towards her, flicking his tail at her as he passed.

"Tag! You're it!" he called, veering to head into the deep 
blackness behind her.

Before she knew it, she was already halfway to him. The 
sensation was unlike anything she'd ever felt before--a complete 
weightlessness combined with dizzying speed. As she rose and 
swerved after the fleeing panther, she heard the cheers of all the 
children around her.

Samantha caught up to him just as he was about to duck behind 
Jupiter. With a final burst of speed, she tackled the panther 
before he could make the turn. They were both laughing now, 
their momentum carrying them halfway to the next planet in a 
tangle of paws and feathers.

Feathers?

As the boy pushed back from her, darting away to tag someone 
new, Samantha righted herself and headed straight for Saturn. At 
high speed, she dove in close, knowing the rings would serve as a 
reflective surface. Shocked at what she saw as she swept past, 
she circled back and flew over the rings again. This time, a smile 
crept across her face... as a magnificent eagle smiled right back at 
her.

She was truly free.


   *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *


Time passed almost imperceptibly for the children. The entire 
universe was their playground--sometimes, they would play 
among the stars for what seemed like only a few hours, returning 
home to find months had passed. 

Samantha came to understand their true nature as time slipped 
by. It was her soul, the essence of her true self that had been 
rescued during the night so long ago. About to meet the cruelest 
of fates, she had been saved by others like her, swept away to 
await the day they would each be born anew. 

And as the years went by, many of them were indeed born again, 
always gladly giving up a life among the stars for the chance to 
live again. Even as she rejoiced for her friends, Samantha was 
always a bit saddened as well--she knew only too clearly there 
would always be another suffering child's soul waiting to replace 
those who left.

One day, she found herself walking through a valley meadow 
with Joshua, the boy who had become the panther that first day. 
Each time they returned from the stars, the children chose a new 
place to stay--in this location, the distant peaks of the Rockies 
were visible beyond the treetops.

"Why am I still here, Joshua?" she asked suddenly. "So many of 
the others have long since left, but never me. Or you either, for 
that matter." 

"I'm not sure," he replied. "I think it might be a combination of 
things. The worse we suffered during our lives before, the longer 
we stay here to heal--a soul still hurting would do more harm 
than good when reborn. But I also think it has to do with those 
we left behind."

"What do you mean?" Samantha asked.

"As long as someone out there still thinks us to be alive, perhaps 
we can't be born again," Joshua said. He stopped as they reached 
the edge of a small stream, sitting down on a rock ledge jutting 
out from the shore. "I go home at times, you know, to my real 
home, and check on my mom. She still prays each night for me 
to be returned to her... she still puts my stocking up at Christmas, 
the one with my name stitched across the top. 'Just in case,' she 
whispers."

Samantha laid her hand over Joshua's as his voice caught. They 
sat together for a while in silence, watching the water tumble 
over the rocks, churning the sand as it flowed.

"What about you, Samantha?" Joshua asked after several 
minutes. "Who still waits for you?"

"I don't... I don't even know if anyone does," she whispered.

"But, you're still here," Joshua asks, confused. "Twenty years is 
long enough for any soul to heal here. Someone must still be out 
there, searching for you. What about your family?"

"I don't remember my life before... before the last place I lived," 
she said, hearing Joshua's sharp intake of breath as she spoke. 
Joshua knew how she'd lived the last years of her life, but she'd 
never told him why she never spoke of anything prior to those 
times.

"Sometimes, I think I remember certain things. An image will 
come to me, as crystal clear as a photograph," Samantha said, 
closing her eyes. "I'll see in my mind a place I've never been or a 
person I've never met. Voices too, sometimes.

"Like just the other day. Remember when we were playing in 
that waterfall, riding it down all the way to the bottom? On the 
last time, as I fell over the edge, I had one of those visions. It was 
of me as a younger girl, standing on a tree branch over a stream.

"There was... there was a boy there as well, a boy just older than 
you, already waiting in the water. He was yelling for me, waving 
for me to jump down with him. I think I was scared to jump, and 
he was trying to encourage me.

"When he smiled up at me from the water, I could feel myself 
thinking it would all be OK. That I should trust him, that he 
would never let anything happen to me."

"Did you jump?" Joshua asked.

"I didn't find out," Samantha said quietly. She opened her eyes, 
glancing at Joshua with a  small, sad smile. "The image blanked 
out before it went any further."

"Who do you think he was?" Joshua wondered.

Samantha concentrated on the image of the boy in the water, the 
same boy she had seen countless other times in fleeting half-
memories. Always the same smile, always the same dark eyes, 
always the same laugh as he called out her name...

And suddenly she knew.

"He was my brother... I had a brother," she whispered.

"I think he's still searching for you, Samantha. I think you're 
meant to stay here until he finds you," Joshua said after a few 
moments. As she turned to look at him, he laid his other hand 
over hers...

"And I think he'll be here soon."


      *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *


The children rescued another soul late the following month, a 
young boy who would have died a long, slow death at the hands 
of his estranged mother. From the moment they took him, Tyler 
never spoke--he often laughed, and generally seemed happy, but 
he simply did not speak.  

Yet he became attached to Samantha almost immediately. He 
was never far from her, no matter what she was doing. She, in 
turn, seemed to take great strides to ensure Tyler's safety, making 
sure he always knew where they were going next and was never 
left behind. They seemed drawn to each other, though neither 
knew why.

The first time Tyler joined them among the stars, Samantha was 
the one who taught him how to transform. He was obviously 
quite frightened, indicating he wanted her to transform at the 
same time. She waved the other children off, telling them Tyler 
needed a bit of room to make his first try.

"Just think of an animal you've always liked. Something whose 
name you like, or one you like reading about, or drawing," she 
told him, holding his hands in hers. "I'll do the same, and then 
we'll go join the others."

Samantha usually enjoyed becoming winged creatures, relishing 
the true feeling of flying it brought her. But she didn't think Tyler 
would enjoy opening his eyes to see a huge eagle staring down at 
him, so she decided to transform into something else.

"Ready, Tyler?" she asked gently. He looked up at her, his large 
brown eyes showing his nervousness even as he resolutely 
nodded his head. She smiled at him, surprised to see most of his 
fear fade away as she did.

"Now, close your eyes... concentrate really, really hard. Can you 
see the animal in your head? Squeeze my hands if you can," she 
said. A few seconds later, Tyler's tiny hands gripped hers just a 
little bit tighter. She closed her own eyes to transform herself, 
using an animal that seemed to appear frequently in her dreams.

"OK, then. Take a deep breath and look at me," she whispered. 
She opened her eyes slowly... and then widened them in 
disbelief.

They had both chosen to transform into a fox.


      *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *


Just a few weeks later, another soul joined their number. Neither 
Samantha nor Joshua could remember a time when two children 
had been rescued in such rapid succession. They each wondered 
what it could mean.

The new child was a very young girl, younger than the rest of 
them by at least a year. With her impish grin and soft eyes, 
Amber Lynn immediately became the little sister of everyone, a 
status she enjoyed to no end--she'd had no siblings in her former 
life.

The night Amber Lynn joined them, Samantha quickly realized 
the girl missed her favorite teddy bear. The children usually 
discouraged anyone from collecting earthly items, whether things 
from their past or items they came across--any items not 
currently with a child when saved were not protected from the 
effects of time's passage. 

But when Samantha checked with Joshua about retrieving the 
bear, she found him as immediately charmed as everyone else by 
Amber Lynn--Samantha had barely finished the request before he 
was sending her on her way. It had only been a few hours since 
Amber Lynn had joined them, so the both felt confident the bear 
could be retrieved without incident.

Arriving at the girl's home, Samantha took extra care to ensure 
she was completely masked from view--there were officers 
positioned inside each of the main doors and Amber Lynn's 
parents were seated on the small couch. She didn't think it would 
be wise to add to an already tense situation with an unexplainable 
sighting.

At least, not yet.

She knew Amber Lynn would make an appearance to her parents 
soon, to try and assist in the capture of the man who would have 
killed her. The children very rarely tampered with the flow of the 
living world after they left it, but exceptions were made for 
horrific circumstances like this--true evil was not allowed to 
continue.

Glancing to make sure no one was in sight, Samantha crept into 
Amber Lynn's bedroom. As was always the case, she felt a 
shudder of sadness pass through her. The room still felt like a 
little child would come running in at any moment--scribbled 
drawings hung from construction paper ribbons and dolls with 
long hair waited to be arranged for the day's play. 

And there, nearly hidden by the bulk of other stuffed animals 
piled near the bed, was the bear. She carefully worked it free, 
making sure the missing animal would not leave a noticeable 
change. Tucking the bear beneath her arm, she went to the door, 
but was brought up short by the sound of voices. Several people 
were talking back and forth--questions were being asked and 
answered, but Samantha could not discern the actual 
conversation. Something about one of the voices seemed 
familiar--she listened carefully, but was unable to place it.

Rather than risk an accidental sighting, she decided to pass 
directly through the bedroom wall to escape the house. She 
normally avoided passing through solid matter, finding the odd 
sensation it created rather unpleasant. But she did not want to try 
for the open front door now, not with the new arrival and 
heightened activity.

But as she stepped through the wall into the morning's bright 
light, she couldn't shake the feeling she had known that voice...


      *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *


Five nights later, Samantha received the first real scare she'd ever 
felt since joining the children over twenty years ago--Tyler went 
missing for several hours during the night. He had never left the 
group before, not even for a few minutes. So when she found he 
had vanished, she was consumed with worry even as she knew he 
could not be harmed or injured.

When Tyler finally returned to them late in the night, Samantha 
was the first to rush over to him. She wasn't the last, though. 
Every child was loved and protected by all the children in the 
group--they had all had been concerned about him and were glad 
to see him safe once again.

After a while, everyone settled down and, having assured 
themselves Tyler was OK, returned to their own activities. Tyler, 
though, tugged at Samantha's hand, leading her away from the 
others until they stood at the edge of the clearing. 

Curious, Samantha looked down at him, seeing the brightness of 
the moon mirrored in Tyler's eyes as he looked up at her. And 
then it happened--the voice was small, the words themselves 
nearly lost upon the night air, but it was unmistakable.

"A fox is coming..."

Tyler had finally spoken.


   *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *


But Samantha quickly realized Tyler was not destined to become 
a fountain of speech--his words were not followed by others, nor 
was the original sentence explained in more detail. As Tyler went 
to join the others, she was left with the feeling an important 
message had just been delivered...

But without the primer needed to understand it.

Samantha remained apart from the other children the next day, 
even going so far as to decline a game among the stars. She could 
not clear her mind of her young friend's words. A fox is 
coming... what did it mean? What fox, where, and... why?

Joshua found her late in the evening, joining her as she sat along 
the shore of a pond. Not even a pond, really, he realized as he sat 
beside her. It was simply a place in the river where the land's 
configuration had led to the forming of a small pool of water. 
The pool was not still, though--rocks just below the surface 
served to disrupt the water's smooth flow, creating a thousand 
rippling waves each instant. The setting sun reflected off the 
water, the surrounding landscape bathed in deep oranges, reds, 
and yellows.

"Are you okay, Samantha?" he asked after a moment. She had 
glanced at him as he had sat down, but she hadn't said anything.

"Tyler spoke to me yesterday, Joshua," she replied.

"He *what*?! Wh-... what did he say?" Joshua asked, his 
eyebrows climbing under his bangs with shock. Samantha had 
not mentioned Tyler's words to anyone yet.

"He told me a fox is coming," she said, skipping a stone out 
across the water.

"A fox? What does that mean?" Joshua said, drawing his 
eyebrows back down to furrow them in concentration.

"That's just it, Joshua--I don't *know* what it means. I think I'm 
supposed to know, but I don't," she said, frustrated. "There are 
little snippets of things that keep surfacing in my head. 
Remember that first day Tyler transformed with me? We both 
became foxes. That can't just be a coincidence. I've been sitting 
here all day, wondering how it connects, but I just can't figure it 
out...

"I just don't know."

Joshua could hear the defeat in Samantha's voice, but knew there 
was nothing he could do for her. None of it held any meaning for 
him, no obvious secret Samantha was overlooking. He could do 
nothing more than slip an arm around her shoulders in quiet 
comfort. 

They sat in silence for a long time. The sun set beneath the 
horizon, the light of day seeping away as the mantle of darkness 
grew closer. The stars began to flicker into existence, one by one, 
in the cloudless sky above them. 

A twig snapped somewhere behind them suddenly, startling them 
both. Twisting her body to look back, Samantha was surprised to 
see Tyler making his way down the slope towards them. He 
walked over to her, stopping only when he had reached them. He 
glanced between them a few times, finally settling his gaze on 
Samantha.

"What is it, Tyler?" she prodded after a few moments. The boy 
did nothing for a while, simply continuing to watch her. Finally, 
though, he reached his hand out to her, grazing the tips of his 
fingers across her forehead.

"He's here."

At Tyler's touch, Samantha felt a surge of energy flow through 
her--she could almost hear a crackle of electricity as she felt her 
mind slow. Her outdoor surroundings faded away, replaced by 
what appeared to be a parlor room, or perhaps a den, filled with 
chairs and couches and children's games. She had seen this room 
many times before in the fleeting images from her past...

But this time, the image was different. She wasn't seeing a 
younger version herself in the room, as though from outside the 
image--she was somehow inside the vision itself. She moved to 
sit at a small table in the center of the room. Looking down, she 
saw a puzzle spread out on the table, a section in the middle still 
missing. But as she looked around the room, Samantha realized 
there were no more pieces.

Suddenly, the same boy she had seen so many times before 
entered the room. He's my brother, she thought--my brother is 
right here in this room with me. As he saw her, his face broke 
into a wide grin. She, too, couldn't help smiling as the boy 
walked towards her. He stopped at the other side of the table, 
looking down at the puzzle.

Samantha realized the boy held something in his hands. With a 
wink, he reached down and snapped the last puzzle piece into 
place. She tore her gaze away from him to look down at the 
finished image before her. A fox looked out at her from the 
table's surface... a fox with the same eyes as the boy.

And she knew.

The memories came flooding into her head, each crashing against 
the others in a dizzying attempt to be remembered first. Voices 
singing old Christmas songs... An old tire swing hanging from a 
huge crimson maple... A woman handing her a warm, buttered 
slice of bread... The sweet smell of lilacs as she laughed in the 
summer sun with her brother.

Samantha snapped her eyes open, at the same time banging 
straight into Joshua in her frantic attempt to sit up. Tyler was 
nowhere to be seen.

"Samantha! Samantha! Are you all right?!" Joshua was asking, 
slipping his hands beneath her shoulders to assist her.

"I'm OK, Joshua, I'm fine," she murmured, gratefully accepting 
his help as she struggled to stand. But she could feel herself 
growing stronger by the second and soon waved his hands away. 
At his curious, though no longer frightened, look, Samantha 
smiled as she reached out to hold her friend's hand.

"I know what it means now, Joshua," she said in a voice clear 
and strong. "I know what it means."

She pulled him into a brief embrace and then, without waiting 
another second, turned and began running up the hill. She drew 
to a halt when she reached the top of the hill, glancing around the 
clearing, searching. The other children were playing, their fully-
visible state casting an almost daytime brightness onto the 
surrounding trees. Samantha continued to search, watching 
closely for any sign of the person she knew was coming. She 
watched... and waited...

And finally, she saw them. 

Tyler came up the slope on the far side, his small hand gently 
wrapped inside a much larger one. The man brushed the last of 
the branches out of his way and emerged into the clearing, 
glancing around as he slowly moved across the grass. Samantha 
saw Amber Lynn go up to him, smiling as he came near her. It 
was almost as if she knew him, Samantha thought, almost as if...

Almost as if they were connected somehow. Samantha began to 
smile as she realized how close she had come to meeting her 
brother just a few days ago. She watched as he smiled down at 
Amber Lynn, obviously as taken with her as all the children 
were. And as she saw that smile, the same smile she'd seen a 
thousand times before in her mind, she felt her heart leap firmly 
into her throat.

My brother has found me.

She was halfway to him before she even realized she'd started 
running. She watched as he finally caught sight of her, his face 
melting from disbelief to wonder in a single second. 

"Samantha..."

Before he'd even finished saying her name, she was with him. 
She wrapped her arms around him, pressing her face against his 
chest as she hugged him closer than she could ever remember 
holding anyone. She smiled as she listened to his heartbeat--her 
brother was really here. 

Samantha quickly realized he was standing as if frozen, though, 
his arms hanging at his sides. Perhaps he doesn't believe, she 
thought as she pulled back from him. Perhaps he doesn't believe 
this light he sees is really me. 

She smiled as she slowly reached for his face, holding it gently 
between her hands. She opened her thoughts just for him, letting 
his mind hear the voice he had missed for so long.

I love you, brother.

Closing her eyes, Samantha wrapped her arms around him again, 
thinking the same thought over and over. She smiled as she felt 
his arms finally tighten around her, his gentle hands stroking her 
hair as he pressed a soft kiss to her head. She opened her eyes to 
see the others gathering together, laughing and cheering as they 
formed a shining circle of souls.

And for a long moment, the light of her brother's soul shone just 
as brightly.


            * * * -30- * * * *  END * * * * -30- * * *


Feedback? Comments? Questions?

Send 'em on over!

~Snark

snark_911@yahoo.com