The Spirits

Every night he took a walk in the woods behind his house. It was peaceful there with nobody around. The sounds of the woods and its animals brought peace in its seclusion. I walk beside him, but he doesn’t notice me because in his reality I am not there. It takes a special sight, given by to a special person, by one of my kind to gain the ability. I have been watching him for more than six months to determine if he could be the one I need. I have been searching since I accepted; although I am not sure of the time frame. We all must be replaced someday, so we all search while maintaining our areas and when we bring in a new soul the oldest soul will be freed. We use to find our own replacements, but it has not been as easy with the rise of evil on Earth. The hardest part of leaving the human world is leaving those that you love. Lately we have been trying to choose humans who having nothing or no one to miss. Adam seemed perfect and fit all our needs. He moved here alone; his family was killed in a car accident, and he was trying to start fresh. Every night when he ventured into my woods, I heard him crying. I was drawn to him because of his sadness; I knew I would be able to take it all away as long as he was pure of heart. Observing him in his daily life over the last six months, I have learned that he is. Now I have to appear to him and give him the choice. The choice to become one of us, if he accepts, he will come with me, and his soul will be bound with the power of the eldest spirit. If he declines, I will remove the knowledge of my existence from his memory. I fallowed him to the log he sits at every night. He lit a fire and began to cry.

“Please do not cry, Adam, your sadness in my woods extends to us all.” I told him as I appeared in my original human form.

“Who, who is there?” Adam asked in a shaky voice.

“I am sorry I startled you. My name is Breezes, for I am the wind that blows thorough these woods. Would you allow me to sit and talk with you on this peaceful night, Adam?”

“How do you know my name?” he asked searching the woods for me.

“If I may only sit, I will explain all to you on this night.”

“Okay” he said.

"You must give me permission to join you.” I spoke.

“Yes, you may join me, Breezes.” I came out of the tree in the dark behind him. Now in my human form I brushed my hair over my breast and down between my legs. Male humans have a tough time speaking with a nude woman; I have learned over my years. I approached Adam and told him “I am the Spirit of the Wind. I hear you each night come into my woods and weep over your lost family. I have the ability to take away that pain. You are pure of heart Adam and have the choice now to join the Spirits of the World to help protect all that you see and much more.” When I finished, I was sitting next to him on the log, and he was staring at me speechless. I smiled at him, and he smiled back. After a moment, he mustered up the courage to speak with me.

“Hi, you are a figment of my imagination right.” He spoke softly.

“I am very real Adam, would you like to become a Spirit , Adam?” I asked again.

“M, M, May I think about it.”

“As long as you remain inside of the boundaries of the trees of the woods, you may contemplate the choice I have given to you.”

“I cannot think about it in my own home?”

“No Adam, I do apologize, but I cannot allow you to leave the woods with the knowledge of the existence of The Spirits. If you choose to leave the boundaries of the trees, your memory will not include any events that have happened here with me and the offer I have extended to you will be revoked.”

“May I ask you questions?”

“I am willing to answer what I am allowed.”

"How long have you been a Spirit?”

“I have been the Spirit of the Wind for many moons, but I have no concept of time as you do.”

“Can you do and go where you want, when you want to?”

“I am free to do as I wish, as long as I remain within the boundaries of what I protect."

“Can you stop being a Spirit if you wanted.”

“Yes. First I would have to obtain a respectable replacement with the help of my fellow Spirits, but no Spirit has ever wanted to stop. Replacements are found to replace the eldest Spirit so they may move on.”

“Am I replacing you, if I agree?”

“No.”

“Who will I be replacing?”

“I do not know.”

“Why not? Why did you find me then?”

“The one you are replacing has been a Spirit the longest. All the Spirits are always searching for honorable humans for replacements. Pure of heart humans are not easy to find anymore. There is such disarray in humans; most of us look for many moons before we find one worthy and willing to protect what we hold so sacred. We all decided that now we find for the eldest Spirits before ourselves because those who have served the longest within our Realm deserve first choice when a human is deemed worthy.”

“Why did you choose me?”

“You Adam are an exceedingly rare human. I can see what is in your heart. You are truly the purest human I have met. I assume even more pure than I was when I was selected. You also have no one to leave behind, I am sorry to say. The hardest part of making this decision is leaving behind the ones you love.”

“Will I see my family?”

“It depends on the Spirit you are meant to invoke. If it is a Spirit like mine, you will not see them until you give up your Spirit Power and pass on to the next realm awaiting you.”

“I miss my family, but do not want to kill myself because I will not be accepted into heaven for taking my own life.”

“I understand.”

“Do you remember the ones you love?”

“Yes, I assume they are in heaven now waiting for me to join them.”

“Why don’t you give it all up and do it then?”

“Becoming a Spirit takes away human emotion and time has no concept on this side of the realm. You care for what you are meant to protect. The ones I love must know what I am doing and understand why I am doing it. It was not an easy choice for me. I had a husband and two children when I was human. I lost them in a fire while I was at work. Like you I did not resort to suicide. I wandered into these woods and was found by the one who possessed my Spirit. He explained and I accepted. Knowing I would be taking care of these woods made me happy again because they always helped ease my pain within my human life.”

“I accept your offer to become a Spirit.” Adam blurted out quickly. I did not feel all his questions were all answered but, his fate was now sealed. I told to him wait there and would be back with the Spirit he was to invoke. When I arrived back the fire was dimmed, and I did not see him. “Sorry, I had to use the restroom.” I heard from behind me. “That is fine.” I said in reply. “Great Spirit please come forth and accept the human I have found for you to pass your powers unto.” I called out to the open sky. “I shall.” A strong voice came out of the trees. The Great Spirit floated towards us and amazed by the light shining off him, Adam and I just stared in amazement. “I am the Spirit of Acceptance. I am the one who accepts souls into the gates for judgement. If you choose to accept my power; you shall remain in the sky until a replacement is found for you. You must look within a person’s soul to see if their actions were pure or not in their human life. In order to judge human choices, you will retain some of your human emotions, but the emotions you will feel will be that of souls you judge to determine why they took the actions they did. All souls are to be judged, but you determine whether the actions they took were out of good or evil and then direct them to the proper line for judgement. There are many souls who await judgment and some will be humans you have known your human life. This role is not an easy one because of the emotion factor, but you can decline and choose another Spirit to accept. The choice is yours Adam.”

“Can I ask some questions?”

“I have spoken everything I am allowed to tell you. You must choose.”

“I accept.” Adam said after a few moments of quiet thinking.

When the words were done a light shined from the heavens above and we all floated into the sky. For the first time since becoming a Spirit I left my woods. I found Adam and as a reward I was allowed to see him embody his new Spirit and it was my duty to watch over him on the first day he became a Spirit. The new Spirit of Acceptance was doing fine at his new role. Unknown to me at the time he would have an awfully hard decision to make ahead of him. First his son had walked up to him. “Daddy, you are here already.” He told him. Wrapping him tightly in his arms he had a smile of pure happiness. “You are accepted into the gates of heaven to be judged by the God Almighty, my son.” He said proudly. The same happened when his second son and daughter approached the gate. Then his wife walked up to him, and he could see all the bad she had done in her life. “Your actions in your life were done because of selfishness. You lied, cheated and were the cause of pain to innocence.” He said to her voice cracking. His heart was broken, and he began once more to cry. I never heard of a Spirit crying and that is when I realized he had not been given the power of the Spirit yet. He had to prove he could do it no matter what. “You are right Breezes.” The Great Spirit said to me. “It was just a test to see if he could judge correctly no matter who the person was in front of him.” “Was she really as bad of a person as he had seen her to be Great Spirit?” “Yes, unfortunately she was.” “She and the children have already been judged by me. I made them repeat, he could not condemn children under the age of twelve because they are pure before the teen years. Only in rare circumstances is a young child condemned to hell. You may go back to your woods now.” “May I stay to see Adam receive your power?” I asked. “If you wish.” The Great Spirit said as he walked away towards Adam. “You choose the correct line even though she was your wife. You may now truly invoke my powers.” Adam stood proudly hugging his children. There is no sadness or want in heaven so even though their mother was gone they did not shed a tear. “I accept.” Adam said as he bowed and was filled with light. I was back to my woods before I could say goodbye to Adam. While my human emotion evades me I still am aware of it, just not capable of being effected by it as a human is. But I found myself thinking of Adams test and wondered if my family made it into heaven? Was my husband pure? Was my thirteen-year-old daughter pure? Was my eight-year-old son the exception to the child rule I have been told about?” The one thing I thought of that night that I knew would stay with me until I was replaced was the simple knowledge that I would never know. As a spirit, I am automatically accepted into heaven since I have already been judged. Once a human is found to take over my power, I will be at peace and while I will learn the truth about the fate of my family, but I will automatically be okay with their outcomes regardless of where they are.

THE END