My breath caught in my throat. Theo audibly swallowed. 

The bare walls of the room reflected a sickly green. Theo's eyes were darting around, but it didn't seem like he could see anything more than I could. His hands were glowing, but he stuffed them in his pockets, seeming to be terrified of them. 

There weren't any windows to speak of, and my hand rattling the door did nothing. 

I felt like my energy and breath was being sucked out of me.

Theo looked over at me, his hands still shoved in his pockets. 

I stared at the silhouettes around the room, the way they each glowed. 

I watched as a blue smoke started to trail away from me, going straight in front of me. It was like something vital had been sucked out of me.

I doubled over, the outline of a man in a ski mask standing in front of me, but he was opaque so I could still see the six people glowing. 

Theo's arms were around me, holding me up, but they still glowed green. I gasped at the touch. I burned cold, like when you hold ice to your skin for too long. 

I felt myself ebbing away. It was like someone was holding up a vacuum cleaner to me and pulling my insides out of my body. Like they were taking away everything that I needed to live.

More blue was forming. Then, there was a girl, probably caught in the middle of some other insignificant crime. 

I dropped to my knees and only barely registered that Theo had too. I was too busy watching people appear in front of me. 

Still more were there until there was a crowd around me. And all the while I was getting weaker and weaker until I couldn't keep my own head up anymore.

Theo slipped his hand into mine and I watched sideways as the various spirits filled the room. Each and everyone seemed to have been caught in the middle of a crime, just like Theo had said. 

I felt the rest of my energy and will go... so there was barely anything keeping me alive...

$$$

And at last, I was free. I went to join the crowd of souls, common criminals that'd been brought together in the body of Rosella Matthews. The girl lay dying on the floor. I felt a smile touch my lips. 

I stared down at my hands, glaring at their transparent blue. 

There was a face next to hers. Theodore...

I glared at him, but he didn't see me. I looked to the six soul theives in the room that'd freed me. Evidently, they were doing more than just that. They were taking something from him too.

I wanted to laugh gleefully. This was all too perfect of an end. I was free, no longer trapped in a body that wasn't mine. The fool that'd put me in my prison finally knew what it felt like. The only thing I could've asked for was that he see the joy on my face. 

I couldn't have really expected to have everything. I was, after all, a seasoned criminal who'd happened to run out of luck. 

Rosella didn't know how much impact all the souls had really had on her subconscious. Theodore had found bad souls, sure, but all of them had more in the way of morals than me. We'd all settled on making her life hell, but they'd hold me back from all the truly terrible things.

Even now, they all split away from me. I had a good view of Rosella.  Her face was a dreadful color, and her hair was splayed across her face in a most unflattering way. She was still alive, but barely. 

Theodore was pitifully weak. Tendrils of power were flowing out of him, their absence making him weaker. I dodged the green at all costs, moving towards him. He saw me, but it was as though I didn't exist.

He was leaned over her. Her hand was in both of his, and he was tearfully asking her to wake up.

I peered down at him. She was as good as dead. Surely he had to know that?

His face was looking dreadfully pale too...

Oh, it was all too good. The power flowing out of Theodore stopped. He breathed hard, and with a great disappointment, I realized that the Soul Theives were simply banishing him from their order. He wouldn't die that day.

With that, I took a deep breath as a way of consoling myself. Then, I closed my eyes and hoped I had the same properties as a traditional ghost. Running into a wall would've been humiliating, but storming out of a room through a wall looked quite good, I think. 

It took me annoyingly long to find my old body again, sitting dumbly on the side of a street. Its muscles were weak, too tired to move. Hatred stewed in me as I sat, almost lame, people spitting at the harmless homeless man.

I would show them.

I sat biding my strength. Months passed and I went to the same apartment that Rosella had taken me to. 

I knocked on the familar door. 

No one came.

I banged on the door. Still no answer. I resolved to sit until Theodore got home.

Hours passed, but still, no one was there. 

Footsteps finally came up the stairs, but it wasn't who I wanted. Instead, it was just the bag of bones that was his landlord.

She stared at me suspiciously.

"Are you here to see someone?"

"Yes. Theodore White."

She glared at me as though my bulky frame had no intimidating effect.

"Oh, he doesn't live here anymore. You just missed him by a couple of days."

I clenched my fists at my side. "Where did he go?"

"Oh, I forget. It was some city far away. I didn't know it."

She seemed to be fine disclosing all this to me.

"Why would he leave?"

"Oh, young people like that don't want to be born and raised in the same place." She shrugged it off making to leave.

I had an idea. "Oh, do you by any chance have any way to contact him?"

She tutted. "I bet he's still using the same phone."

Then she walked away. The nerve!

I walked after her, my long strides easily catching up with her. I needed to win her trust. I needed revenge.

"How's Rosella doing?"

She didn't stop her little waddle to talk. "Oh, fine. She's thrilled with the move."

I stopped dead. How was she alive? Ms. McCallister walked away without me. 

"Wait-"

And Ms. McCallester was gone, done the stairs. I stood dumbfounded.

And that was the last I ever heard about Rosella Matthews or Theodore White.

$$$THE END$$$