I settled into my seat. The coffee shop had a credit card only policy. That was convenient.

I still wanted to steal all the credit cards, but not nearly as much since I never spent anything and the card would most likely be canceled anyway. I would be able to have a pleasant conversation with Daisy. I missed that.

I couldn't even have a good conversation with Theo anymore. I wondered if he suspected anything. He was always so sweet. If I even gave I hint I felt bad he was ready to rush me to the hospital.

He had been at the hospital as much as work would allow when I was sick. His friend Leah showed up a lot too. I don't remember much about Leah. He met her right around then.

I looked back at Daisy. "What is your novel about?" I asked, more just out of politeness than anything.

"Oh, I haven't written it yet," she said dismissively.

I raised my eyebrows. "You seem like you know what it's about, though."

She nodded, smiling, but not saying anything.

"Something to do with all the books," I pondered, grabbing one from the middle of the table. "Let's see, Souls and Their Curious Natures."

I furrowed my eyebrows and grabbed another one. Soul sickness. That was odd. Soul Reapers: How to Spot Them and How to Stop Them. I was interested in whatever the novel was going to be. How to See Stolen Souls. Something in me revolted against the book. My hands trembled and I dropped it just as a girl in a bright apron walked up.

"How are we today?" she asked, her voice a monotone.

"Splendid, as usual, Lucy. I'll have my regular, and what will you have?" Daisy asked me.

I gave my order, my voice cracking halfway through. Lucy left without asking if anything was wrong. That was good.

Daisy didn't ask what was wrong either, picking up the book from where I'd dropped it and skimming through it.

She stopped on a page, her eyes scanning it intently. She only looked up at me when she noticed my staring.

"It's a beautiful day out, isn't it?"

I nodded stupidly.

"I always like the pretty days. It always lets me see some things in a new light. It's harder to hide things."

I blanched, and she looked at me, an understanding smile somehow plastered to her face. A sudden rage filled me. She couldn't understand anything about me.

She seemed to notice. "I'm talking about ideas, of course. Everything flows so much easier when the sun's shining down on me."

I struggled to contain the irrationality of my emotions. "Yes," I said awkwardly.

Lucy came back with two steaming cups of coffee. Daisy thanked the girl, who promptly sauntered away.

A device at the table beeped, and she pulled out a wallet from her pocket. I held my breath. There was bound to be money in it.

But there wasn't. Just perfectly organized credit cards, which she perused before sticking one into the machine.

She pulled it out, smiling gently.

"Why'd you decide to show up for coffee? What made you change your mind?"

"I just wanted someone to talk to," I admitted, the sudden burst of honesty surprising me.

"I'm sure a pretty girl like you has plenty of people to talk to."

"No. I don't really make friends and me and my boyfriend don't talk like we used to."

"Oh, that's a shame. What happened?"

"Nothing really. I- I. Nothing. My interests have just... changed."

She groaned sympathetically, but not in a way that made me feel bad, "I know what you mean. I've personally decided that dating is not my specialty."

"Why's that?"

"People are difficult. I just want to save myself a headache."

"I think I'm the one causing the headache, though. Theo's been nothing but sweet."

She smiled bitterly.

"You think that and then they just leave you in a hospital, and call you crazy."

I shook my head quickly. "No. I was in the hospital for months and he was so supportive and amazing about it."

"What'd you have?"

"The doctors didn't know. I got better, though."

"Odd. What were the symptoms?"

"I passed out a lot. I could barely stay conscious. I couldn't swallow a mouth full of food to save my life. I don't really remember a lot of it."

Daisy wasn't smiling. She picked up a book and slid it across the table.

"This is an excellent read if you get bored. Let me know what you think. I come here this time every day."

She got up, gather her books, all but one, in her arms and walked out of the shop. I was left dumbstruck at the table, I slid the book in my backpack without a second glance and left the shop after her.

The street was rancid with green faces changing hands. I put on my sunglasses, let my hair down, and walked through the crowd, giving up as my hands danced, finding loose bills to slip in my pocket. People put money in their pockets and are surprisingly insensitive to someone pulling it out.

I got back to my apartment, opening the door quickly and rushing inside. The short walk back from the coffee had put me in a position to come by thirty dollars.

I put it all carefully with the stash.

Two thousand five hundred ninety-seven dollars.

I plopped on the bed. I had stolen more money.

I had stolen more money.

But I had also made a friend. I went to my backpack and pulled out the book.

Soul Sickness by Leonard Bailey.

I opened it, hoping the words inside would somehow soothe me, and oddly, they did. I only say oddly because there was a part of it that upset me too. There was a part of it that seemed like it was focused so intensely on me that I wanted to cry, but I kept reading.

It was an "entirely hypothetical" speculation on what would happen if someone's soul somehow expired or withered away. The author suggested that they would develop a sickness that doctors couldn't dream of identifying, then saying that the victim would suffer immediate death.

It went into much more gruesome detail, and each sentence seemed to pry up a memory of fluorescent lights and a hospital room.

I was remembering things that I hadn't thought of since they happened.

The words came to live, flickering and dancing before my eyes as I was recalled to Theo leaning over me, everything silent except his voice. "You will get better. I swear to God, Rose, you'll get better." But the book went on.

Oh, how the book went on.

The afflicted person would slowly lose control of reality, becoming increasingly intolerant to a food, and increasingly unaware of the world around them, maybe with frequent fainting. This, of course, has no way of being explored...

I was in the hospital room again. The whole world was white, and suddenly Theo came into my line of sight. "Leah, do you honestly think it'll work?"

Leah was on my other side, but I was too hot and tired to care about anything more. "It's too late now. If you want to back out-"

"No. I can't lose her. Leah, I can't lose Rosie."

"Okay. Whatever you need. I support you."

Then there was a spoon in my mouth, a taste exploded in my mouth and I slipped from the room, my eyes giving way to a darkness that was only relieved by lights and silence.

That was when it first really started. The impulses. The desire. All my needs and cravings for money. I hadn't remembered it, but that was right where it started. In that room. With that sound.

Money clinking in a jar. The reception desk was right outside my room and the hospital was strangely quiet. The eerieness of it was filled with the sound of the coins, dropped so curiously in as they rolled, around and around and around.

That was the first time I learned what a need was. That was the first time I learned would my needs would be.

I needed the coins. It would be simple. All I would have to do would be to get out of bed...

The book interrupted my thoughts.

There would, however, be a way to revive the patient. Each person, each person that is alive and well, or even those about to die, has a soul. Even someone suffering from soul sickness has a soul, though it's past the point of being helpful. There are legends of those who could steal your soul, your very essence right from your body.

It would take multiple souls to replace the original, still hypothetically speaking, but it could be done. All the person in question would have to do would simply be to transfer it, and the afflicted would be none the wiser.

There are downsides to this...

I swung my legs over the bed and stood up. I needed that money. It was a weak impulse, but I was so weak that it took over me. The collection jar of the hospital was mine for the taking.

I took a step and crumpled, passed out before I hit the floor.

Souls have tendencies that come with them. For example, if a pure soul was put into a corrupt body, the corrupt person, no matter their intent, would find themselves inclined to do good. The same would be true for the opposite scenario.

Someone put me back into bed. I'll never know who, but someone did. No one knew quite what that meant. Was I well that I'd mustered the strength to stand up? Was it bad that I'd promptly collapsed?

I feebly claimed I didn't remember anything about it, and no one argued with me.

I didn't tell Theo right then and there what happened because I was too busy telling myself it didn't happen. I wasn't that person. It'd been a dream and I'd rolled out of bed.

I let myself believe that.

The soul would make the afflicted better for only a short time, eventually wearing out and making them appear even sicker than before.

If the souls were balanced then, good and bad, it might save the afflicted from the startling personality change.

I had an easier time brainwashing myself because I got worse. I couldn't stay conscious. Theo and Leah came back again and again, and I took the same medicine over and over. I was too weak to protest.

Each time I got a little better and each time I was a little better off. I was still bad, but a little better.

But each time, something happened where I could feel the presence of money. A nurse's or visitor's clothes. A payment in the hall. Something. It didn't matter what.

The urges got stronger as I got better. And then one day, I didn't get worse after the medicine does. The doctor's cleared me.

And then I was out in the real world. The world of money. The world of hidden stashes and lies.

I put a bookmark in the book and closed it, just as Theo walked in the door. He held up groceries and a bag of McDonald's.

"Hey," he grinned, putting everything away quickly.

"Hey," I said, my voice shaking from the book.

"What's wrong," he immediately whispered, his arms around me, "Rose?"

"Just this book," I muttered, watching him pick it up.

His face turned pale. "Where'd you get this?"