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The streets were filled with cars and horns blaring against the sound of ambulances and people discussing whatever it was they needed to say on their cell phones. As I was making my way down the road to the local Starbucks, my lips began to tingle and it was almost as if I were in the Matrix. I looked down at my hand and it was the hand of the man I just stole life from.

Looking around the city, it was as if I was seeing it in his eyes. Everyone taking the forms of different shapes, like linear compositions of themselves. Closing my eyes, I saw him with a wife who cheated on him, with a child he spent time with, and a divorce. Holding my breath, I opened my eyes again and the world was then mine again.

Shaking my head, deleting the memories of a man I didn’t know for more than a night, I continued to get my coffee. Walking into the Starbucks, I noticed there were no more than fifteen people there. I waited in line, where I found myself hungry and needing to eat more.

Every time I took the souls of people, I was filled, but it only lasted so long. I tried gapping it out by only taking a soul when I really needed it. I know I really need someone else’s soul when my head is light and it feels like I am empty inside. I begin to feel like a zombie, eyes unfocused and dying to just eat whatever crossed in front of me.

I tried picking people I never seen before or people that could potentially be what others would consider evil. Sometimes, I find myself in a hospice taking the souls of people who are ready to leave the world. The only thing I didn’t like about those people is that they had such full lives that I see their memories for days. Some of them revealing all of their good times, all of their bad times, and sometimes, they would be so gapped that I didn’t even remember who it was that I was feeling.

It was an intense roller coaster of emotions. When the person was having a moment of anxiousness, I could feel that entire moment. There were times I found myself in my apartment lying in bed, having their nightmares and fearing all they feared. I’d be waking up in cold sweats and heavy breathing. Trying to calm myself down, remembering that they were only visions, nothing more.

“Next.”

Looking at the boy behind the counter, I skimmed over the menu. Usually, I stop at the same Starbucks, but since I wasn’t local I figured I would get something different.

“Venti iced hazelnut macchiato”
“You got it.”