Day 264 - Soulcatcher Story

Soulcatcher Story

Matthew Ryan Fischer

Duncan walked the field behind his home. When he was a younger man, he made the rounds daily, but now as he was growing older, he had slowed down a step or two and was far less ambitious. There were hundreds of catchers hanging in the field – hanging from trees and posts and laundry lines. He had hung them anywhere and everywhere he could think of. There were so many that he wasn’t ever going to get to them all in a day anyway, so he no longer pushed himself to try to check them all. He took a leisurely stroll every evening after dinner and found whatever he found. If there was something waiting in one of his catchers that he missed one day, he would discover it soon enough.

The soulcatcher was similar to a dreamcatcher, except that it caught errant souls instead of nightmare dreams. Duncan’s brother Saul had created their first soulcatcher. Duncan wasn’t a mystic, nor was he a craftsman. Saul was the believer. Saul was the visionary. Duncan was just a man who was willing to do the grunt work. That was something Saul needed. Saul liked the results, but he didn’t always want to put in the work. They found a happy balance, a perfect working relationship. They made a lot of soulcatchers together and the soulcatchers worked.

Saul was a man with dreams and desires and ambition. Saul was a man that thought of ways to get ahead. He made the soulcatchers and planned on using them to help himself. There was a distillation process that allowed Saul to find what was special from the souls and take it for himself.

Duncan had no desire to be a part of that. He took his leave and made his own home, and having learned the process, made his own soulcatchers. Duncan considered himself a soul fancier. He made a home and place for souls to gather and rest before they continued on their way. He liked them. He liked being around them. He thought of them as something somewhere between a friend and a pet. He took care of them and they took care of him.

A seemingly high number of free-souls found their way to Duncan’s soulcatchers. Duncan lived in the middle of nowhere. There was nothing special about his home. It wasn’t the epicenter of any mystical energy pattern. There was no reason for so many free-souls to find their way to him. Duncan believed that possibly the high volume of soulcatchers that he had created coupled together in some fashion to act as a recognizable beacon. Maybe it was like a magnet or a lighthouse. The free-souls couldn’t resist coming his way. He liked that idea – that he was a soul-beacon lighting up the dark and lonely night. He didn’t know why else free-souls would be coming from all around the world. Duncan failed to consider that his kindness towards them could have inspired so many to find their way to him.

Duncan didn’t trap the souls. He wasn’t a mean or cruel man. He didn’t trick them or torture them or try to gain anything from them. He was no fool – he knew the free-souls needed their freedom. Any free-soul that was trapped was set free and given food and shelter for the night and then they were free to leave whenever they pleased.

He kept a few, but only because they wanted to stay. Some of them stayed a few days or weeks. Others had stayed longer. Duncan always left his spiritual door open so they could return anytime they wanted to. Some of them became his friends. Some of them became a part of him.

Duncan always wondered if their original owners knew what had happened. They either knew but didn’t care, or didn’t know at all. Not all people knew they had a free-soul. Not all free-souls knew they had a host. Some were smart, sentient, and conscious, while others were primal forces but had no awareness.

Duncan imagined if a host knew their free-soul was missing and could track it to Duncan’s property, then he would have been visited by now. Maybe there was a lost and found somewhere or a missing soul system that someone policed. Duncan didn’t really know about those sorts of things. Saul was better connected to that sort of world. Duncan told himself to try and remember to ask Saul about that the next time they spoke. They spoke so infrequently that it was more than likely that Duncan would forget by the next time he and Saul spoke.

Duncan paused to inspect one soulcatcher in particular. It was one of the first ones he had made on his own – a handmade hoop with a cross section of twigs instead of a net. He had later added an interwoven web. One of the twigs had snapped. He wasn’t sure when. He wondered if an animal had done that or if there had been some soul that broke free. The catcher was old and was far from perfect. He wondered if he should be worried or not. He didn’t know what it meant if something had broken free. He knew there were dangerous and powerful spirits out there, but he had never encountered one before.

He took the catcher inside with him. He hadn’t decided yet if he should try and repair it or just destroy it. There were probably plenty of residual energies left inside it. He couldn’t just throw it out. He had a responsibility to dispose of it correctly if that was what needed to be done.

Duncan resolved to call his brother sooner than later, but first he had to make dinner and needed to feed all the free-souls that he had recovered that day.