The Soul Snatcher

Carrie Stone lived peacefully with incandescent contentment in the safe walls of her home.

On the pages that she flooded with a sea of words, Carrie lived under her pen name, Dani Viola. Dani had the tenacity of a confident and brave pirate, never fearing the unknown but embracing it with her charming smile and ungodly high-sex appeal.

Carrie was a famous author

Well, Carrie was the author, and Dani was the famous one.

That's the beauty of being a faceless author. She made a good living (good was an understatement) and never had to leave her house.

Of course she did leave here and there, because apparently "she needed more sun," according to her doctor, but most of her days she wandered her large and impressive home by herself in the gated community known as Citrus Grove.

Citrus Grove was the most expensive community in her whole county. Her house, among others, was a million-dollar home, and she didn't even get Carrie started on the ridiculous HOA fee.

*HOA stands for the Homeowners Association and is an amount of money that must be paid monthly by owners of certain residential properties. (The money the HOA receives is aimed at being put back into the community.)*

Fortunately, she was able to live this life doing what she loved to do: write. The community had perfect streets, scenic views, and friendly residents. Of course, Carrie, being the reclusive author she was, never really interacted with them. However, from the friendly waves from afar, silent nods across the yard, and no one coming to infringe upon her serene privacy,

She deduced they were good people.

Carrie felt she was truly happy with the life she had. The life she fought hard to earn

Yeah, it was modest. She lived alone with her cat and her words. Her large and beautiful million-dollar home was about the only super expensive thing she bought for herself.

She drove a 2008 Volvo with the passenger door handle broken, for god's sake.

She just didn't need expensive things to feel joy; she felt joy when she wrote. When Carrie got lost in the faraway worlds her mind created—worlds vastly different from the one she lived in—that's when she was happiest.

Her life was steady and predictable. That's how she wanted to keep it.

Today started like any other day; spring had approached with fervour, melting away the chilling affects of the winter.

Carrie was doing what she normally does on a beautiful sunny day.

Telling herself, "Wow, it's such a beautiful day, I should go outside," but never actually going outside.

She did, however, have intentions of enjoying the gorgeous day, but when she walked into her favourite room in her home, the library,

She forgot to leave.

Carrie walked into a glowing room looking for her journal, which she had discarded somewhere, when the book she was reading the night before caught her eye.

And suddenly the cliffhanger of the last chapter she stopped on came flooding back to her in new-found vigour.

"One more chapter, just to find out if they made it out of the temple. Then I'll be an adult and do my chores, work, and whatever else productive adults do." She rationalised silently to herself as she grabbed the book.