Soul for a Soul

On the day that Europe's best scientists accidentally discovered the existence of souls through the study of animals, it was unofficially labelled the most important day in the history of the human race. Hoping to better the world, Dr. Aida Mathieu and her team eagerly published this report, for it meant that the afterlife

- at least in some significant, yet then unknown, way - and civilization immediately started to take an immense and uncharted turn for the greater good.

In only the span of a few days, wars ended, violence more or less ceased, and people had faith and love where before there was none. Animals became vastly revered in ways they never had been before. With little hesitation, people started going to great lengths doing what they thought was right in order to save their own souls. The world waited with bated breath for what science would find next. Proof of God? Heaven? Hell? Ghosts?

Silence.

Only days after the soul studies had been published, questions about the state of the

soul became the topic of the entire world. After all, the results of these studies on human beings had yet to come out. Conspiracy theories flooded the internet and grew exponentially until the media was forced to address it. People were scared. They were

.

The world needed to know. What happens when we die? If animals have souls, surely we do as well? Finally, after weeks of quiet deliberation, Dr. Mathieu's once youthful and exuberant face appeared on live screenings around every country. The world ceased all movement, and people felt hope, horror and relief all at once.

"Dear human beings of this Earth," she began, her French merely quieted in the background as it was dubbed by whatever language was most convenient, "this world is a mysterious one. I have been so very honored to work with each and every one of you." She paused with a crooked, awkward grin, gesturing off-screen to what most presumed were her team. "As you know, animals and living creatures - even plants in our most recent discovery - have what we for millennia have termed a 'soul'. This discovery has changed the world in ways we never thought possible." She paused, wiping a single tear from her face, and then more. Several seconds passed before she could recollect her composure. "With my most humble apologies, I must preface what you are about to hear: we will do everything we can." She began sobbing hysterically. "There is nothing for us. Human beings don't have souls."

Immediately, the stream was forcefully cut off everywhere. Almost just as quickly, the entire world was filled with fear powerful enough to cause crime to reach paramount levels and insanity to infect anyone not strong enough to handle this unbearable truth.

People rapidly began huddling into cults convinced that the way to get a soul was to take them away. And they were right, the scientists had said. They told the world to stay calm; they would find a way to humanely share soul with human beings. But years had passed, the world was deep within chaos, and the scientists had fallen silent once more. Most assumed they had given in like so many others.

Wildlife began rapidly disappearing as people manically ripped away their souls using twisted, demonic science and placing them into heart-shaped lockets that once worn would at least somewhat guarantee some semblance of life after death, like that of an industry robot whose only purpose was to carve out a matchstick from a tree - so long as it was worn at the time of death. Even insects and plants weren't safe, for just one beetle or one flower was hardly a percent of the soul of a horse; and human beings needed at least a whale’s soul to wholly fill their encumbered hearts and minds.

Some people fought back as the world truly began its end. While some simply didn't trust science or their past findings, others prayed en masse for months on end, begging for a solution to their existential plight. As life drained from the sea, sky and earth, there was never any obvious answer, save for the earth's ecosystem slowly plummeting to that of an empty ball of dirt hurtling through the emptiness of space.

Years passed. People hopelessly lived on in small, animalistic tribes, clinging on to what few pendants remained. Their lifespans declined rapidly; sustenance no longer existed in a world of desert and ash, but the technology to keep their hearts beating did.

Mother Nature, utterly ravished and wildly furious, bellowed forth and allowed country-sized infernos and great storms to tear away humanity's greatest creations; its tallest towers and smallest trinkets alike. Before long, perhaps a century or two, human beings resembled little more than chimpanzees dwelling in a world that they feared, unaware of their existence, thirsting for comfort and survival. They'd forgotten the past, and the little hearts which contained souls were little more than garbage to them. They had caged themselves.

Eventually, they all had souls once again.