The Girl Who Sees Souls Short Drama Recap

I can tell whether people are good or evil. Black means evil. Gold means good. Most people have no idea how loud their own soul is.

When Erin was twelve, standing in a guild orphanage while two couples waited to adopt, she used that gift to make the most insane choice anyone had ever seen.

The Girl Who Picked the Monsters on Purpose

Everyone else saw a sweet couple. The woman smiled down at the children and cooed, "Sweetheart, would you like to come home with me and live in a huge castle?"

Erin looked past the smile. Black mist clung to her soul like oil.

Her best friend Gwen was already dressed in a beautiful new gown, ready to be chosen. The night before, she'd slipped Erin a piece of dried fruit pie and said something that still gives chills: she'd never been able to beat Erin at anything, but she didn't want to freeze and suffer in that awful place anymore — so Erin had to let her have the noble couple coming tomorrow.

She said she'd been reborn. She glared at Erin like she'd stolen something from her in another life.

Then she threw a raggedy burlap dress at her. Wear this tomorrow. Rub dirt into your hair. Don't even think about stealing the spotlight.

Erin ate the pie. She nodded. She put on the rags.

But when the noblewoman reached for Gwen's hand, Erin saw the black mist and grabbed her friend's wrist. "Gwen, let go. She's a bad person."

Gwen screamed that Erin was ruining her life again. The warden shoved Erin toward the other couple — the terrifying ones.

The man's voice was flat. "My son lost the use of both legs in an accident. He'll never walk again. I'm taking you home to be his servant. There's still time to change your mind."

Erin looked up. Golden light poured off both of them.

"I won't change my mind."

The other orphans burst out laughing. Look at that idiot. She picked the two terrifying ones. She'd be better off rotting in the cellar.

They thought she was brave. Or stupid. She wasn't either. She was just reading the light.

The Warmth Nobody Else Could See

Here's the thing about the gift: it didn't come free.

A year before, Erin had broken a flower pot, and the warden made her stand outside in the rain as punishment. She came down with a high fever, and deep in a dream she walked through an ancient forest to a giant tree with an old man's face in its trunk. When she woke up, the fever was gone — and she could see souls.

The old woman who worked in the kitchen was the first to notice. She gripped Erin's wrist hard. "Erin, don't tell anyone about this. If those greedy lords and red robe sorcerers learn you can see the good and evil in people, they'll tie you to a stake and force you to help them do terrible things."

Erin bit her lip and kept her mouth shut. A few days later, the old woman died on a bitterly cold night.

So when her new mother, Toman, snapped at her in the carriage, Erin almost believed the orphans were right. Toman pried open her clenched fist and found her palm covered in blood and mud from being shoved onto the gravel.

"You little fool," she roared. "Why didn't you say you were hurt this badly? Did a snow wolf bite off your tongue?"

Then she turned the carriage around to the apothecary, got Erin's hand bandaged, and dragged her to a clothing shop. "Find her a new dress," she told the shopkeeper. Then, to Erin: "You better behave. If my son doesn't like you, I'll take the dress back and send you straight to the guild orphanage."

Erin nodded and nodded. At the orphanage, children who got sent back were locked in the ice cellar.

Then she met John.

He was in a heavy wheelchair, handsome and furious. "Don't call me that. Don't use me as an excuse. You're ashamed of having a crippled son who can't stand, so you only bought a maid so someone would look after you in your old age."

Erin looked at him carefully. Warm golden mist surrounded him too — but it was faint and weak, like it had been soaked by rain.

"I'm to be your lowly servant and wait on you," she told him. "So I have to obey you. Whatever you want me to do, I'll do it."

The fierce expression on his face slowly faded. "A servant, huh? Then push me to the table. I want to eat now."

He ordered her around all day. Soup. No, actually, he didn't want soup anymore. The bathroom. Then: "Why are you still standing there? Get out."

He pushed her away every chance he got. She kept coming back.

The Smile That Hid Black Mist

Life at the bakery wasn't so bad. Erin had a new name — Aaron Miller. Mark and Toman baked rye loaves and salted meat pies for messengers and patrol riders, and Erin pushed John's wheelchair around to keep him company.

She told him stories from the orphanage. The time Gwen and she hid in an abandoned bell tower and found half a bag of iced cookies with strawberry cream filling inside an old pipe organ. The time someone flung a sulfur firework onto the warden's crown and his hair burned off. The time the warden called her to his chamber promising honeyed white cheese, and the woman who kept the accounts burst in, called her a filthy little fox, beat her out of the room with a broom, and gave the warden a terrible beating with a candlestick.

John seemed relieved. So she took a crushed piece of honey candy from the pouch Toman had sewn for her and offered it to him.

"I don't eat things like that."

"Why not? Are you afraid it'll be bitter? It's wild honey and hazelnut candy scraped from the bottom of the comb. It isn't bitter at all."

He opened his mouth to answer — and then a voice called from around the corner. "John."

A girl stood at the foot of the stone steps, smiling and waving. Beautiful. Sweet. She leaned down at Erin. "And who are you, little one?"

"My name is Aaron."

"Oh, Aaron, I need to speak to John alone. Could you give us a moment?"

"I'm not leaving."

"Why not?"

"She's a bad person."

Valerie's expression changed at once. She looked at John with wounded eyes. "I never imagined you would speak about me this way to your sister behind my back. I was too afraid to testify for you at the watch house that day. You hate me for it now, don't you?"

Erin wasn't talking nonsense. Valerie's smile was sweet, but black mist clung to her soul. Erin knew she meant to hurt him.

"Go now," John said. Erin refused. He pried her hands away and shoved her hard. She lost her balance and fell.

While she was down, Valerie pushed John's wheelchair away.

Erin scrambled up and crept after them.

She wheeled him to an abandoned, dried-out defensive trench. Thugs in filthy leather armor appeared out of nowhere. The red-haired young man leading them slammed a boot onto the wheelchair's footplate.

It was Karen, the most feared thug in the northern wastes.

"You bastard," Karen sneered at John. "Still as stupid as ever. Valerie crooks one finger and you come running."

Erin watched Valerie let go of the wheelchair. Her face showed nothing as she walked over to Karen's side.

"You tried to play the hero behind the barracks that day," Karen said. "Thought you were some kind of knight, did you? We were only fooling around in bed. Valerie was nothing but a plaything I bought for a few coins."

John's back was to Erin, so she couldn't see his face. But she knew he had to be devastated.

Karen laughed and gestured to the two men beside him. "Go on, push our brave warrior over that cliff and turn him into mince meat."

Erin was standing right there. She had seen the black mist before anyone else did.

And she had no idea what to do next.