James was engulfed in white light. Almost instantaneously, but he couldn't see at the end. Had he died? Then voices began to echo through his ears. What had happened to him? He fought to see. He head groans and moans. Within his mind, pain, inexplicable, unimaginable pain began to ebb at his consciousness. But then floods of memories woke him up. THEIR memories. What had happened? What could have happened? Had he finally lost it? He fought back at the souls that, lashing out with pure rage and emotion, a rarity in James' case. He was usually the reserved one, usually the one that planned his words and carefully decided the tone. He could manipulate a weak-minded man with his words alone. But pure emotion? The souls had never experienced it themselves. The crawled back to their little arm, meek, shuffling. And each one cursed him. Each one damned his very existence. He was their proxy, their slave-driver. He was the boss that they never imagined, the one that held the key to freedom and dangled it before them sadistically grinning. They cursed the human, but could little beyond it. They receded their places, one last face screaming a high-pitched Cheesecake! as it was swallowed whole.
James, drowning the rage with a cold acceptance of his pain, turned around, his face blanched, his real arm mottled and his hand barely able to clutch his wand correctly. He spat out some coppery fluid from his mouth before turning his head towards the Lord Death. The alchemic arm involunarilty jerked and was hit by a stray red spark. "You had something to say?" he asked Death inbetween pants.