Test of Soul

2073

Flynn pulled back the bolt on his weapon and fired again. The satisfying sound of the gun echoing in his ears. He lowered the gun. He had practiced enough for the day and packed his things. He walked back inside from his backyard. Living alone in the forest had its perks. No police at his door every time he shot his gun. He did miss all the people, though. He placed his gun back in its cabinet and lunged himself at the sofa. All his work for the day was done, he had the rest of the day to kick back and forget all his troubles.

He had lived quite the peaceful life building guns for different clients and himself. It was his ambition, his dream, his purpose in life. The most dangerous and complex weapon humanity had to offer, all at his fingertips. It let him feel like he was in control. The joy his job brought him nullified his traumatic memories. He tried to drown his problems with many different things. Nothing worked, nothing brought him true joy. But his life is different now. His dream is finally true, he was finally happy, even if those thoughts burrowed into his mind every now and then.

His train of grim thoughts was interrupted as someone rang his doorbell. A client? Quite strange. He wasn't accepting commissions at the time. He snatched a handgun from the table as he stumbled to his door.

"Who's there?" He asked after clearing his throat.

"Flynn? Is that you?" The person asked back. He wiped his face as a drop of sweat dripped onto his eye. He didn't recognise the voice.

"Who is it?" He demanded to know.

"What are you talking about, it's me!" He replied, chuckling like Flynn was joking. Flynn knew only a couple of people and this wasn't one of them. He adjusted the gun in his hands and aimed at the middle of the door. He pulled the trigger. No sound from behind the door. No screech of pain, no body dropping to the ground. He put his ear closer to the door. If there actually was someone behind the door, the bullet would've hit. He was sure of it.

Something then slammed the door which sent Flynn back a few steps. The thing behind his door continued to batter the door. Flynn ejected more bullets into the door which didn't seem to help at all. His door would give in at any moment and he didn't have time to whip out any of his meaner guns. He dashed backwards and slammed a table on its side and crouched behind it. The door finally burst and behind it was the most horrific thing he had ever seen. It wasn't animal nor human. He shot at it but his bullets went through it like through smoke. The creature was dark and ghastly, its luminescent red eyes lighting its body like a deranged light show at a night club. He snagged the lamp that was previously on the table and tried to light the creature up in a different way. The light from the lamp only seemed to anger the thing even more than the shooting. The creature screeched at Flynn and rushed at him. Flynn shot at it multiple times just to deter it, but the creature kept approaching. While walking backwards, he tripped on something that just fell from the table. He instinctively tried to grab something to break his fall and managed to grasp a curtain. The curtain was ripped from its place as Flynn slammed onto the floor. Great beams of light emerged from the window completely covering the vile fiend. It howled in pain and covered its face with its hands, but it was too late for him. It burned and collapsed, turning back into space dust. Flynn laid on the floor gasping and panting.

"What the fuck?" He exclaimed to his empty room. His house now ridden with bullet holes. He looked at the pile of sparkling black dust on his floor, he turned his head the other way, but he couldn't resist its call. He crawled towards the dust very slowly. He gently touched the dust and quickly jerked his hand back, fully expecting it to kill him. After realising how stupid that was, he grabbed a pinch and smelled it. It crackled on his hand as he smelled it. It smelled like burnt ashes and blackberries. He cleaned the mess that was his house and placed the dust on his workshop bench. It was too late to start experimenting with such an oddity and his eyes just kept closing, so he dragged himself to bed and fell asleep.