The Forgotten Soul

[jaosals42]

John looked left toward the Forgotten Soul, knowing he'd been cornered.

 

"You don' understand, do you?"

 

"What do you mean I don't understand? I understand perfectly! I can't just let you continue killing people, damn it! I can't!" The Forgotten Soul exclaimed, still pointing his gun at John.

 

"It's not that simple, Forgotten."

 

"What do you mean it's not simple?!" demanded the Forgotten Soul. "You had a choice when you killed those people! You had a choice when you left! Now I'm left with no choice but to."

 

"Let me speak," requested John. "Lower your gun."

 

"What? So you can shoot me? I think not!"

 

"Forgotten, just give him a chance," replied Stephen.

 

"I just told him no! You really think I'll let him get off that easily? He killed dozens on the previous attack."

 

"Give him at least one chance, Forgotten." Stephen said again.

 

"You don't have to lower your gun, Forgotten," John decided. "Just let me talk."

 

"Tell me," the Forgotten Soul growled. "But it'd best be good."

 

"The Creatures," John began. "You don't know what they've done to us. I can't hide it anymore. If you'd only seen..."

 

"Seen what?"

 

"What they do to prisoners. They...they cut people up like sausages from the foot up while they're strapped down by tight bands on beds of rocks, slowly, thin pieces of flesh at a time and then they feed the prisoner's cut remains to their damned 'pets'! A single person's body could last for days, and the worst part is the fact they leave the person alive all this time! No person, not even you could stand being in such surroundings for long! It'd drive anyone insane, including your kind!"

 

The Forgotten Soul lowered his gun. "Why'd you join them then?"

 

"The Creature corpses emit a sort of gas that many have a weakness to after being exposed to it for extended periods of time."

 

"What does this gas do?" Forgotten Soul asked.

 

"It... it clogs certain paths in the brain that affect thinking. The longer you're exposed to it, the more you lose yourself. You begin thinking in reverse and began to think your enemy is your friend and vice-versa. ...Sometimes there are points where you regain yourself but those don't last long. You'll be lucky if I don't lose myself again in your presence."

 

"Why wasn't I affected?"

 

"I don't know, Forgotten! I don't know! It must be something with your kind."

 

"What am I to do with you?" The Forgotten Soul asked. "If I return you, they'll jail you for the rest of your life and you're bound to lose your life in prison or suffer the rest of your days."

 

"But if you return me to the Creatures, they'll give me a life of torture as well, only it will be even worse. I don't want to have that fate! I don’t!"

 

"I must kill you then," the Forgotten Soul replied. "I won't stand to see you waste the rest of your life in jail and neither will I allow you to be tortured by the Creatures."

 

"Fine," said John, dropping the weapons on his back on the floor. "Kill me; I'd rather die now than spend the rest of my days worrying about what I have left. Please, do it."

 

The Forgotten Soul raised his gun and aimed it at John's head.

 

"Wait! Stop!"

 

The Forgotten Soul lowered his gun and turned around. Lilly stood there, scraggy hair and scratches over her face and was pointing her gun straight at the Forgotten Soul.

 

"I won't let you kill him!" she exclaimed, the gun shaking violently in her grasp.

 

"Lilly, please," said the Forgotten Soul calmly. "You don't have to do this."

 

"I won't let you! I won't! I won't! I WON'T!!"

 

The Forgotten Soul jumped out of the way and the blast from Lilly's gun hit the wall at the end of the hall. The wall absorbed the bullet like it never existed. Then, the Forgotten Soul reacted by jumping at Lilly and knocking the weapon out of her grasp, causing it to drop onto the floor.

 

"No! John! Don't let him! He needs to be stopped!"

 

"No, Lilly," said John calmly. "I have to."

 

"John!" Lilly's voiced echoed down the halls and seemed to repeat forever.

 

"Do it, Forgotten. Now."

 

The Forgotten Soul reluctantly pulled his gun back out and aimed it at John.

 

"I don't want to kill you," said the Forgotten Soul, sweat forming on his dark forehead. "I'll live the rest of my life hating myself, but to leave you to suffer... I must be merciless..."

 

"No!!" screamed Lilly.

 

The Forgotten Soul pulled the trigger and watched as his former friend dropped to the floor lifelessly, the look on his face too calm to leave one's mind at peace.

 

Lilly began to run but was quickly intercepted by the Forgotten Soul. He grabbed her arms and held them behind her back and reached for his pistol. Stephen wouldn't dare try to stop his boss.

 

"Lilly, see this as a favor from me." He reached for his gun one last time and fired a dark orange blast from it that was aimed at her head. She calmly dropped on the ground and laid there without movement.

 

"Forgotten!" Stephen exclaimed. "You didn't have to... Why'd you kill her as well?"

 

The Forgotten Soul sighed. "Feel for her pulse."

 

"Huh?"

 

"Just do it," he was calm.

 

Stephen reached down and reached for her wrist.

 

"There's a pulse?" he was confused. "What'd you do to her?"

 

"She has no memory."

 

"No memory?"

 

"None whatsoever. She won't even remember her children, or anything that happened today."

 

"Not even her kids?"

 

The Forgotten Soul reached into one of his side pockets and pulled out a piece of paper that seem to have been forgotten. It was torn in places and water stains were visible all over it. He showed the paper to Stephen. Lilly's kids had been killed months earlier in the war.

 

Stephen said nothing afterwards.

 

"I'm forty-two centuries old," said the Forgotten Soul. "I still have much of a life ahead of me for what I am. Lilly and John are much better off than me. They won't have to live with memories of having lost loved ones. But me, Stephen... you don't know what it's like having lost your parents and having your brother commit suicide. You don't. That's where they're lucky. They don't have to live the rest of their lives living and suffering on their memories. I'm stuck with mine for the rest of my life, but I chose to live so, for it is the only reason why I continue... I urge for the day the Creatures are wiped from existence.

 

"Though I'm not glad they're dead," the Forgotten Soul said in conclusion, "the anger their deaths erupts within me is my driving force. They were the reason why I lived and the reason why I'm still here..."

 

The Forgotten soul turned toward the end of the hallway.

 

"Return to camp with Lilly," he said. "I've a few things to attend to..."

 

Stephen watched as the Forgotten Soul walked down the hallway and disappeared.

[Callighan]

Brill name.

And riveting.

[GenDonuts]

I really liked this short story especially the symbolism. :thumbsup: