Soul Trapped

Chapter 3

Training began the very next day and I learned pretty quickly this was going to be harder than it first seemed. We trained in a large court yard just behind the building, It was the size of 2 football Fields and was covered in training equipment. Jake trained me in swordplay while I was trained in marksmanship by a man named John.

John was a young man in his mid 20's, he had long black hair and we wore; dusty old biker boots, an old brown leather vest, and a dirty dress shirt, with some worn out jeans. his weapon of choice was an old Smith and Wesson, it kinda reminded me of something Jesse James or billy the kid would use.The swordplay came naturally to me, by the the first week I could easily hold my own against Jake, the shooting was way more difficult.

"I still can't hit the broad side of a barn and its been 3 weeks! I need a real target when am I going to kill a real demon!" John turned to me and patted my shoulder.

"Kid.. when you gotta take a life it doesn't get any easier, trust me." I looked up at him. He was looking into the distance as if in deep thought.

"It was my first hit, I had no idea what i was doing."

What is he talking about?

"They told me it would be easy, 'Just get in shoot him and get out.' Man was I stupid." He scratched his scruffy beard.

"I didn't even think about his kids, wife, family... all I thought was some rich ass hole from the south was going to pay me a lot of money to kill him." I looked down.

Why does this story sound familiar?

"They told me to sit one row behind him so's I had a good shot no matter what."

Wait a minute!

"He sat down in front of just like they said and the play started..."

This man.. is..

"I waited until the middle, it was the final number right before intermission.. I raised my gun-"

.. is John Wilkes Booth!

"-And shot him in the back of his head." He looked down at me with sympathetic eyes.

"I reckon you probably hate me now that you know who I am and all. But if its any consultation, if I had to do it again I would sooner put that gun to my own head then then kill that man."

I didn't know what to say. I decided to keep training, I raised my gun, aiming for the target about 50 meters down the range.

I felt John's breath on my neck, "Breath.." He whispered. I slowly inhaled and was just about to squeeze the trigger when suddenly there was a loud crashing noise. I jumped and dropped the gun.

"Grah!" I shouted in anger and turned to see a bunch of trainee's to the gates of the courtyard. I could just make out the smoke emulating off of whatever had landed when one man shouted.

"It's Grim!!"

There was a roar of screams as the trainees scattered, sprinting to the safety of the building. Jake was the only one who seemed unfazed, he sighed and slid his sword into the black leather sheath that hung from his back and began to approach the cloud of smoke. As the smoke cleared I spotted a young man In a black pinstriped suit, with a green tie and a bowlers cap. He had long messy blonde hair, a slender pointed face and a tall torso. When he spotted Jake he paced up the field and met him halfway to the gate.

"Yeah I know, it would be nice if every time you came here you didn't destroy the road." the man shook his head.

"Where's god?"

Trying not to be noticed I slowly began to creep towards them, I cringed as my foot snapped a twig in half, unleashing a sharp echo of sound. The mans eyes shot to mine and within a second; he pulled down his sleeve and slit his wrist, letting his black blood flow out like a snake. Then harden into a long whip, it caught my ankle, and drag me to them. He raised me up until my face was equal with his.

"What do we have here, it seems you've allowed a human on your grounds. she must have strong soul in order to see us!"

I furiously tried to pry the hard cold rock like blood from my ankle, to no avail. I growled at him.

"She's with us, she was... infected!" his eyes immediately turned from amusement to sympathy.

"Poor kid" The black blood liquefied and slithered back into his open wound, it immediately closed. He proceeded to walk past Jake, towards the building.

"Need any help?" Jake called. without slowing his pace he called back.

"No,"

I turned my gaze to Jake. his eyes were filled with worry, stayed fixed on the man.

"Who's that?" I asked. He chuckled as he he watched the man disappear behind the doors of heavens lobby.

"An old friend." He smiled as if recalling a happy memory.

"Training's over for today tomorrow we do some reckon!"

I grinned, finally!

I got into my room and collapsed onto my bed. It was almost exactly like the hotel room, save for the colour swap of black to white. Everything in this god damn place is white. I thought back to the man in the black suit today, what was he looking for? I decided to find out, I got up and made my way down the long hall of rooms to Jakes room; 313. When I reached his room I banged on the door.

"Hey open up!" After a few seconds the door swung open, and I let out a small gasp. Jake was shirtless and across his chest was a fresh scar. That started by his left collarbone and ended at the bottom of his right ribcage.

"What's wrong?" I shakily raised my hand and pointed at the gash.

"Th-that" I stuttered.

His expression shifted from concern to humour as he laughed.

"Oh, that's what the bastard that killed me left." I looked at him quizzically.

"You see when you die you keep the wound that killed you." I let out a sigh of relief.

"Now, what did you want?"

"Oh, I just wanted to know what that guy wanted."

"Well then my dear I suggest we ask someone who talked to him for more than a passing moment."

I let out a silent scream as I spun around to see the body of this new voice, and standing there was a woman.