Ellen was paying for her ice cream when the bells to the door clanged.
Coty stepped into the store on Fate & 15th.
Ellen drew the revolver and the weapon exploded in her hands.
Coty’s head exploded from the bullet’s exit path.
She then turned and killed the cashier with another shot. Right before she squeezed the trigger she thought, My God, they’re everywhere. She brought the gun to her temple and pulled the trigger, but the chamber didn’t fire. Odd, she thought, having put eight rounds in the magazine earlier.
Dwayne was the first officer to arrive at the scene.
“Ellen?” he asked, his pistol hanging in the air.
Her eyes were filled with darkness, unfocused and dilated. “Shadows,” she whispered.
“What? What are you talking about? What did you do?”
“Shadows,” she repeated. “They made me do it. I understand now.”
He lowered his gun, realization blossoming in his mind. He felt the scratch urging just below the surface. “Ellen, I--”
She shot him in the chest, the .44 tearing through his body like it was paper. She had put four more rounds into his flesh before her mind cleared. The last tendrils of blackness faded away and she gasped at the carnage before her. What have I done?
She looked down at the gun. The store wouldn’t stay empty much longer. There’s still one bullet left, she thought, her hand trembling. There were leeches now, crawling across the floor and on the walls. The blackness reappeared, swirling in her vision like smoke. The razor talons of the shadows sank into her brain once again as she fired the last shot in the chamber. But the pain didn’t stop. The talons dug deeper, devouring her from within, a pain unimaginable.
For a fleeting moment, she thought she saw Dwayne. He was surrounded by a thick miasma of darkness. Then he cried out and was gone and the shadows moved on her.
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Total Word Count: 1138
Herein being the end of the five-part tale of flash fiction. I hope you enjoyed it, if this type of dark tale is the sort of thing you enjoy. I hope it kind of made sense; it does to me. It's certainly raises questions...
