What’s Happening?!

John Erokan awoke suddenly, his bed sheets soaked in sweat. He was almost disgusted with the dream he had just had. It had seemed too real.

Looking around his room he saw a gloomy yet somehow delightful light outside through his window. Maybe he was weird, but to him cloudy days seemed to be happier to him. Although his ideas may be different from most people he stuck with them, it had always been his “motto”.

John also noticed it had just recently snowed a little bit, for there was a fresh coat of white powder outside. It was perfect. He loved snowy, gloomy days. The cold and the gloom were a wonderful combination for going on a run. He figured that he had not gone on a run in a while and it would be good for him to start the day off with a good run.

Walking over to his dresser, he began to reach for one of the drawers when he had a sudden ache in his left arm. It seemed very strange, he rubbed his arm and it felt sore but he could not think of what he could have done to make it feel as such. Ignoring it he continued to get dressed, sliding on a pair of sweat pants and a light jacket.

He opened the front door of his house and felt the cool air outside. John took a deep breath inhaling the fresh, crisp air. It was refreshing and made him feel somehow calm.

The streets were clear of any snow and suspected the salt had taken care of anything that had been on it. He started his run at a light jog. To him this was the perfect day for a jog. It was not too cold and the grass and houses were covered in a small layer of the white powder and made for a beautiful scenery that he could enjoy.

John turned down a street breathing in the wonderful and chilly air. He was glad that he had gone for a run it had been way too long.

John slowed, as an abrupt pain in his left arm started again. He felt it again and it seemed even more sore than it had earlier.

However, it went away as quickly as it had started and John kept running. As he looked ahead, he noticed something odd about a patch of snow a ways away. He squinted to see if it was what he thought. There was a patch of snow on the side of the road up ahead that had been stained red.

He blinked and looked again but it had disappeared. He was just seeing things, but it had seemed strangely real to him.

John slowed when he neared the spot where he thought he had seen the blood. When he neared it he thought he heard a gunshot and the pain in his arm started up again, only this time the pain was excruciating. He stopped running and grabbed his arm only to see that there was blood where his hand grabbed!

He looked at the patch where he thought he had seen the blood and to his surprise there it was, the he thought he had seen was his own!

John turned his head to see an obviously disturbed man holding a pistol at his side. His eyes were wide his lips spread apart to show his teeth in a huge insane grin. John didn’t know what to think when he saw the figure but he knew his arm hurt extremely bad.

The man began to raise the pistol slowly, apparently planning to aim it at John and finish him off. John would not allow any such thing. He was not ready in any way to accept death.

John decided to make a run for it, and he bolted away towards a house to his left just as he heard another crack from the pistol. Luckily, the man had missed and John ran around to the side of the house and leaned against the corner of the wall. John looked down at his arm. Blood was slowly oozing down his arm. He reached up to touch the wound with is other hand but as he did so he saw the crazy man turn the corner.

John quickly ducked as the man fired again and missed. John ran at the man hunched over and tackled him in center mass. John slammed the man into the ground using all the force he could. He was pissed and wanted to know why this man was trying to kill him.

“What is wrong with you?!” John yelled at the man punching him in the face.

The man didn’t respond and tried to aim the pistol at John again. John hastily grabbed the barrel of the pistol with one hand and the handle with the other. He then forced the pistol to the side so that the barrel was facing away from them. In a quick motion, using the pistol as a lever he twisted the handle up towards him.

John felt nauseous as he heard the man’s trigger finger snap. He knew that it was going to happen but frankly, John had not been expecting it.

The man was screaming and writhing in pain. Ignoring this John easily pulled the gun from the man’s grasp. John turned the pistol and aimed it at the man’s face.

“Why are you trying to kill me?!”

John could feel anger and rage building up inside of him when the man gave no reply. Punching the man again, John removed the magazine from the pistol and shoving it into his pocket. He then pulled the slide back and tossed the extra bullet out of the chamber.

John threw the empty gun to the side so that he would not be mistaken for the bad guy when the police arrived. He was sure that the whole neighborhood had heard the gunshots and probably already called the police.

John forced the man over onto his stomach, pulled the man’s arm up behind his back, and held it with his knee so that the man would not get away. John looked around. He was next to a car in someone’s driveway.

He looked down at his arm again and saw that the slow oozing blood had reached his finger tips and was dripping onto the snow and staining it bright red. It was a through and though but he needed an ambulance bad. This all seemed too familiar to him and it scared him that he felt like he had done all of this before.

John had never been shot before but for some reason it did not hurt as much as he thought it might. He somehow doubted anyone had called for an ambulance so he began to reach for his phone to call 9-1-1 but he was distracted as the door to the house he was next to opened.

John could not see who it was from his position behind the car but before he could even call out the man underneath of him did first.

“Hey, guys I’m over here! Help!”

The man began to squirm, trying to get free of John’s grasp. John could not allow this so he grabbed the man’s arm and pushed it up even farther until he felt and heard a loud pop as the man’s arm was dislocated at the shoulder.

John had not meant to do this but it nearly sickened him at the fact that he had did not bother him. He had never purposely hurt anyone before and whenever he had accidentally hurt someone he felt sick. Nevertheless, he could not help the strange feeling of déjà vu.

Ignoring the loud screams of the man he was on top of, John saw a large man walk around the side of the car. The man was holding a pistol and John seemed to instinctly know what he was going to do.

Standing quickly John swung his foot at the man’s gun and kicked it from his hand. John threw himself at the man knocking him into the garage door with a bang as the hollow metal doors rang at the impact.

John pushed himself away from the man and as the man stepped towards him, John kicked at the man’s knee with all of his weight. The man’s knee bent backwards and John heard the loud snap of bone.

The man fell to the ground screaming in pain holding his now broken knee.

“God! What is wrong with me?!” John thought to himself

He had never once hurt anyone but he could not seem to control himself when these men attacked him and it scared him.

John looked over to the first man. He had passed out from the pain. John then looked at the man he had just immobilized. The man ignored John completely and seemed to be fully focused on his wrecked knee.

Walking over to where he had kicked the man’s gun he bent over slowly and picked it up. Same as before, he removed the magazine and extra bullet then stuck the magazine into his pocket.

He touched his wounded arm and winced at the pain it brought. What was happening? It was all to weird.

John reached into his pocket, pulled out his phone, and typed in the numbers 9-1-1. Just before he pressed the SEND button, he saw the neighborhood cop pull up in his cruiser.

“Thank God!” John said falling onto his knees and putting his phone away.

The officer quickly got out of his car, “Excuse me sir is everything alright?”

John almost laughed, “no sir… I’ve been shot.”

Without answering the officer grabbed his radio and called for an ambulance.

There was a sudden burst of gunfire from another shooter, and the police officer quickly ducked down taking cover behind his bullet proof cruiser. John suddenly got very angry, he was tired of these people and he wanted to put an end to their annoyances.

Getting up slowly as to not feel as light headed, John peered around the car there was a large van. Walking around the car John took refuge against the side of the van. He then again peered around the back of the van and saw another man taking pot shots at the cop.

When the police officer saw John he ceased fire. He was not allowed to fire upon civilians. The man took the opportunity to fire off a few more rounds at the police officer. When he did, John ran up behind then man, using one arm to put him in a head lock and the other arm to grab his firing hand and twist it back and away from the cop.

The police officer quickly ran up to them, aimed his weapon at the man, and yelled, "Drop your weapon!"

The man reluctantly dropped his weapon and stopped struggling. The police officer kicked the weapon further away from him.

“Here, you get to cuff him. You deserve it,” the officer joked, unclipping the handcuffs from his belt and handing them to John.

“Sweet…” John said sarcastically

John cuffed the man and threw him to the ground face first.

“There are two others unconscious over there,” John said motioning to the other side of the car.

“Goodness! Have you done this before?”

John clenched his jaw then shook his head, “No…”

“What do are you?” the officer asked.

“A college student... I’m studying for a game art major.”

The officer shook his head in disbelief and then directed his attention to the man on the ground in front of them, “Are there any more of you in the house?”

The man nodded.

“How many?”

“Just one,” the man said with a huff.

The officer looked at John and then the blood oozing from his arm, “You. Sit down and don’t move. Wait here for the back up and the ambulance.”

John nodded and sat down leaning against the side of the garage. The police officer then walked up to the front door of the house pistol at the ready.

John leaned his head against the wall. He felt dizzy and tired and wanted nothing but to go back to bed.

He suddenly heard a yell and then a couple of gunshots. John’s eyes shot open and saw a man burst through the door and heading towards the cruiser, which had been left on.

Without thinking about it, John picked up the gun next to him and sighted the man’s legs as he neared the cruiser. John pulled the trigger and he felt the gun kick back. The man then fell hard to the ground screaming.

John struggled slightly but stood up dropping the gun. He ran inside to see the officer lying against a blood-covered wall. At first, he thought the officer might be dead but he was proven wrong when the officer inhaled heavily and coughed.

John tried to run over to the officer quickly but ended up stumbling hastily. He knelt over the officer and saw that he had been shot in the right side of his chest and was bleeding badly. John placed his hands over the wound to try to stop the bleeding but the thick, hot blood just oozed through his already blood stained hands.

“Stay with me!” John said slapping the officers cheek in order to keep him from blacking out, “You can’t just die…”

There were three loud gunshots each painful impact as they tore through his chest. He looked down to see masses of blood pouring from the holes now in his chest, and he saw his blood that had just splattered all over the officer.

John began to fall over backwards and everything seemed muffled and extremely white. Before he even hit the ground his vision was nothing but a bright, white blur.

John awoke suddenly. His room was dully lit by the gloomy brightness outside, he loved gloomy cold days. He looked out the window and saw that it must have snowed over night. The perfect day to go for a run.

He sat up but there was a sudden pain in his chest, which went away as quickly as it had come.

“That was weird,” John said aloud.

Forgetting about it, he got up and got dressed to go for a run, sliding on a pair of sweat pants and a light jacket.

He left the house to enjoy the fresh, crisp air of the nice and cool morning it was beautiful outside.

John turned down a street and continued at a brisk jog. He then felt déjà vu. When was that last time he had gone running? Was it yesterday? Or was it so long ago he couldn’t remember?

The feeling bothered him but he kept on running … until he saw what looked liked blood on a patch of snow up looked ahead.

He stopped and rubbed his eyes. He looked again but it was gone.

“What’s happening?!” John question himself.

He continued running again but his arm began to ache and suddenly he heard it.

The gunshot. He felt the pain in his arm only it did not hurt all too bad, more like he had just fallen off his bike. He looked down to see his blood oozing from his arm and splattered on the snow.

John turned around slowly to see a man with crazy eyes and a wild smile… He had definitely done this before.