Aval's legs gave way underneath him as he attempted to run and he collapsed to the ground, feeling his knee crack as it slammed into the hard, wet stone. Blood splattered on the ground below him as he coughed. He could practically see the life running out of him, being washed away by the rain as it poured down over him. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw the beast that had done this to him advancing on him ever more.
It was hard to describe its form - harder still to say if that was because it was such a strange beast, or if it was merely his mind and his eyes fading. He could swear that the monster was a swirling mass of long tentacles acting as limbs, with glowing red lights in the center of it like eyes staring through his soul. He didn't think it had even touched him. Just its presence had been like a mass slamming against him, tearing him apart from the inside out.
The streets had been oddly empty that night, as though the people of the town were aware that leaving their houses would be the end of them, but no one had warned Aval. Even the street lamps had been extinguished, so the only light available was that provided by the full moon, though it was hidden behind the rain clouds. The creature slid along the stone street, tentacles passing over the walls, but it left no evidence that it had ever been there. As powerful as it was, it almost didn't exist.
Watching it advance towards him, Aval could practically feel that his life was over. There was nowhere left for him to go, no means of escape. No one who could come to save him. If he couldn't do anything, he would die, and there was a good chance that no one would ever know how or why, or possibly even acknowledge that it had happened.
His hand shook as he pulled the revolver out of its frog on his hip, drawing his last bullet out of his coat pocket. It was a powerful weapon, with which he had obliterated a number of invaders in his home in a single shot. He slid the bullet into a chamber and shut the revolver, spinning it into place to fire. He aimed it shakily at the red lights that were the monsters eyes. One shot. One kill. That was all it would take.
He just had to get lucky enough that it actually hit, and didn't just phase through and burrow itself into a wall.
He closed his eyes and pulled the trigger. The bang was ear shattering, and the butt of the gun slammed into his chest as the recoil flung it back into him. And in the next instance there was silence.
He was too afraid to look and see if he would get to live.
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