Soul Experiment (In Editing/On Hold)

Chapter II

The man in all black was Ricky Henson, Rick for short. Rick was in his early thirties with pitch-black hair and eyes to match. He was tough, strong, and knew what he had to do to live, to survive.

 Killing people was what he was paid for. No, he wasn’t an assassin, but these scientists paid him to do the dirty work so they could begin their experiments.

 The fact that they all wore the white lab coats seemed foolish to Rick, for it was a dead giveaway of what they were doing, but he found it best not to question them.

 Rick also found it to be sickening, but he was in need of money to feed himself and his family.

 His family consisted of his wife, Jenna, and two children, Gabriel and Hannah. Rick’s family knew of what he did, and amazingly, they understood. When people get hungry, they’ll do absolutely anything for food, right? Right.

 Once all the commotion had finished after his killing of Tessa Washington, he went to dispose of one of the bodies.

 There were five body bags before him, but he knew to only dispose of one at a time. Tossing them all at once would make it more complex, make it seem like they all belonged to one killer and leave him vulnerable.

 So Rick picked up Tessa’s, the one at the top of the stack and tossed it in his van.

 “I suppose the river for this one.” He muttered to himself.

 Talking to himself had become a habit of his. It helped to remind himself that he was still there, that he wasn’t dead yet and he still had a chance in life.

 He steered the van onto the bridge as gravel crunched. Half way across, he stopped and quickly slipped out, sliding open the back door. Unzipping the body bag, he saw the body of Tessa, a pretty high school girl in her junior year. Tessa’s hair was a dirty blonde color, the only mark on her face being the bullet hole in her forehead.

 He thought back to his first victim, Zach Williams.

 Zach had had a strong will which is why the scientists chose him. Over time, they’ve learned that those who had good grades, friends, and family were the best victims. When they died, their souls would hesitate, looking to go back to their lives when it was impossible. But Zach instantly lost that will to live, he went too quickly for them to capture.

 “Waste.” Rick muttered as he thought of all the people he’d killed, how if the scientists had figured it out sooner, not so many lives would have been lost. Remembering the first time he was forced to kill someone, the poor boy that was Zach Williams, something inside him broke. He had no idea what, but compared to the first time when it was so hard for him to just squeeze the trigger... now it was simple. Now he was afraid of what he'd become.

 Rick then tossed Tessa’s body over the railing as he tried to shake off the memories, walking quickly back to the van before he even heard the splash.

 He knew he had to get back quickly, before someone spotted him and so he could figure out if they had contained Tessa or not. Despite how sickening it was, Rick found part of it fascinating. The scientists had only caught one other soul for their experiments, one being for them to use.

 The soul experiments had four levels for the souls to pass before they were (possibly) set free.

 The first is all physical experiments, learning how the appearance changed when they didn’t have a body. The second is all emotional, learning how the soul coped mentally. The third is experiments on adaptation with different environmental tests. The last was passing a maze, similar to putting a mouse inside a maze to find cheese.