Until he left the school he was an ordinary person, he had friends, a good family, and he had a happy life. But when he graduated and decided to move out into the real world his life was changed forever. He figured out that he was all but invulnerable, that nothing but a gunshot could hurt him, but he chose to ignore this, to bury the knowledge deep down, and to try to forget.
His name was Johnathan, but only his parents called him that, everyone else called him John. When he left his home he also left his friends, except for the few that he cared for the most. These were the people that he had the hardest time concealing his “ability” from. All his life Jonathan wanted to be an architect, and up until his final year in school when he lost interest in the subject. He decided because of these bad experiences, he would want to go straight into the workforce, and to drop his dreams. The night before he was meant to start his new job at the bank, he had a dream, in his dream, he was invulnerable, well almost invulnerable, in his dream the only thing that affects him, the only thing that can hurt him, was a bullet, nothing else, no punches, no illnesses, nothing but bullets could hurt him.
He woke up early that next morning, and he felt … different, but he couldn’t put his mind on exactly how this was. He went into work, feeling nerves, something that didn’t ever happen to him, but that was understandable, this was the start of a new beginning. He was waiting at the bus stop when he saw the attack, 3 hooded men were approaching a group of girls, the girls were completely unaware, as they stood around gossiping, the men began to shake the girls down very aggressively, John desperately wanted to help, but he didn’t, he stood, rooted to the ground as the girls were being robbed in broad daylight, when the men were satisfied with what they had gained, they took off, and that was when John tried to step in. He tried to block the first man, but he was running at full tilt, and he barged through John, and he was pushed back into a telephone pole, before being thrown onto the rough tarmac of the road.
Now, John was no pushover, but both impacts that he took should have left marks, cuts and bruises, and also left him in some considerable pain … but that was the thing, they didn’t, he got up, feeling nothing, no pain, and as he inspected his shredded clothing, he expected to see his skin looking the same way, but it didn’t, it looked perfectly normal, the same way that he felt, He sat on the edge of the road, his head in his hands, what if the dream that he had that night was not only a dream … but also the truth. Then his mind went to the reason, there had to be one right, he thought to himself desperately, some reason why this was happening to him, John was never a believer of God, but at this moment he truly believed that there was someone else, that was pulling the strings, controlling him. He knew that he was left with a choice, greater than the choice that he made to abandon his dreams, this choice would have to be made from nothing but a dream and a 10-minute experience. He could choose to use his newfound strength, to help others, others that needed his help, or he could choose to ignore the call, to live his life and forget. He had always felt a need to help others, but at this moment he felt that it was not the right play, yea … he might be considered a hero for months, even years, but eventually, no matter have careful he was to avoid anything with a gun, one would find him, a situation would escalate and one would emerge, and that would be the end of him. This was not a risk he was willing to take
When he was at home that evening, and all of the other evenings for many weeks to follow, he obsessed about crime in his new city, but this was not so that he could help out, it was so that he could avoid it. Yea, he had to get up a 6 to make it to work on time, and, yea he had to take 3 buses to get there, but he was avoiding crime, not only for his own safety but so that he could live with his guilt, his guilt for ignoring the call to duty. His obsession cost him his friends, they did not know exactly what, but they knew that something was consuming him, burning away the boy they once knew and transforming him into a man that they wanted nothing to do with. But John did not care, he was beyond caring, all he cared about was his safety, and that was his downfall
The final straw for his friends was one day when they were hanging out, playing cards around an old poker table, a tradition that they had continued from school, and things got heated, the argument began over nothing, John was accused of cheating, and soon it escalated into a tussle, John chose to ignore his friends as they confronted him, choosing to let himself be hit, a punched by his friends, instead of fighting back, when they were finished, and they let him go, they were stunned to see that he was fine, they were scared even, as they fled, calling him names, they thought that he was a freak.
He woke up the next morning, after having a dream, the same as the one he had the night of the morning that he discovered his “ability”, he ignored it, thinking nothing of it. He went to work following his normal path, but he saw something out of the ordinary, a group of men, running up to him, the same way that they ran up to those girls on that day, he ignored them, and continued walking, one man tackled him, bring him down, and still he ignored him, they began to strip anything and everything that may be valuable, ad that was when John put up a fight, lashing out at one of them, catching his jaw and knocking him out cold. The others backed off, perfect, he thought, so he began to walk away, and then he heard a click, he had never heard it before, but he knew the sound, in the split second that he turned around he heard the subsequent bang, and in what he knew were his final moments, as the bullet sped towards him, he finally understood, he understood why. His near invulnerability was a test, and he had failed miserably, he had been given a chance to make something more, and he did not take it, the dream this morning was a final warning, reminding him of his powers, his potentials, and he still ignored them … so he accepted death, knowing that it was deserved, for all of those people that he could have saved, that he should have saved, but he chose not too, and that was why as his body was thrown to the ground, lifeless, its final thought was a sense of justice.