“Nice to meet you, Enzo,” the man said, revealing a black VII on his chest. “I’m Crow.”

“I figured as much. Do you mind if I check out that door behind you?” I asked.

“Sure, why not?” Crow shrugged.

I stepped forward but stopped a few feet away from Crow. My body had suddenly started screaming at me in fear. My muscles spasmed in terror, and every one of my hairs stood on end. My body was telling me that there was some source of danger coming from Crow, and it really didn’t want me to get within arms reach of him.

Despite myself, I stopped. I took a moment to look at Crow. He was just standing there with his arms crossed. There was no reason for me to be afraid of him. When I looked closer for a few extra seconds, I saw the source of the fear that pervaded my body.

Crow was completely relaxed. He regarded me with the ease of a man who knew he was in no danger. That must have been why my enhanced senses were freaking out. None of the other Apostles I had met up until that point looked comfortable or relaxed; they all looked awkward and fidgety. The System was hard to get used to, even if you were using a Revenant body. Use of a Dark Apostle body added a whole new level of complexity. The enhanced senses and super strength layered on top of a human form created a series of sensations that no one had ever experienced outside of the Kabuto system. Crow evidently did not feel that same awkwardness.

Realizing that the feeling was the result of Crow’s uncanny disposition and not any ill intent, I stepped past him. Though, I did glance sidelong at him as I walked through his zone of influence. Amber stayed at the far end of the corridor as if she wanted to keep a respectful distance from the Door.

I stepped within arms-length of the Door and witnessed the locks in detail. Most of the locks were too high for me to reach, but the four locks at the bottom were reachable. Each lock was built into the face of the Door, and each contained a small two-pronged keyhole. I looked closely at each lock and saw a small etching next to each one. The four at the bottom were marked: X, XI, XII, and XIII. I slid a thumb over the etching next to the lock on the bottom. Then, as if I was possessed by some outside force, I touched that same hand to my chest. The key to that lock was only a few inches away, I thought.

My moment of introspection was ended by a verbal interjection from Crow. “Hey, Enzo, are you carrying a gun?”

I took half a second to conceal the unnecessary panic that motivated my muscles for a moment before I turned to look at Crow with a smile. “Yeah, I am.” I moved my coat aside to reveal the Baretta I was carrying in a shoulder holster. “How did you know?”

“You thumbed the area under your shoulder to check if the gun is still in its holster. I assume you’re not used to carrying a concealed pistol.”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Oh,” I said, embarrassed. I didn’t even realize I did that. “Yeah, I guess not. When I go down to the range, I always keep my guns in their cases until I’m ready to shoot.”

“That’s probably for the best,” Crow said. “You don’t want to draw from a shoulder holster when you’re at the range, anyway. You’d end up flagging everyone standing to your left.”

“You know your stuff,” I said, laughing and leaning my back against the Door as if it didn’t scare the Hell out of me. “That’s good. Melkior was just complaining that I was the only Apostle who knew anything about guns.”

“Speaking of which, is that thing loaded?”

“Yeah?”

“I have a weird request, so bear with me,” Crow said, an awkward smile on his face. “I want you to shoot me.”

“What?”

“Shoot me right here,” he pointed to his stomach. “There’s a few things I want to test out.”

For some reason that I myself was not entirely aware of, I decided to accept Crow’s request. We still had access to Rapid Healing, so there was basically a zero percent chance that a bullet to the body would kill a Dark Apostle. I withdrew my Baretta and pointed it at the ground with my finger off the trigger.

“Are you sure about this?” I asked.

“Yeah. I’ve hit a wall in testing out this body that requires an outside force. You’ll be helping me out a lot.”

“Okay,” I said as I flipped off the safety. “Amber, do you think you could go about twenty steps up the staircase?” In response to my request, Amber bowed her head and disappeared up the spiral staircase.

Crow breathed rhythmically as if he was preparing for a workout. He swung his arms back and forth to stretch out his muscles before saying, “Alright, I’m ready.”

After a moment of contemplation, I raised the barrel of my gun and fired. The experience was substantially different than it was when I used guns in the Old World. I kept my gun level for just long enough to make sure my aim was accurate before I fired. I fired my gun in the way that was most comfortable in this new body. It was only after smoke was rising from my Baretta’s barrel that I realized I had moved much faster than any living thing could naturally move. With my strength in the fifties, I had almost completely forgotten that my agility was in the thirties. I barely felt any recoil as the slide racked and the pistol pushed against my hand.

Crow took two faltering steps back, and the empty casing fell to the ground. Based on his expression, I could tell that he was in pain. I tried to tell him, “I’m sorry,” but the sound was drowned out by the deafening bang caused by a gunshot in such a small space.

Crow put his hand to his stomach where the shot had hit him, and his mouth was moving. After a few seconds I could hear his words. “...went through my peritoneum and into my abdominal cavity. Based on the smell, it perforated my large intestine. I’d be dead in ten days without surgical intervention.”

“Are you okay?” I asked dumbly.

“Yeah,” Crow said. His voice was tinged with pain. After a moment, he pulled his hand away from his abdomen. I could see that he held a bullet in his hand. “That didn’t go like I had planned, but I still learned a lot. Our bodies are tough. Usually, that bullet would have gone right through me. Instead, it was stopped by my large intestine.”