The Reader's Request Book [REQUESTS CLOSED]

Soul Shatter - Full Story

The Scotsman's words were inaudible through the incessant, shrill ringing that plagued Will's ears as he teetered on the edge of consciousness. His body couldn't seem to decide if the searing pain from his arm was severe enough to render him unconscious, or if it was in fact so severe that it was too dangerous to fall unconscious. As his older friend somewhat violently shook him by the shoulders and shouted his name, Will's awareness was eventually jolted back in place, his senses metaphorically, "rebooting," to bring him out of his delirium. Opening his blue eyes to blearily look up to an incredibly dark and hazy figure, the musician's mind gradually clicked his memories back into place, allowing him to recall the precise chain of insane events that had led him up to this point. The mixture of remembrance and realisation shot a sense of clarity through his brain, and the overwhelming sense of urgency which had plagued him for the last day returned. Bolting upright with a surge of adrenaline, Will blurted three words so incredibly fast that it was a surprise the Scotsman could even understand what the musician had just said. "Did it work!?"

"We got it!" Rhys confirmed with eager and frantic nods, keeping one hand on Will's shoulder to steady his younger friend. The response was hardly necessary, for the item clutched within the musician's clenched fist held all the answers that the pair needed. Forcing his incredibly blistered and scaled fingers apart, a soft – and incredibly dull – dark golden light seeped across Will's palm, emitted from a small, quivering orb that resembled a golf-ball sized ball of brown, hazel, amber and gold fire. A celebratory grin swept across the blonde-haired man's face; the sense of victory strong enough to let Will ignore every other feeling raging through his mind. However, both the expression and emotion were short lived. Giving the older man a stern look of steely determination, Will cradled the small light close to his chest protectively. "We need to get back to the others."

No one knew just how much time they had remaining to attempt to fix whatever damage had been caused before more permanent side effects would arise, but everybody agreed that they needed to act fast, considering what happened the last time something such as this occurred.

During May of 2022, the group of five's worlds had been turned upside down when the border between fact and fiction was broken after what they thought was a fake video game world was proven to have more truth to its story than any had expected. The youngest member of the group of five, named Lewis, had his soul forcibly torn from his body, where it had then been trapped within the virtual reality game of Five Nights at Freddy's VR: Help Wanted. As he was imprisoned within a glitched world, his body was piloted by the sadistically twisted soul of a serial killer that had freed itself from the game's code where he had been known as, "Glitchtrap." The new entity that came to be known as, "Dawktrap," had seemingly grown tired of pointless murders and ruthless bloodshed, and had instead aspired for more – namely, control.

On the day in which the group of five were due to be visiting a gaming festival, Dawktrap had one-by-one taken control of their minds through the combined use of malicious mental manipulation paired with mesmeric mirages of hypnotic colours and patterns that would subdue each man's mind until the only thoughts within their nigh on empty minds were those given directly to them by the mastermind of the ordeal. Dawktrap had wished to extend his control to the visitors at the gaming convention, but his plans had been foiled when a semi-conscious Ryan had managed to warn Rhys of the impending danger.

The Scotsman had freed Lewis' soul form it's virtual vices and returned it to its body. After a vicious fight between those who were free and those who were still controlled, Glitchtrap's soul was dragged back into the virtual world, cutting the strings which he had held over his victims. after they had all recovered from the events, the group made an agreement with each other: none of them would ever play the corrupted game ever again, virtual or otherwise. However, this was not enough, but they wouldn't realise this until months down the line.