A/N: It's been a little too long since I've posted anything and the stories I'm working on need a lot more work but I've been getting into a non-posting rut. So in the meantime enjoy this little drabble series :)

The Bullet

Rick gripped his gun with tense fingers, approaching the criminal when the snap of a flag caught his ears. He turned his gaze. Nothing but cloudless blue sky. Again he heard a snap-whump from the sky, closer now, like a flag in harsh wind but heavier; a leathery sound right in the direction he was staring. Again he saw nothing.

No…wait, something rippled in the endless bright blue overhead. His hat shaded his eyes from the unforgiving sun's glare but he needed to squint a little to ward off any mirage. As though the clear sky was only cloth cloaking someone and the breeze nudged the fabric off, a sliver of pale skin and messy black hair appeared out of thin air. Just that fraction of face hung in the middle of the sky with no chin, no neck, no body, no nothing to support it. The heavy beat emanated from near the features but nothing else could be seen.

An eye glanced at him for the briefest of moments and Rick could not look away, as though if he blinked this odd figment would vanish. Without taking his eyes off the watcher, the eye turned away and another mirage-like ripple folded blue sky back over the face. When Shane looked up, nothing was there.

"Head in the game partner."

Rick nodded, though he could still hear the odd, rhythmic beating of something in the sky as he turned back toward the suspect. The armed suspect.

"Put the gun down."

The strange beating, like a heart, died as gunfire tore through the still, spring day. A strange haze suddenly fell over his vision.

Rick never felt the impact of a bullet.