Chapter Text
“‘don't you just feel like lamenting how this is the lowest point of your life
Blood pooled on the ground.
It started trickling out slowly; slower than one would expect. But once it did, it quickly poured. It wasn’t long before a deep red puddle formed, making it clear what had happened. There was no way someone could survive when this much of their blood was mixing with the falling raindrops.
They splashed unpleasantly into its surface.
“Really, man? We could have had some use for her.”
“It was her or the kid. No way we can manage both. We need the extra hands more than fun we can buy anyway. Just look at her – old and malnourished. Doubt we can get much, be it as a package or just individual bits.”
The men conversed up ahead. With every new drop into the puddle of blood, it was as if their voices stabbed like needles into everything – into the kid’s head, into the air, into the corpse at their feet, into the daily ordinary, into happiness, into life, into—
One of them walked up to the kid. What had his face looked like again?
Did his face even matter when the gun was still warm in his hand?
The kid stepped back. Rain gathered at the corners of big frightened eyes. But that rain felt like yet more of the blood, the red, the life flowing out of–
“You gonna come with us quietly now? Doubt you wanna end like that–” The man gestured at the… It was a thing now.
But that thing had smiled so warmly just an hour ago. That thing was all the kid had. Now, all had become nothing.
There was another – there must have been, at some point – but it was so blurry now. That voice had started sounding scary years ago. Had there ever been a time it wasn’t? Maybe, but that memory was long replaced by fear and uncertainty and running, running, running.
No…
No, there was one more.
Yes – her voice was warm! She was warm! She smiled even brighter than their mother. Her hugs always brought comfort, safety, smiles. Their last hug – it was the sort of thing to remember forever. The sort of thing to wish for even now. To see her again… She was still out there somewhere, wasn’t she?
“********” the kid whispered. The men exchanged a look – unsure at first, but then they leered their ugly leers again.
“Oh, you don’t know, do you? We’re here and our friends are over in *********. You know what that means, right?” He gestured to the thing again.
…No.
No, mom – he gestured towards mom again! Why was she lying on the ground? Why wasn’t she moving? Why was there so much blood, this wasn’t supposed to—
“She must have ended up like this already,” one of the men spoke again. “There’s no one waiting for you there.
“So why not come with us?”
The kid didn’t have the strength to fight. Not physically, not with a body this small. Not in any other way. Someone left all on their own could hardly even find the strength to stand.
Let alone the strength to hope.
************, the kid thought. Again and again and again. The words repeated with each drop of rain. One by one, they fell on the kid’s face. One by one, they washed away tears.
It was the last day of one ******** ****.
“‘yeah, whatever, this is your fate,’