Sacrifice
I saw her. I did, but only too late. Too late to tell her, "No! Stop! Please, it's not worth it!" She broke free of her bonds and started running towards me, calling my name in desperation. She did not know what lurked ahead for her.
The guns geared up. My eyes grew wide. This can't be! No! Not her...please, God, anyone but her! She was the one...the only one that kept me sane. The only reason why I kept with my mission was because of her. Her tranquil voice that would murmur my name, her gifted hands that could turn anything into beautiful art, even her silent presence reminded me why the world was worth saving. Please, someone, stop this!
My silent cries went unheeded. They fired. I heard her scream; it split the lifeless air and my sprinting heart in two. That scream: the representation of all the suffering we've been through...it was the last thing I ever wanted to hear on this accursed, hell-bound earth. Never, ever did I want to see her in pain like that. I would rather face the Silence alone than hear that scream...yet here I was, rooted to the ground, unable to help her. She was in pain, and I could do nothing.
Unbelievable. I, the rash one, the one who would run to get things done and ask questions later, was helpless. The one time I wanted to rush forward and help more than breathe, and I could not. I suppose it was Fate's cruel way of mocking me.
She rose, clutching her arm, shaking like a willow's branches in the wind, gasping from the pain. Yet she kept on, whispered my name again, like a prayer to keep her alive. "I won't let you die..." she whimpered. Her head was bowed and her shoulders sagged, but she was looking straight at me, those blue-green jewels boring through my mind. They were begging me, pleading for me to live, but seeing her in pain like that on my behalf...the last thing I wanted to do right then was live.
I yelled out to her. "Wait! Don't move!" Yet I was too late again. The guns fired a second round. She cried out again, tearing my soul apart and scattering the pieces to the ends of the pitiless world. How could I live after seeing my goddess like this?
A moment ago I thought I was the one to die. Now I would have gladly left this earth, to spare her from this. We had been through everything together, it seemed only right we go through death together.
She fell to the ground, seemingly defeated, breathing raggedly. I shouted her name, the word detaching from my throat unbidden. She sobbed my name and somewhere found the strength to stand once more.
This was so unfair! She...she saved me! The day she showed me my mission was the day I was born...the day my life started. Before her, I was a empty, a hollow shell, simply taking up space with no real purpose. But then she happened. She shone the light on my being, and for the first time, I saw magnificence. I saw majesty. I saw everything that made the world beautiful. She was my guardian angel, but now my angel was being taken away from me.
Every muscle in my body tensed. The guns were going to fire again and this time they would send her soul to the afterlife. My hands clenched, my fingers trying in vain to dip into my hands. I couldn't stand to see her in pain again! I would die...but the guns went silent, nothing happened. The enemy eyed them and muttered, "They're out of bullets."
She moved, and my captor saw her out of the corner of her eye. She weakly reached out with the arms that would always hold me on cold nights, and tried to get the weapon out of the evil one's hands, but to no end. Unceremoniously, the trigger was pulled.