What matters
He lay in the dirt, staring at night sky and the stars he wished to reach one day had never seemed so far away. A silence fills the space around him, what only minutes ago was a raging battle had left the trees covered in green flames and goo and blood… He had won in the end, but what of it? Were there not going to be more ghosts? Were they just going to go away? No, of course not, they will come time and time again.
"Is it really worth it?" the question that was always in the back of his mind whenever another of them was sent back to the Ghost Zone.
"Am I really helping?" every time he passed by a wreckage of a battle from the night before. "Yes, because they are alive." He repeated to himself.
"How long can I go on doing this?" when he looked at the bags under his eyes in the bathroom mirror every morning. "You have to!" the conviction he can move forward no matter what.
These questions he'd always neglected now filled his mind as the pain grew stronger and the green puddle started to turn red around him. A flash of light no one would see. Did it really make a difference that he fought? How many times had he chased the same ghosts only to have them come back causing more havoc? He'd wished to be normal many times, but he was the "hero".
But wouldn't people find other ways to deal with ghosts?
"Well they will have to" he told himself. Couldn't he have quit a long time ago? Just stop and let people find their own way? He could have had the normal life like any other kid, fix his grades, worry about getting into NASA.
None of that matters now, he'll never get another chance. He can't go back and redo things. He can't revert time and stay away from the ghost portal. He could have just lived like everyone else…
He laughed aloud at his own thoughts, a crazy chuckle drowned in a cough. "I saved people. There are people living the normal life I couldn't have, because I fought. People will live. My family will live. My friends will live, because I turned my back on normal life. That is all that matters. I tried my best."
The world starts falling into a cold darkness, but he strains to stay awake staring up to the stars.
"I'm sorry, you will have to fight on your own now... I'm so sorry…"
And the last thing he saw were the stars he could never reach.
They found him the next morning amongst the rubble. The blood already seeped into the earth forming a sickly shade of brown around the boy. A dim smile on his face and a tear in his eye that never reached the ground…
Hello there. Well this is my very first fanfic, ever. Really short, practically no story at all, but I figured I could give it a try. The writers here inspire me so... Please be open in your criticism, I can take it, no matter what you have to say(it's best if it's constructive of course). English is my second language so feel free to point out any mistakes that I've made. Also not sure about the ratings, should I leave it a T? Thank you.