This was it.
My final moments.
I never thought id see them so soon. My heart still young and my body still strong. Able to feel everything, fading.
I cast my eyes upward, looking for the sun but could find it nowhere. Grey clouds hung overhead, outlined with the angry dark silhouette that promised the arrival of a storm.
Despite this loss, rain would be just as welcome now.
Knowing that it would be the last time, I wanted to relive and savor everything. Feel the cold splatter across my skin, embrace the shiver that would run through my core, smile as the sleet ran down my body and soaked every inch of me.
Allow the ice to wash away my presence of mind and stifle the pain, let it cleanse the blood that stained my clothes while it hid away my sins, gifting me with a clean death.
But the rain did not come.
Perhaps I did not deserve it.
After such a short life, I had already caused much grief and misery. Stealing lives in favour of money could hardly be repaid in favours.
I smiled in spite of it all.
Smiled at the stubborn clouds that hung overhead. Smiled at the ghosts that began to claim my vision. Smiled at the foe that leaned in to finish me, with a barrel aimed at my forehead.
An earth-shattering crack split the air with a single echo, fleeing into silence as soon as it came.
Lightning had arrived.
And with it, so had death.
The man that had once held the gun was now free from my sight. I rolled my eyes around in an attempt to spy him but the weight in my body denied me the freedom.
My vision continued to slide behind a grey veil of fog, breaking apart the solidarity of objects around me. No longer could i feel the uncomfortable jutting edges of the cobble stones beneath my back, nor could i smell the faint scent of bread that had been baking in a local shop.
So dulled were my senses that i did not notice the presence of a foreign boot by my head. Only when two strong, pale hands, grasped at my shoulders did i bother to look for what appeared to be my savior.
"You're a lucky bastard, y'know that?" a gruff voice addressed, appearing to take issue with my act of dying.
My brows knitted together. I sure as shit didn't feel lucky.
Unfortunately, I hadn't the strength to reply.
The man continued to drag my body for what felt like an eternity. I couldn't tell when it ended for my being was entirely numb.
My remaining senses were disturbed as another voice entered my dwindling reality.
"How bad is he?"
The man scoffed, "If I didn't know him already, I'd say he's as good as dead-"
There was a pause.
Whether the silence was in disapproval or shock, I couldn't tell.
"-But he's too stubborn to die, we both know that" the man finished.
"Yes, well, for our sake, let's hope you're right" the second voice chirped.
Before I could dwell, darkness dragged me under.