Purple petals danced with the nocturnal breeze. Stars shined hopeful light over one of many forgotten battlefields where dark woods edged the little flower patch.
Pale as powder snow, a mortal male held a tiny blossom within his weakening grasp. His thinning face held a tired, contemplative expression resembling a fallen knight. He rested the blossom gently over his lips, opening lusterless eyes.
I hadn't expected this time to ever come...but now...I am glad that things have turned out this way.
He gazed at the clear sky overhead, inhaling softly. He delicately tugged a petal with his teeth, chewing on it and relishing the acrid burn that spread over his tongue. The sensation left with an icy tingle accompanied by dull numbness.
Thump...thump...thump...
He signed, consuming another and then a third, awaiting sleep.
They had always thought that my end would be soaked with my own lifeblood, with steel dissecting my heat. That simply would not occur. I never had one...
Thump...thump...thump...
He exhaled sharply with uneasy pain brewing in his guts. The man finishing the flower and then plucked another, leaving the former to decay. In time, the moon had rose casting liquid light onto the shivering tree-line.
Thump...thump...thump...
How could I love those around me? They despised my existence.
thump...thump...thump...
I wonder what brother will think... Ha! Who am I kidding? He wouldn't care if he managed to stay sober for a year. But you did...
thump...thump...thump...
The man's breaths grew frighteningly shallower and he no longer felt the urge to move. Why should he? The night air remained pleasantly cool, the dome cloudless with an immaculate view of the heavens, and his botanic rest softer than spider's silk.
"Your happiness." I honored your memory.
thump...thump...thump
His fingers twitched around the flower.
"It is not my happiness". I tried to help brother succeed.
thump...thump...
Fatigued waves consumed his body.
"It is my misery." I was wrong.
The far-off sound of a war drum startled him. Soldiers' feet pounded the earth with hardened synchronization. Battle cries were sounded.
"God with us! God with us!"
thump...thump...
Have I no legacy? No remembrance?
thump...thump...
His eyes fought desperately to remain open.
"Open fire!"
thump...
Cold air rushed into his lungs.
...thump...
It hissed out pathetically.
...thump...
Darkness overshadowed his unresponsive eyes.
...thump...
The flower lie limp on his sternum.
...thump
A gust swept over the soldier, brushing lose strand of hair from underneath his helmet. A lax smirk settled on his face.
Good night, Father.
...