It was completely by chance that I was in town then. I had been running for what felt like hours, trying desperately to get there on time. To save him.
I met him in the prison, cuffed and surrounded by guards. "E-Eli!" I called out to him as he was marched down the corridor. The guards turned with Eli, who for a moment, looked shocked.
"You know this kid?" Asked one of the guards.
Eli hesitated for a moment. "No." He replied. "Why would I know some kid off the streets?" He laughed the same laugh that I remembered. It was such a tired laugh. "Now, now, kid. Don't cry over somebody you don't even know. That's not proper, now is it?" He was marched closer to me, and as he leaned in a little closer, he smiled. "Listen, kid. Become better than me. Be a better man than I ever was. Reach all your dreams."
One of the guards sneered. "That won't be difficult." Another said. Eli was turned and dragged off. Even in chains, he still walked in a dignified manner. I couldn't save him.
They felt miles away when Eli turned his head and looked back at me. "Flynn's a nice name, isn't it?" He called before he was jerked along with them.
The next day Eli was hung. It seemed that the entire town gathered to watch the condemned man die. I pushed my way to the front of the crowd, hoping uselessly that something, somebody would save him.
Eli was looking out into the crowd when I saw him, or maybe he was looking at the setting sun, like we had done so many times before. Together. He wore a lazy grin on his face, and when he spotted me, he smiled more, like we were together again, returning from some grand adventure, rather than I watching as he was about to die.
His hands, which were bound together by rope this time, were tied in front of him, and he raised them to give a clumsy salute. Then he was dropped.
Eli didn't struggle, cry, nor beg for his life. He only slumped, and just before he died, his body twitched violently. Once dead, he was left to hang.
I noticed people clearing out immediately after his death. Suddenly those who were watching so intently moments before wanted nothing to do with this. I was the last one left standing when one of the younger guards; who had been walking with Eli not more than twenty four hours ago approached me. "Hey, kid." He said, glancing up at the hanging man, then back at me. There was a glimmer of suspicion in his eyes. "What's your name?" He asked.
He repeated the question when I didn't respond right away, irritated.
Finally, I looked up at him. "My name? It's Flynn... Flynn Rider." And that name would become famous.
