Pain burst into my mind, sharp red blossoming into my vision. I felt my balance shift and my foot slipped—all of a sudden, I couldn't keep myself up anymore. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion and it seemed like I could see myself falling.

I couldn't feel my arms. They weren't there to catch me when I hit the ground, crashing into the harsh, cold surface, the air knocked out of me. I lay there for a while, eyes closed, and drawing heavy, laboured breaths. Even breathing seemed so hard.

But time seemed frozen… every sound seemed muffled, and I could barely hear the hum of machinery in the background. My ears were still ringing from the shots.

… wait. The shots. What about them? Did they miss? Or…

Slowly, I opened my eyes, but everything was a blur. I couldn't see. I tried to lift my hand to touch my face, but then agony caught up to me. It was almost unbearable. It seemed as if I had a fire burning in my side, gnawing its way into my body. Each second, the torment increased.

I took another breath and, blinking, I cleared the fuzziness from my sight… only to see him stretched out before me, face pressed into the ground and arm splayed out at his side.

Shock.

I lay there watching him, sounds slowly coming into focus. I could hear the machina, I could hear the faltering steps of the soldiers in the distance. But my eyes were for him only. I didn't see him moving. I didn't see him breathing. I was breathing. Why wasn't he?

He was sprawled there, almost as if in the innocence of sleep. I watched his face, waiting for some sign, some flicker of the eyelids. But there was nothing. His lively, tanned face… always smiling… always….

And then I saw it. A deep pool of red on his back, staining his shirt. One that matched the growing stain in my side.

The tears came, and I felt their moisture slowly trickling down my cheek. Everything seemed like it was in the sharpest clarity now… but I didn't want to see it. I slowly closed my eyes again, wishing for death, wishing for sweet repose. Quiet sobs wracked my already pained body. I never wanted this. I never meant to lose him.