The Final Bullet

Darkness. A raindrop falls. A gust pulls me from the ground and whips me into the air. Frightened, I fight it like an upset baby in a womb. It begins spinning me round and round, toying with my senses. Boom! A thunder strike but I cannot tell where it’s from. I know no direction. I am hit on the cheek with a bullet. Twenty, forty, a hundred bullets – each one splashing against my face. The bullets flash around me and, no matter how tight I squeeze my eyes, the light still slides through. Still, I cling for something; some sort of orientation. Some way to get out of this torrent. Another firecracker explodes near my head and knocks me with its iron force. I keep spinning, spinning, spinning. Like a car door slamming, my head is shoved into a wall. Time, time, time again. I brace for the impact as the fingers that control me swing to hammer me against the rocky barricade. It winds up and pitches me towards this fortress. But, instead of rock I feel… a warm fire. As my body attempts to absorb this comfort I am immediately pulled out again. A final crash, a final crack, and I am dropped to the ground. The storm retreats and I am left to lean on this mysterious barrier. My head is dazed from the explosion of silence and I try to come to my senses. As I try to comprehend what has just happened, a tiny piece inside of me begins to yearn for that second of comfort I had felt inside the wall. It hurts though, my head, and I’m cold. Cold leaning against the iron bricks that form this barricade; the barricade that I so desperately want to be back inside of. Franticly, I try to force myself back inside but the wall is steady, the wall is firm, the wall is fortified. My will starts to crack and that minute of comfort takes over my every thought. Why was it ever shown to me if it was to be taken away so soon? In the distance I hear a menacing crack like the bark of an infuriated mongrel. I smell burning. My hunter is returning to collect his helpless prey. My instincts fight against the wall as I try to force myself into its protection. Pain enters as I slam my hand against the solemn fortress, willing for a secret entrance to magically appear. My pounding turns to screaming. I pray. I just need to get in. Maybe someone inside will hear me and have mercy. I just need to get in. My open palm slides down the icy, apathetic wall. I just need to get in. Out of the corner of my eye I see the rain of bullets approaching impossibly fast. With a renewed vigor, I tear at the wall; praying, willing, screaming, cursing. My hands are bleeding. They are coming now. One final kick, one final punch, and I fall to the ground defeated. My body lies crooked on the floor and I sit outside of myself; my own soul deserting my body. Searing they come and unchecked they enter into my defenseless body. A hundred, two hundred, a thousand more. The final raindrop, the final bullet that will do me in, propels towards my open eye. My pupil shrinks as I surrender to this beast and accept my fate. I breathe in with the slug a second from my face. Time stops. And the wall behind me bends. With a clunk the bullet hits the iron bricks that are now encompassing me and clatters to the floor. My broken body collapses and embraces their security. Welcomes their metal encasing. Warm is beckoning, warm I will follow. I gasp and it brings darkness. But… a serene darkness.