The shot rang out like a thunderclap, the pressure hit just as hard, sending a recoil into my chest that pushed me back a couple steps.

Red bloomed from the middle of my chest, soaking my already sweat drenched shirt.

Pain didn’t come though, just a buzz of numbness and pins and needles.

Perhaps it nicked my spinal cord, perhaps death is soft.

The man across from me frurrowd his brow as he lowered his pistol, his deep set gray eyes aglow.

I wobbled, my feet giving away to gravity. I crumpled to the snow, my breath wheezed out and I couldn’t seem to get a breath in.

He crouched down next to me, his figure fuzzy.

“I-hnng don’t w-want to go.” I coughed out, blood filled my mouth.

“Quiet, you’ll need your strength now.” He hushed, his brass voice cracking. He laid a warm rough hand upon my forehead. “When you get there, when you see him, don’t be fearful, don’t run, don’t hide.”

I felt so cold, my vision twinged black. I was all numb, laying on a blanket of red snow.

“You’ll thank me in the end, girl.” His voice moved away, snow crunched under his footsteps. “Find me when you’re back.”

He echoed off into the distance.

Red bloomed around me, like a pair of wings.