The Pooring Rain

I wrote this up pretty quickly but it was an idea i couldn't let go of until i wrote it.

        I'm pretty sure it rained on the day I died. The showers of may had washed away the height of spring. I had had a falling out with my girlfriend and was upset. All I ever did was love her and she threw me away like a piece of garbage. She told me, over and over again, continuously putting that singular phrase into my head, "I Love You". Three words with the power to end wars, hate, and sorrow. She told me she loved me, but it was all a lie. I was the only guy in miles who paid her any attention and so she took the bait. She never cared about me and all those days we had meant nothing to her. We aren't friends or enemies, we're just strangers with some memories. I was already down and she made it better, then she was gone and not a single word was spoken, nor recognition of each others presence.

                  The next day the worst happened. My family died in a car accident. Mother, father, sisters, and brothers. All of them gone in a blink of an eye. I had never felt so empty.  Still she said nothing to me and even still, others stared to ignore me for fear of contracting the 'bad luck' from me. I was on the brink, living with my grandparents. No one said a word to me. There was only silence, from what seemed like the four corners of the world. I sat alone behind the school buildings, on more occasions than anyone would ever be able to guess, were no signs of life existed and smoked a cigarette to calm me a bit. The only thing left for me was drugs. School didn't matter and to me, love was just a word, a series of chemical reactions in the brain, nothing more. The word on longer held any meaning to me. I had no reason to live anymore.

            Then a week later it had started to rain. I went to school just like any other day. Then I heard gunshots from upper campus. I ran as fast as I could towards the sound. I slipped on the steps and got caught up in the panic around the school. I was almost trampled to death on the steps and I was pretty sure my arm was broken after wards and it hurt to walk. One of the kids had brought a nine-millimeter to school. He was killing students left and right, indiscriminately, the good, the bad, the ugly, like he only wanted to get rid of as many as he could before someone brought him down. He had eyes just like mine, dark and empty, he was alone in the world without a single person to help him. It was then that I wished that I could have talked to him before this. We could have been able to become friends, and I would never have had to be in this position. Then, low and behold, he pointed the barrels of his gun at her. You might think that because of my past, I would have, 'left her to the dogs', so to speak, but I didn't even think that. My first, and only thought was, "keep her safe, no matter what". I jumped in front of the line of fire. I was hit three out of five times. Once in the left shin, one in my left shoulder, and the other in my left arm, the broken one. The pain was excruciating, beyond anything describable, but somehow, I managed to run at the assailant. It must have been adrenaline, because there was no way I could have grabbed the gun from his hand any other way. I shot him right through the skull, dead center, brutal, efficient, merciless. The pain got to me and I fell, bleeding so fast I had no idea what to do. I had nothing to lose, so I welcomed death and its frozen hands. She walked over me, in a stunned silence, but not a single tear shed. Then finally, "Why?", she asked, "Why did you save me? I don't love, I never did." I could feel my limbs growing numb even as I spoke, the rain clouding my vision as well when I responded, "Because I once did, those memories meant something to me, even if they never did to you." I don't know what she said afterwards, because I was already slipping. How fitting that I should die, alone, in the rain. At least I died with a smile on my face.