• His knees were trembling, already to the point of collapse as he stared down at his hands. They were damp, sticky as he pried the fingers apart staring down at the stains on them. There was a roaring sound in his ears blocking out the sound of people and traffic only a few feet away from him. All color had bleached from his world the moment he had stepped onto the side street and only now was it slowly leaking back in. Sweat already beaded its way across his forehead and was now trickling down his skin plastering his hair back. There was just no way this was possible. He licked his lips again trying to block out the metallic taste still left in his mouth. It just wasn’t possible.

    At his feet rested the corpse. Stiff and pale they had lost the sheen of life that he had never noticed before now, never having truly seen a dead body right in front of him. There was something different about seeing it on television, they could never capture the utter knowledge that the person that had been there just moments before was now gone. He stared at her face unable to comprehend the horrible truth that sat mere inches in front of him.

    It just wasn’t possible. He turned emptying his stomach of what little it had in it. The smell was atrocious even though she hadn’t been gone long. He glanced down at her form again swearing to himself. It was impossible. He had made sure she had forgotten to protect her from this, from him. Her hair lay in a halo around her where she had fallen sticky with her own blood. He glanced down at his own hands again. Red. Red. Red. Red. The horror fell over him and he collapsed oblivious to the stains that were spreading across the knees of his pants. He looked down further seeing the splatters of blood that had stained his chest. The only way they could have gotten there was if he had been standing next to her when she was shot.

    He stared down at her body again her blue eyes now foggy and pale stared blankly up at the sky. He loved her, loved her enough to let her go, to watch her as she continued her life oblivious to the fact that she had once loved him. It just wasn’t possible. His eyes darted around the scene and found the gun, abandoned a house away. He recognized its shape, the one he had bought when the murders had started hoping he would never have to use it, wondering if he would to protect her. It just wasn’t possible. His stomach turned again as he stumbled to his feet turning to run from her, from the monster that stood there, the one that felt horror with the tiny twist of gleeful pleasure.