Dan Stories

"I was lost in the pages, 
 of a book, full of death
 reading I will die alone"


"What if there was no tomorrow?" she asked. Mumbling the words, seeping through her lips in a soft whisper. "Would you still be here with me?"
"I don't know...if there was no tomorrow, I'd like to take a shot at getting Susan Sarandon"... she hits me on the shoulder and rolls over on the bed, faking a pout while I laugh.
The rain pouring down outside, hits her window-sill garden and lets in that sweet smell of wet earth. 
"I love this smell" she says, her back to me, not turning around. "Everytime I smell it, I think of us...here..."


...


I wake up from my day-dream, Ray is sitting right in front of me, smiling...
"Were you dreaming of her?" he asks, noticing a faint peaceful expression on me...
"Yeah...she's been coming to me a lot lately..." I say, painlfully getting up from the couch and dragging myself to the kitchen,. "Would you like a beer?"
"Nah, I can't have any more of those Dean, you know that...don't tease me..." 
"Fine, fine, more for me then..." I say, brining two bottles with me to the table, opening the first one as I sit down and chugging half of it in one sip. 
"You know...drinking like that is gonna get you killed" Ray says. We both look at each other for a second and start laughing.
"Can't a man enjoy a final drink?" I ask.
Ray looks ate me, saddened and finally asks: "Why did you do it?"
I look down at the table, sliding my finger through the water ring left by the bottle standing on the hardenned wood top. Then back at Ray...
"I had to...they were gonna hurt her. Even you know I couldn't let that happen." 
He smiles, disappointed...his anger gets the best of him as he gets up, screaming at me.
"You KNEW this wasn't going to end well..you had your gun here at home, you should have asked for help, you should have waited for backup...Why the FUCK did you go in alone?" His fist hits the table, as he starts crying... "You dumb old fuck..."
I don't stop him, I know he's right. I retrace my steps that day, wondering what else could I have done to save the girl and leave, unscratched...there's a silent, morbid relief in me when I can't think of a way to do so...


...


They were three. Two of them were holding her already beaten body down, the third one was unzipping his pants. There was a desperate contempt in her face, no fight left in her. She was laying there, peacefully, like a hanged man who has accepted his fate seconds before the fall. Noone in their right mind would have stopped at the sight of three hooded men holding down a bloody woman...most people would have just kept going, as I'm sure some of them did...sadly, not me.
"I'm gonna give you five seconds to drop her off and start running." I said, boldly, while wishing they'd just leave, even though I knew they wouldn't. One of them looks at the other two and starts laughing, coming at me with a coy smile in his face.
"Are you talking to us grandpa?" He asked, opening his arms as if he's challenging me, lifting up his shirt afterwards to let me see the Glock 17 he was keeping  near his crotch. "I think you were just leaving..:"
"You're right...I was. I'm sorry to have bothered you." I saw the dim light of hope in the girls eyes, that lit up once she saw me, fade away as I fake my leave. I couldn't let these pricks win...as I turn around, my hand in my pocket searches for the loose change I knew I had from the grocery store. "Just an advice son..." I say to the one near me who was already turning away mindless words to get his attention. He turns back, allowing me an easier access to his gun as I throw the coins in his face.
It happens in the split of a second. The grab. A skill we trained over and over in the academy, studying every possible movement outcome the enemy could do, and the steps we might have to take to reach a holstered gun in a belt. He jumps back, I jump forward, reaching the gun with my right hand and his nose with my left fist. As I pick up the weapon, a quick shot to his left leg lets the others know I couldnt be more serious and makes the kid fall to his knees, allowing me to rotate him to his friends with the gun pointed to his head. 
Surpsrisingly, the two scared kids reach out for their coats, even though their friend's life was in jeopardy. These weren't runners, they were fighters. This wasn't my lucky day...I was fast...but even I couldn't be that fast. Two shots in the first kid's chest leave him out of the fight and then time slows down as I see the other one had a .357 Magnum in his hand...and not even his friend's body can protect me from those... I turn my gun to him and we both fire two shots each...mine, fatal, to his head...his, piercing his friend's body, hit me in the stomach...


There was a smile in that crying girl's face I haven't seen in a long time. As if someone had pull her from the darkness of a traumatized life, back into her mundane and now beautiful existence.
"Thank you sir, thank you so much!" I noticed she didn't see the wounds on me, as I covered them promptly with my coat...she hugged me and it felt like a thousand knives being staked into me at once. I didn't want to alarm her and I had seen too much to know why they called these wounds the "slow death". There's nothing to be done...I had at most...an hour...if I didn't move much...
"That's okay...I'm glad you're okay...I have to go now, but I'm glad you're okay."
"Thank you so much...if it weren't for you I'd be...wait...I need to know your name, you saved my life..." I wish I could stay and chat, but if I wanted this to be a good memory for both of us, I couldn't show any weakness....and I needed to leave that place soon...
"Dean...my name's Dean...I'm just happy I could help...but I really have to go now..."
"Thank you Dean..." she mumbled again, at a loss for words. Her eyes, watering up once more told me all I needed to know...she was going to be okay...
The walk home was the most painful five mnutes of my life...hanging on to my coat to cover the blood soaked shirt, moving at a steady pace, trying to keep my body as still as possible...
As soon as I sit on my couch, I drift in and out of conscience, dreaming of her...
Looking back at it, a shameless smile pops into my lips. I was happy I saved her...I guess I couldn't have asked for a better ending...


...


"You and I both know Ray, there's not much left for me to live for..." I finally say. He looks at me, calms down and smiles, saddened by the cold harsh truth...
"You can live for yourself...."
"I've never been good at taking care of myself....and you know it. I've got two bullets in me to prove it..." I say, laughing lightly as I cough. The cough gets worst and the taste of blood feels up my mouth....it's getting close...
"I'm coming Ray.." I say, Ray looks at me and forces a smile.
"I know Dean...I'll be waiting..." he says, before vanishing up in before my eyes...my imagination had played its last card on me...Ray has been dead for 5 years now, yet I'm glad my almost completely wasted mind found a way to keep me entertained in my last hour...
 I look at the table and there's this old photo looking back at me...me and Veronica, back in '88...we are staring into each other's eyes and smiling like two dumb kids in love...I pick up the frame and smile...
"Guess we'll all be together soon...." 
My vision blurs, my mind numbs down and  the pain gets worse, as I feel myself getting colder and more and more tired...I don't fight it. I rest my head in my crossed up arms on the table and close my eyes...


It starts to rain outside...the soft, light drops will hit my window sill garden soon, leaving that sweet wet earth smell on my flat...today is a good day to die...