Turquoise

An explosion, a sound that pushed hard on my eardrums… I felt like everything around me was shattered by it. The ground shaking, trees trembling with fear, the curious faces behind the windows of houses hiding behind the curtains… And the red stain that is growing and growing on her light turquoise dress…
“It wasn’t an explosion,” I say to myself, unable to believe, unable to see, unable to notice her blurry eyes that are looking at me with a kind of sarcastic smirk…

Somebody running, fast and nimbly with a heavy black box in his hand. Only later on I realize it wasn’t a box, but it was something with blood dripping from it.

I look into her eyes and take an anxious step to reach her and not let her go away as her turquoise dress touches the wet and hard and dirty road. My hands get smeared with her blood… She looks again, at me, half seeing half struggling to not let me go.

It is too late, to turn back from my mistake

I smile back... Try to smile… I put my hand on her head now full of sweat. I touch her cheek covered with tears rolling down from her blurry eyes. I touch her eyes that don’t resist my touch.

Her breaths get shallow but never erase the smirk on her face.

She dies as herself, dies with a smile, dies with sarcasm. The monster with the blood dripping black box comes back and says “Good job,” to me as she drifts away from me.

He, too, smiles.

I can’t leave my eyes from her dress.

I just nod.