“He looked every bit the conquering hero that he’d always dreamed of being…”

The gun slipped from his blood-stained hand and clattered to the cavern floor.

Unsteady on his feet, his boots kicked up dust as he shuffled, his legs threatening to betray him. His shirt was soaked through from the wound in his side and blood was now dripping freely from his finger tips.

For him though, none of this mattered, all he could do was stare dead ahead at the man he’d just killed.

His eyes never wavered from the spot where the body of nemesis lay. In that brief moment, he looked every bit the conquering hero that he’d always dreamed of being.

I made my way over through the rubble from the battle just as his feet gave way. I caught him mid-collapse and laid him gently against the rocky wall.

I don’t know if he knew I was there. His eyes had the look of someone very far away. It didn’t matter though, no words needed to be spoken then. I was content to sit in silence and just be.

I sat with him until he left, holding his hand as tight as I could.

I watched as his final breath caught in his throat and sat so long with him after that this became a distant memory.

I watched his far away eyes take off for greener pastures and watched as his soul departed, his body finally free of the terrible burdens placed upon him.

I bade goodbye to him soon after, leaving him there to rest, the man who’d saved my life.