“What just happened…? It hurts…”

  The narrow side street was supposed to be a shortcut from the main road to another place. But it was just a dead-end. It went nowhere.

  The buildings around that alley blocked most of the sunlight. The alley wasn’t completely dark, but it felt shadowy and gloomy.

  After the boy lying on the ground heard the sound, there was a huge explosion. His ears started ringing badly from the loud noise.

  When he looked around, he saw pieces of the water pipe he had been trying to climb falling next to him.

  “Damn it… I can’t move.”

  The poor boy had fallen hard from about 7 meters up. His ribs were probably broken, his feet and hands too, and his back was badly hurt. That’s what would happen if anyone fell from that height.

  The pain was so bad he couldn’t even turn his head.

  His vision was slowly getting blurry. The fall must have hurt his head badly. He thought there was bleeding inside his head — that’s why blood was filling his eyes.

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  He slowly moved his hand and brought it close enough to see.

  “Blood…!”

  His voice was loud enough that only he could hear it. He was barely speaking, but he still heard his own words.

  “Is that… my blood…?”

  He said it helplessly. Were his eyes making everything look red, or was his hand really covered in blood? Well it didn’t matter anymore. He was already starting to lose consciousness.

  “It's cold… I’m freezing… I’ve never felt this cold before.”

  His body was getting colder and colder.

  What caused that? He thought and thought. The only thing that came to his mind was the red dot he saw at the very end. Was it really the reason for everything going on right now?

  Then he heard footsteps coming from the entrance of the alley. Someone was walking slowly but in this empty, dead-end alley, every step sounded very loud in his ears.

  He opened his eyes. Hoping to see something. Even lifting his eyes a little made everything worse — it was speeding up his death.

  “Damn it… damn it…”

  He realized that he didn’t have much time left. These were probably his last words. Perhaps only angels or gods could hear him now if they exist.

  “If only… if only I had one more chance…!”

  Being so close to death probably made him lose his mind.

  The footsteps came closer. His ears felt like they were going to burst.

  He saw black shoes. From this low angle he normally wouldn't be able to see that clear, but somehow those shoes looked very clear to him.

  The owner of those shoes stopped right beside him.

  The boy couldn’t hold his head up anymore. What would happen next? It didn’t matter. He was going to die soon anyway.

  His head fell heavily onto the stone ground. He had no strength left.

  Then — one short, sharp sound.

  It stopped suddenly.

  In this narrow, dark alley, the boy’s blood now covered the pretty carved stones on the ground. Small drops had also splashed onto the walls.

  If someone looked down from above, they would see two things: A normal-sized man standing there, and not far away — a child’s body lying on the stones in a pool of his own blood. The head was no longer attached to the body.

  Two things were clear.

  The child was no longer breathing.

  Kaelis was dead.