The rain drops fell slower than before. I could feel every single one of them smashing onto my skin, leaving a resonating sensation. It was overwhelming yet it did not affect me by the very least. The air around me was chilling, frosting my outsides. The weather was cruel tonight, letting me believe that something beautiful was going to come out of the day before shattering it and leaving me drenched and bitter over the fact that I ignored my instincts to bring along an umbrella.
At this rate, I would catch a cold. Home was still another fifteen minutes walk away and there were no buses at this hour. I walked down the alley, trying to seek any form of shelter to rest. No, resting was not an option, I needed to get home.
My body was shivering with every step that I take, I kept telling myself that it was only one more step away, that was how I made it this far. I could feel my knee joints aching, due to exhaustion of walking the whole day, almost reminded me of biology class where we learned about anaerobic respiration and lactic acid. Was that what this pain was? Lactic acid? Who knows, that was years ago.
As I shuffled closer and closer to my house, I couldn't help but hear a soft whimpering from across the street. The heavy rain made it difficult to see across, it was not impossible though, just improbable. I could see a small piece of red clothing behind a dumpster, it stood out as it was the only colourful item during this dreary, wet night.
As I hobbled over, I immediately smelled something putrid, revolting. Luckily I could hold my dinner very well, even though it has been about a few hours since the food digested. The first thing that caught my attention was the river of diluted blood, flowing downstream with the rest of the rain into the drains. My eyes traced it to its origins to see a woman sprawled on the floor, riddled with bullets. I was taken back for a moment, my head already hurts from the long day I had and this was just making it worse. Her blue eyes looked toward the sky, like it was watching her soul fly to the heavens. She was in home clothes and her left cheek had a terrible bruise. Did I mention that she had gunshot wounds all over her body?
I heard the whimpering again. It came from behind the dumpster. I circled around it to find a little girl, no more than 9 years old, balled up in a foetal position, covered in the same red cloth I saw earlier. She was shivering and weeping softly, rocking up and down. I noticed something immediately.
"Hey sweetheart, what happened to that lady over there?" I pointed at the dead lady, usually I would want to protect her from seeing such a morbid image but I figured what she has been through was way worse than this anyways.
"Daddy. Daddy, h-he..." she suddenly broke into tears.
"Oh, shhh.... It's alright, he can't hurt you now..." I tried to pamper her. I was careful not to touch her body though. I pulled out a small flower dress that fits her size from by bag and handed it over to her.
"Put some clothes on, I won't look, I promise." I slowly turned away. As I waited for her to change, I started reflecting on what course of action should follow next. This girl has been through hell, I could help her, I could finally redeem myself and atone for all my wrongdoings. I could finally repent my sins.
ns 15.158.61.46da2
