The rain pounded incessantly on the cobblestones around me. I was slouched at the corner of the dark alley, with my back resting on the trash bin as I watched the ground turn crimson around my feet. I could feel the steady trickle of blood flowing out of the hole in my stomach, where I was shot a few moments ago. As my vision started to become hazy and the throbbing pain from my abdomen became dull, I became aware of an inevitable truth.
I was going to die.
My killer was a tall, bulky man wearing a face mask and an oversized trench coat. He had just gagged his other victim, a young woman in her late twenties, and was now busy binding her arms. Although she had not been shot like me, the crazy gleam in the killer's eyes revealed that her fate might be more cruel than mine.
As I approached my final moments, I realized that in my 24 years of life, I had achieved nothing. I was abandoned by my parents and was raised in an orphanage. The people who ran it were largely detached about what the kids did as long as the obeyed rules in front of them. Hence, bullying was rampant and I was a meek victim. Maybe I could have done something about it if I stood up to them. But I bowed my head down and meekly accepted it all. After I graduated from school, I left the orphanage and managed to find a job that barely supported my rent and minimalist lifestyle. I fell in love with a co-worker, the first woman who showed me some degree of kindness, but then again, I was too meek and failed to profess my love in time. She ended up with someone else, who unlike me took action to do what he wanted.
No one will be affected by my death. Hell, I probably won't even have a funeral. It is hard to imagine a more pathetic life.
Yet today I did something very different. Something good. Which ironically led to my demise. While returning from work, I had a to take a piss urgently and thus went into the alley to answer the call of nature. I would never have imagined that I would witness a kidnapping there. I had a chance to run away from the scene and that would have be my normal reaction. But maybe all these years of just accepting everything without complaint made me want to take a drastic action against the fate of another person… or maybe I had finally gone mad with frustration. Either way I tried to save the woman and ended up getting shot. Even in this grim situation I found it a bit funny. A loser trying to be a hero and dying for it… all because he went for a piss in a dark alley. I should have really used the washroom before leaving from work.
My killer had almost finished restraining her. He was now tying her legs with rope. Once that was finished, it would be over for her. This neighborhood was largely abandoned and at this time of night with such a heavy downpour, it was highly unlikely someone would come here and save her. Even though her situation was bleak the woman struggled fiercely.
She was constantly flailing her legs as they were being tied up, making her assailant's job exponentially difficult for my killer. For a brief moment my eyes meet with hers, and I suddenly feel… ashamed? Her unwillingness to accept her fate even in this impossible situation is a contrast to what my entire life has been. Why should fate control me? Her eyes seem to tell me. Why should I submit? As long as I draw breath, I will fight.
My killer was tying the knot at her feet, once he does, it will be over for her. At that moment I felt something within me snap. I had nothing to lose, I will not even be remembered after my death, but this woman must survive. She must continue to fight that which had ruled my entire life, fate. I felt one final surge of adrenaline coursing through my body as I lurched up from my position and crashed into my killer. He clearly did not expect me to move after being shot and was toppled to the side by the weight of my body. The woman immediately rolled away from under him, frantically trying to undo the rope on her legs. I needed to stall him long enough for her to escape. Before my killer recovered from his shock, I brought my face up to his neck, the only part of exposed flesh and bit down with everything I had. A guttural howl resounded in the alley as I clamped on harder. My mouth was filled with the metallic taste of his blood and I could feel his flesh coming off along with the cracking sound of some of my teeth breaking. After a few moments which lasted an eternity, I was spent. Losing all strength, I fell to the ground while my killer emptied all the rounds of his gun in my body while screaming out obscenities. Before my eyes closed for the final time, I saw that the woman was not there in the alley with us. She had made use of the time I bought her and escaped. She had defeated her fate, and I had helped her do it. I smiled with bloody broken teeth before everything went black.
*Ding!*
[Congratulations! The requirements have been met. Chaos System activated.]
[1 x Life Crystal used.]
[1 x Time Crystal used.]
[1 x Space Crystal used.]
[Setting Coordinates… Target Planet: Nemea. Initiating teleportation…]