44
There were two gunshots. I had fallen to the ground, with my vision slowly fading. John had collapsed to the ground, shot by a man whose silhouette was unclear. There were two dead bodies lying on the cold cement floor. One was John’s and the other was the body of the soldier that shot me. I heard a small gasp and the shadow that stood by the door ran to me. His face came close to mine and I saw enough to know that the features of that face were my uncle’s. I tried to focus on the sound of his voice and my breathing, but all I could feel was the intense pain in my belly. He shot somewhere in my abdomen. I felt the rivers of blood streaming down my body, my skin turned cold and I knew what was waiting for me. My uncle was quick to grab some sort of cloth to stop the bleeding. Then suddenly he started speaking some words that were unclear. He was strangely calm even though he was watching me die.
“You’re not dying, calm down. It’s a small wound, you’ll be fine, just focus on your breathing. Focus on the sound of my voice because I have something to tell you. Something I think you would find quite important.”