Rise and Descent

 His eyes tore open and quickly constricted at the sudden intake of light, coughed racked his lungs as he struggled to get his bearings. Where was he and why was his memory so fuzzy. As he slowly waited for his eyes to accommodate the light he noticed that the air wasn’t as clear as he thought. This explained why the sudden bout of cough was more bone racking than normal. 

Once his eyes had adjusted he tried to lift his body into an upright position as the hard and cold tile floor provided no comfort for him. Instantly pain like he had never known before hit him all over, he screamed and panted as his bones ground together and his muscles were tight with effort. His left arm hung limp at his side as he finally moved into a vertical position. His worst fears had been confirmed something had broken, he knew he had to somehow deal with the pain and figure out where he was. His memory still failing to piece together the events that had brought him up to this point, he stood up and decided to look around and instantly he saw and smelt it. The air was coppery with the smell of blood and the grim sense of death of the finality chilled the hallway. Bodies littered the floor and blood smeared the walls, he looked to his left and saw an arm missing from its owner. His stomach tightened as vomit threatened to worm his way out, he pushed it down because he felt he hadn’t seen the worst of it yet. A headache hit as soon as he took the first step and his memories came rushing back in torrents.

He came here to attend a motivational seminar, it was from a well renowned man and he came in the hopes of getting his life back on track. He had arrived the seminar hall like everyone else and taken a seat, smiled as the man who was going to lead him back to his happiness came up and he mentally prepared to e be knocked off his feet.

“Are we all ready to get our game on” at this the crowd had roared in agreement as a chorus of claps had met the ever smiling face of the multi-millionaire Stanley Willis. “Of course we all are, I mean who doesn’t want to be like me?”  Stanley had joked as the crowd in attendance had laughed along with him.

“Now before we begin I’m going to start by asking, what pushes you to do better?” Before an answer could come from any part of the audience there were screams from the back as gunmen dressed in black stormed the building. 7 built men shouldering all shouldering automatics came running in and slowly began blocking all points of entry and exit. He was gripped by a sense of apprehension because how was he going to protect…….

At that instant he was snapped out of his reverie, where was he? He began to quickly upturn each and every body in his path. He worked quicker and faster as his mind was already working on the worst possible assumption, he slipped on a pool of blood as his body fell towards the floor and his head made a resonating sound on impact. He pushed himself up despite this he couldn’t pass out at least not now, he still had to do this he still had to find him. He continued the morbid ritual of turning over cold and already white bodies, his senses focused on other things instead of the smell and feel of a fresh corpse. He had to find him and quickly, time was of the essence in situations like this and he needed to hoard as much as he could get.

He upturned another body and saw him, instantly his heart shattered. His auburn hair was matted with blood, his body caked with dirt and his eyes were closed, never to open again. 

“Tommy” The man spoke for the first time, he shifted apart bodies and made space for himself and Tommy, in a way he made an altar consecrated to just Tommy and no one else. As he cradled Tommy’s body and began to stroke his hair his memory finally came fully together, he had come here with Tommy because at this point Tommy was all he had.

Tommy was just 5 years old and had never known the love of a mother as she left when he was just a year old, He was forced to step up and care for Tommy in every way possible, which was hard as he wasn’t exactly financially stable but he did his best. He had loved Tommy and cared for him, had done so in so many ways because Tommy was his only happiness. He was what had kept him going when he felt like pulling back and given up; he was his only motivation and the only person he wanted to impress. 

As he began to rock back and forth the last bits of the ghastly occurrence began to play out again, someone had rushed and tried to disarm one of the gunmen and failed as they unleashed chaos. Bullets had begun to rip through the crowd as they had tried to flee in all directions; he had grabbed Tommy and decided he was going to fight for their survival. Taking a couple of running steps forward he had barely gotten anywhere before the crowd had surged towards them effectively separating them as he had fallen to the floor with no idea where Tommy was.  “Tommy, Tommy” he began to scream but he could only get out so much before was knocked unconscious as the crowd stepped over him.

Now he realized that has saved him but Tommy, his sweet little boy had no such luck. David began to cry as he realized his life had lost all light, here he was holding the lifeless body of his son and being the one to survive. Why not him he asked as his body was racked with sobs and he squeezed his son’s body to him, all was lost and there was nothing left for him. He had no idea how long he had stayed there, crying and weeping before the first sound of laughter escaped his throat. He paused as tears rolled down his cheeks but he could cry no more, he could weep no more. He could only let out hoarse laughter, he could only laugh and laugh as he lost his grip on his sanity and his consciousness receded to the deepest and darkest depths of his mind.

Reports coming in imply that there was only one survivor of the brutal shooting, we were able to get close to the survivor but all we could glean from him was laughter and the continuous utterance of one word. All he could say was Tommy.