Ricochet

“I opened my eyes soaked in blood, staring at the clouds, letting the heavy rain wash my face.

It all happened in slow motion. The moment my finger pulled the trigger, the explosion inside the cylinder, the ring of fire, the whistle of the 44 coming back. And the blackout.

I opened my eyes and I knew exactly what happened. Twenty six years of service, surviving everything the city have been throwing at me, and today I managed to shoot myself. A bullet coming straight back into my ugly face.

I am glad I survived this one. Not because I suddenly became “aware of the beauty of life as mine almost ended” or any of that crap. I am glad I survived because I don’t want to be entering the Retrocity Police Department Hall of Fame as the only moron who managed to kill himself during a routine patrol with a fucking ricochet.

Rain, blood and asphalt. And the sound of the sirens. I reached for the back of my head, terrified I would find a massive exit wound right there. But nothing. Just the damn pain, yelling at me how alive I was.

The long night would wait.”

Sergeant R. Stetson - CI Division

____ RETROCITY - Into the Long Night