Oops!

She heard the report of the gun shot.

Then she heard herself gasp.

As the last thing she would ever take from the world dug its way through muscle and vein to heart, she felt her hands loose strength.

She fell.

Down and down to the tarmac laid out 20 stories below. When she hit the ground, she was still alive.

Only for an instant.

In that instant she chose to smile.

When she hit the ground, he was still looking through the sights at the smoke issuing from the barrel. The silent salute of the slayer to the slain. The soft thud of her body hitting the tarmac got lost in the ringing in his ears. Lips quivering, he gazed straight through the grey haze at the wrung she had been holding onto on her way to the roof, to escape, to life. The wrung he had aimed at. The wrung he had hoped to hit to let her know he could have stopped her if he had wanted to. He looked at where she should have been smiling at him from, promising to return one day, blowing him a kiss that held more hope than any kiss ever had.

He never saw her fall. Never saw her body smash against the ground. Never saw the blood flowing from her still heart. He never saw her face as she surrendered herself to death.

He never saw her smile.

As the rest of the police men rushed forward over the warehouse debris to see her lying dead on the ground he stood motionless, still aiming. Still hoping somewhere deep inside that he hadn’t yet pulled the trigger.

The rain continued to pelt the earth as cheers rose up from the men gathered around the lifeless carcass sprawled at their feet. Amidst their high fives and roars of triumph they never heard the gun go off again. No one saw his knees buckle as the bullet entered his skull and shoot out the back of his head. With his blood, it colored the rain drops red. No one saw him collapse to the ground. The rain fell on his dead face washing the tears down to the blood pooling around him.

No one saw him cry.