It happened in a blur, but in the scramble of Lorraine’s mind, every tiny step unfolded with terrible clarity, every sense functioning as if for the first time, and the last.

“She’s mine,” Donal screamed out, gun quivering in his hand as the shots rang out. Bam! Bam!

“No!” Lorraine shouted, pushing Ashe back behind her and running toward Donal, already firing.

Donal screeched, “You son of a bitch bastard! You think you can humiliate me?”

Lorraine flung herself in front of Griffin, a patch of dark glisten already spreading across his shoulder.

“You think you can make me look bad, you pompous ass? I’ll fucking kill you!”

Bam, bam, bam!

The first shot to hit Lorraine found her in the stomach, sending her cramping forward, hot agony bursting through her. The second hit her own shoulder, pushing her snapping back and into Griffin’s arms.

“She should have been mine, you money—!”

Griffin lowered Lorraine to the stage, and she could see the crowd surround Donal, converging, pinning him down, his high-pitched wail cutting through their clamor. “Lemme go, lemme go!”

Around him, the crowd was screaming and running in various directions, a tide of fear pouring one way and then the other, confusion smashing one citizen into another. Children cried out as their parents searched for them, and old people fell under the stampeding selfishness of that hapless mass of humanity.

Carmen ran onto the stage, throwing herself into Albert’s arms. She clung to him, and Albert held her too. They looked down at Lorraine, Griffin, and Ashe, horror and sorrow and guilt on their faces.

Lorraine and the others had room to breathe, even if it was their last. Lorraine’s body trembled, her hands reaching out to find Griffin’s bloodied jacket, a gunshot in his shoulder. “Y-y-y-you’re hurt.”

He offered a calm smile. “I’m fine.”

“Ashe? Ashe!”

“I’m okay,” the boy rasped out, words clumsy and choked out, uncomfortable if not unnatural. “You saved me; you saved us both!”

Lorraine’s body jutted, her blood spreading fast across her dress. A cold shiver passed through her, followed by another quick hot flash. Lorraine knew her body was shutting down, organs systematically failing, letting her go. Lorraine coughed, blood rising up from her stomach and filling her throat. She fought to choke it back for Ashe’s sake, but she knew it wouldn’t be long before she drowned in her own blood. She swallowed hard.

“Relax,” Griffin said, “help is coming. You’re gonna be okay.”

But waves of certainty passed through Lorraine’s body, sweat pouring down the sides of her face. “No,” Lorraine muttered, “no…”

Carmen buried her face in Albert’s beefy shoulder. “Oh, Al…”

“Shshshsh,” Albert said, a comforting hand on the back of her head.

Jeremy ran up onto the stage, peering over Lorraine near her feet but pausing, no room to fall upon her and sob as he was clearly ready to do.

Tears pushed out of Griffin’s face, but he struggled to keep that smile on his face. “Don’t you give up, Lorraine.”

“I-I…can’t…”

“Yes you can, Lorraine, yes you will!” Sirens were soft in the distance but got louder fast. “I won’t let that happen, Lorraine! I won’t be helpless again, and I won’t lose you! We won’t lose you!”

Lorraine turned to see Ashe kneeling on her other side, sobbing. She struggled to say, “I’m sorry, Ashe, I-I’m so sorry…”

Ashe screamed out again. “No! Please don’t! Please don’t die, Lorraine!”

Lorraine could feel her strength draining, her heart already slowing in her chest, the burning pain slipping away as her hands and feet became numb. She tried to say goodbye to them, but she just couldn’t muster the strength.

“No, no,” Ashe screamed, sensing that Lorraine was slipping away. “Don’t leave us! You can’t leave us now! Please? Please!”

Ashe broke out in a gut-wrenching howl, tears pouring down his cheeks.

I don’t wanna die like this, Lorraine’s inner voice cried out as if to rally her body in one final fruitless push. I don’t wanna die now, not when I’m so close, now that I have something to live for, everything to live for. I won’t do it, I won’t die! I won’t, I-I…

Those sirens got louder even as Ashe and the clamor around them became more dim, faint, of no further to use to Lorraine. Camera crews loomed in, reporters jabbering at hyper-speed in grim tones.

Jeremy shooed them away, whining, “What’s the matter with you, you parasites, you monsters? Get outta here; get away now!”

But the chaos receded in Lorraine’s senses, everything becoming quieter, dimmer.

Dying.

Ashe was sobbing into his father’s shoulder, the two of them huddled by Lorraine, cradling her.

It’s okay, Lorraine wanted to say to Ashe, You’ll be fine. You’ll find happiness, just like I did. And for you, it’ll last, I know it will. But you have to let it in, Ashe; you have to take that risk. It’s worth it, Ashe, so worth it. You don’t have to be sad for me, don’t cry for me, it’s okay, it’s all going…going to…

Lorraine’s fingers slipped away from Ashe’s as her head fell into Griffin’s lap.

No regrets, Griffin, I love you so much…

The sirens finally overtook the boy’s cries, the bustle around Lorraine fading behind a cloak of darkness—no sight and no sound, her heart finally slipping into its few final beats.