Blood dripped steadily from the young soldier's ruined body, seeping into the cold earth beneath him. Half of him was gone—blown apart by the trap mine—but he clung to the tree behind him like a dying shadow. His eyes, once fierce, now flickered between fading fury and bone-deep regret as he stared into the darkness ahead.
Why…?
After everything I endured, why do I have to die like this?
Three years of service. Three years for a country that had never done anything for him—only to be discarded like trash.
I won't even get what I fought so hard for…
If only he hadn't been born to addicts. If only, just once, someone had truly cared for him. Maybe then, things would have been different. He could have risen above it all. He could have made those deadbeat parents regret every moment.
But it was over. Life was cruel, and it always had been.
The stench of blood, dirt, and gunpowder clawed at his senses. Each droplet of his lifeblood striking the ground was a ticking clock counting down the seconds he had left. The chirping of insects rose around him like mockery, as if the world itself were laughing at his struggle.
He let out a broken laugh."Ha… ha…"
He sounded like a man who'd lost everything—because he had. Even his breath was betraying him, rattling in his chest.
Cough. Cough.
Sleepless nights spent studying. Hellish training in the army. Years of abuse from his parents and their drug-fueled friends. All of it… for this.
He wanted money.He wanted recognition.He wanted someone—anyone—to care.
He just wanted to smile again. To be happy.
Tears mingled with the blood running down his cheeks. His lips trembled as he whispered to the empty sky.
"I'll admit it… I wasn't the smartest. I wasn't the strongest. Maybe it was the drugs they gave me as a kid… maybe it was the beatings from my parents, or the bullies at school. But I tried. I really tried. Even when I fell, I got up. Even when life kept pushing me down, I pushed back harder. I thought it couldn't get worse."
His voice cracked."But it always did."
Student loans. Unpaid debts inherited from his parents. One torment after another. Yet he had kept moving forward.
"Why?! Why was I even born? Why did I suffer so much? Why was I so unlucky?"
The last of his strength drained from him as he screamed at the empty world.
"Fuck my parents. Fuck their friends. Fuck everybody. Fuck this whole world."
"I hope you all burn in hell…"
A fresh, searing pain lanced through his chest. His cold fingers twitched against the bloodstained soil as the sky above blurred into a smear of black and gray.
"If only I had been stronger… smarter…"
His arm reached upward, trembling, either in a final curse or a desperate plea. His last breath tore from his lips like a whisper lost to the wind.