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It was late.
The sky unfolded like a tapestry of stars that extended down to the earth. Through the light rain, it was quite difficult to make out the narrow road ahead. It seemed as if the road could never make up its mind, curving, twisting, and winding, then returning to straight. In the distance, a car was approaching. Its headlights shined so bright one could mistake it for the sun.
It was within this fraction of a second that she saw it. A moment of time so small that no breath could be inhaled, and no eye could have blinked. The creature took one step forward—its last step. She was too slow to react, though it would have been impossible to do so. Everything happened too fast. She felt it all: every single ounce of fear, whether it be from herself or the creature, no one knows. It was unlike any fear she’d ever felt.
The pain came next—the indescribable kind. The kind so incredibly diluted in adrenaline that you don’t quite notice it at first. She certainly hadn’t noticed it until she was standing. Gravity sat on her like the weight of the world. She stood for a moment, taking in the first wave as it hit. A moment later, she carefully and quickly maneuvered around the car.
It laid there. The essence of the scene is almost indescribable. A column of light shines down from the streetlight above, and it sits ever so gently upon the creature. Kneeling down beside it, the girl took in it all. Every essence she tried to cling to. Fear, pain, loneliness, longing, joy, peace. Between them, it was all felt; simultaneously everything and nothing were said.
She reached down to touch the creature, and it flinched. It feared her, but the pain was excruciating and entirely overwhelming. Blinded by the pain, it succumbed to her touch, and she began to sooth its head. This continued for what felt like longer than both their lifetimes combined. Or, time could have stopped all together. She couldn’t tell.
Time, in fact, did not stop. Time will never stop, not even for this. Trapped in a moment of their own creation, the two souls will forever be intertwined in this moment.
human and animal
alive and dead
The deer took a breath—its last breath. It was gone, and its suffering ended. There was no longer any fear held within the creature’s lifeless eyes; there was nothing at all.