Half a Person Read online

  "Got to make sure my little lady's taken care of," he had laughed.

  —

  She kissed him on the forehead and handed him the gun, her sobs were the only sound she made.

  "Thank you." he croaked, as she sat in the chair next to the bed and held his hand.

  "I'm sorry we fought. I'm sorry we didn't always get along, and that things weren't better." She started to cry harder.

  "Baby?"

  "Yeah?" she sniffed.

  "Baby?"

  "I'm right here."

  "Oh god."

  "It's okay, Steve." She went to him, trying to touch him, to let him know she was still there.

  "I can't… "

  His hand loosened. The gun falling from his numb fingers.

  For a second, she knew what he felt like. She was paralyzed, helpless. She watched the scene in slow motion, watching the gun fall from his fingers, watching it hit the ground, watching the hammer depress, watching the bullet explode in the chamber and launch itself down the barrel. She saw the spark of gunpowder, she heard the bang, she even felt the bullet go into her throat. But still she stood there. Unable to react, a prisoner of the moment, just as her husband was a prisoner of his body.

  "Jessica? Honey… I think I dropped the gun. Honey?"

  She fell forward, still as if in slow-motion, and landed across the bed. Her weight was hard across Steve's body, which had become soft, almost hollow with the abuse of the past week. Her body was heavy, and he felt nothing. Her blood covered his sheets, and flooded over his flesh. She tried desperately to reach for something to help her… anything, some way to push herself off his useless form. He didn't see her desperately try to give him his final moments of dignity. He didn't see her die. He didn't see the sadness that crossed her face. He couldn't smell the acrid stench of gunpowder, and he couldn't taste the droplets of blood that sprayed on his lips and into his mouth.

  Worst of all, it turned out, he couldn't hear her last words.

  "I love you."

  About the author

  Joshua Hale Fialkov is the Harvey Award Nominated creator of the graphic novels Elk's Run and Tumor, as well as co-creator of Punks the Comic. He has worked on comics for Marvel, DC, Top Cow, and Dark Horse Comics. He was also the Executive Producer of lg15:the resistance. Much of his catalog is available in local comic book shops or on Amazon. His first novel should appear in 2010.

  More information can be found at www.thefialkov.com

  Copyright © 2009 Joshua Hale Fialkov

  From the same author on Feedbooks

  Belly Button Reset (2009)

  The mother wants to have a child more than anything in the world. She gets her wish with the help of a man from another world, but, her child is not quite what she expected.

  Satirical science fiction in the Vonnegut mold.

  If you've enjoyed this book, please post a review either here or over on Amazon.com to say thank you!

  --

  Joshua Hale Fialkov is the Harvey Award Nominated creator of the graphic novels Elk's Run and Tumor, as well as co-creator of Punks the Comic. He has worked on comics for Marvel, DC, Top Cow, and Dark Horse Comics. He was also the Executive Producer of lg15:the resistance, and a co-writer of the Emmy-Award Nominated Afro Samurai: Resurrection. Much of his catalog is available in local comic book shops or on Amazon. His first novel should appear in 2010.

  www.feedbooks.com

  Food for the mind