Chains, Part 3

I fell to the ground, losing consciousness.

A darkness invaded my mind...

A light from a distant memory illuminated it...

A dream, something unusual lately, as I've been having many nightmares daily, I had grown accustomed to them.

A girl, with white hair beside me.

We were sitting by a lake, with the city skyline in the background.

Eating a fish, in an almost apocalyptic setting.

Destroyed buildings in the distance, smoke rising from the houses.

"Wilhem, this is delicious," the girl said cheerfully, taking a bite of the fish, while smiling at me in a way that warmed my heart.

I was wearing my old military uniform.

"I'm glad you like it..."

Just when I was about to say her name, I woke up.

In a hospital bed, completely alone.

I had passed out, but no one had come.

After all, who would come to help someone like me? It's not like I wanted it myself.

I had no children, my wife had left me 15 years ago.

Shortly after, a doctor came, talked to me, and asked me some questions. I answered, and they discharged me, prescribing something for the headache.

I didn't want to take a taxi, nor did I feel bad, so I just decided to walk home.

I was crossing a pedestrian crossing when something caught my attention.

A dog, a small one.

It was dragging its lower body, using its front paws.

It looked painfully unsettling.

Its lower part seemed crushed.

I approached it and crouched down to look at it closely.

A little painful, I was already old, and my body hurt for everything, after all.

"What's wrong, are you going to help him?" a girl said in front of me.

It was her, the person whose name I had forgotten.

"What a envy... I wish you had helped me too."

"I tried, I tried," I said.

"Not enough... maybe if you had tried harder..."

"Shut up, I'll just help this little dog," I said.

I reached out to the dog when I heard someone behind me.

"Look, Mom... that man is talking to himself," said a child.

"Hey, come here, I've told you not to point at strangers," said the mother.

I looked at her, she gave me an uncomfortable smile, and hurried away.

At that moment, I felt a warmth running through my hand.

I turned to look.

A crimson red was running through it, it was my blood.

The dog seemed furious, with a weary rage.

"So... you look at me like that too," I said.

The girl started laughing.

"What's wrong, did you see something funny?" I asked her.

"You're the one doing weird things, old man, helping others at this stage?" she said.

"It's not like I'm really helping someone, after all, it's just a simple dog," I said.

"I can't believe you really say that... have you forgotten what you've done?"

Her tone grew with each word she said.

Her anger rose, her hair was like snakes trying to bite me.

So many days had passed like this, that it had become something common in me.

"When I die, I'll pay for all my sins, don't worry."

The dog, although dying, had a look of hatred and rage in its eyes.

Inside me, I understood that, due to the mistreatment received from its surroundings.

I tried to caress it, but it still remained defensive.

I searched for a box, with my coat, ruined with animal blood, I put it in there.

I knew there was a clinic nearby, so I decided to take it there.

After a few minutes of walking, without realizing it, I had taken a dead animal by some of these.

The dog had already passed away.

Although I arrived at the veterinarian, they tried to help him, but there was nothing to do.

The doctor handed it over to me, and I sat on a bench next to its corpse, a few meters from a trash can.

I stayed looking at my hands for a while, with the box of the dead animal by my side.