Rogan the Detective ONC

The Final Showdown

You know how they say that when you are about to die, your whole life flashes before your eyes?

It doesn't.

There were no fun flashbacks or the rewinding of the reel of my life. All I could think about was how I would never get to do things I loved again, like drinking wine and eating delicious food.

It made me wish I had done more. Not only in the eating and drinking department but in life in general. Sure, I was never an evil person. I never intentionally hurt anyone or did something horrible. However, I was not a good person either. I failed to help those in need and focused on living my life to the best of my abilities.

Was that wrong of me?

I wasn't sure, but I felt I would find out soon enough. After all, if I ended up in Hell, that would answer all my questions.

Wasn't there something about evil thriving when good men don't do anything or something like that? And I was definitely doing nothing, especially when I wasn't sure what was happening because I didn't want to get it wrong.

What if I tried to protect the woman that man I once saw was arguing with, and she turned out to be the abuser? What if I helped the guy hitchhiking with his daughter, only to end up aiding a kidnapper to get his victim?

That was my life before that moment of a weird bust approaching my face. It was a lot of overthinking and second-guessing, which made me feel ashamed. I was embarrassed that I hadn't done anything grand. Thomas died, but at least he had saved so many lives. He made a difference even with all the mistakes he made. What difference did I make?

More importantly, why did I have to die so pathetically? I always imagined I would go out with a bang, saving someone's life or fighting for my country, not being bludgeoned to death with an art piece.

Yet, no one ever knows when it will be their time to die. Even people on their deathbed don't really know which hour would be their last one. It's unpredictable and messy, but ultimately, death is part of life, a part that had come a bit too early for me.

Just as the heavy bust was millimeters away from my face, the library door burst open with a loud bang.

"Hold it right there!" The authoritative voice said. "Drop your weapon, or we'll shoot!"

Unlike the movie criminals, Elizabeth did as she was told. She dropped her weapon right next to my head, clipping my ear in the process, but if all I was going to get was a bloody ear, I was happy with the trade-off.

"Cuff her," the same voice said as I heard more stomping around and voices giving out and receiving orders. "Sir, are you okay?"

I sat on the floor stunned, not fully believing my luck. Wondering if I was imagining my own version of heaven in my dying hours, where I got to live. A world in which I got to let go of all the burdens of the past and finally live my life for myself, not for some abstract goal of redemption.

The fact that Conrad's father died would haunt me for the rest of my life, but at least I felt like I had somehow redeemed myself by being tortured by his son.

"Thomas..." I managed to whisper, my throat far more hoarse than anticipated, pointing in his general direction.

"He is gone sir," an officer said after checking his pulse.

It was only then that I fully accepted the fact. Life had been extinguished, and no matter the mistakes he made in the past, I felt like Thomas didn't deserve to be murdered so viciously. Even though he had cost one man his life, he had saved so many, which balanced things out to a certain degree.