Fighter (Simon Ghost Riley!)

The End

Death. It's a strange concept. How one second you can be fine and the next.

Gone.

Her first memory of death wasn't of someone in her family, or a friend. It was her beloved pet rabbit. Smokey.

Her mother had picked her and her brother up from school, as they climbed in the car they could tell something was wrong.

Her brother asked about the beloved pet first, he had gone in for a operation at the vets, they put him to sleep and he never woke up.

Her brother crumbled at the news and began crying, his beloved rabbit. She sat quietly in the back as tears streamed down her face. She didn't want to cry. She didn't want to show her family she was bothered. She stared out the window the whole drive home.

The next was her mother. She was older then. She understood death more than she did when she was younger. She felt the crippling pains in her chest as her heart broke in two.

The stranger who had saved her from the wreckage, consoling her gently as she sobbed into his chest, her father blamed her. He lost his wife... his son... and as far as he was concerned his daughter too.

As she became an adult death seemed to follow her, her friend ended her life at the young age of twenty. She got drunk that night, in some bar in some town. Anything to try to numb the pain.

People deal with death in strange ways, some shout and scream about how unfair life is. How someone can just go, like they never existed. Others fall silent, they fall into their own pits of despair, they tourture themseleves daily about missed conversation. But nothing brings the person back.

Nothing fills the hole.

Not drugs.

Not alcohol.

Not even love.

People leave scars on the hearts of others, they leave holes, conversations never to be had again over a cup of tea.

Death had followed the girl her whole life, as it does most. An inescapable Force that no matter how much you try to stop it. It will come for you. A constant in an ever changing world.

And now as she stared at the sky, she waited. Waited for death to come to her. The sound of gun fire died down eventually. Soldiers retreated or fought to the death she couldn't tell. The quite sound of bird song filled the air.

She was cold, her lips turned a frozen shade of blue. She didn't have a great life, but the army changed all that for her. It made her stronger. It made her a fighter.

"Jo?" A small voice called to her, she turned her head weakly to the side as her blurred vision began to clear.

A small boy walked across the battlefield, he stepped over the dead bodies paying no attention to them, his blonde hair slightly ruffled. His blue eyes matching her own shinning in the light.

"Jo!" He smiled running towards the soldier.

Next thing the Sargent knew she was stood up, she looked over her body, all cuts and grazes gone. Her hands were clean and dry. She looked over her shoulder and saw her body lying on the floor, she stood over her body, her eyes closed.

"Jo!" She felt someone grab her leg, she turned to see her brother. Exactly how he looked before he died. Tears sprang to her eyes as she crouched down hugging the boy tightly.

When she pulled away she was slightly shorter than the boy now, he smiled widely taking her small hand in hers.

"Jake!" Her voice was that of a child's, she wore a small green sun dress, her blonde hair messy and wild.

"I've been waiting for you for ages!" He laughed. They began running around the battlefield. Chasing each other giggling loudly.

Jake began running into the distance, a bright light shone. Addy stopped, her heart racing. She turned back to her adult body once more, she slowly walked over crouching down next to it. Her face was bloodied and beaten, her eye swollen shut the other simply closed, her chest shallowly rising and falling.

She gently reached her small hand out, she rummaged through her jacket moving it slightly revealing the small blood soaked snake necklace.

The small girl held it between her fingers, tears sprang to her eyes as she thought of Simon, everything she would miss.

"Are you not coming?" The boy questioned he stood next to the small girl and gently placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Do you want to play soldiers?" He asked flashing her a cheeky smile. She stood again returning to her adult size, her brother reached up taking her hand in his. Tears flowed down her eyes as she smiled at him.

"Yeah...yeah let's play soldiers"