The Prompt: Write your story, over the course of ten seconds. Trigger warnings d/ath, v/olence, b/ood, st/bbing, kn/fe

Ten seconds was enough to remember your entire life, if it was all you had left.

Oh! I felt myself beginning to cry, as my mind became a vast expanse of my youth. My days, stretching from the beginning of my time, until this very moment, like a play, where I was the main character. Different acts, and characters flitted before my eyes, as I lay here bleeding out.

I could feel warmth oozing from my searing abdomen, as a draped my battered hand across it. Above me, I watched the everlasting sky sway. The colors of dusk rose around me, impeding the darkness, and mustering up such brilliant hues of the day. Oh! Yes. This grand painting was being created before me, on my dying day.

For a flick of a second, I could see myself. Just a baby, with chubby cheeks and blue eyes, gleaming with sheer innocence. My hands were a canvas, on which I painted riveting shades of prideful purple and optimistic orange. I saw myself, for this one glittering second, I saw myself in the sky. My hands akin to the morning colors, and my lovely eyes sticking out amongst the rich tones,

I felt a smile daring to traipse across my dry lips, as I braved a chuckle. A chuckle... oh! Yes, a beautiful laugh sprang to my mind in this moment. As I felt my body quiver with the motion, and a shiver run up my spine. My mother's laugh came to mind, for a dazzling second.

Her giggles serenaded my mind, as I continued to watch the dark bleed to day. Her wonderful smile surfaced in memory, comforting me until I realized I would never see it again. In this second, in that smile I was picturing, I saw myself being sent to my first day of school. The vision became clearer, and I could see her proud eyes, mistily staring back at me. 'My boy' she'd said, through softly grit teeth, with delicate support.

How disappointed she would be. The only time I will have returned to my sweet hometown, would be in a casket for mourning.

As I lay, immobile on the damp and barren street floor, I catch the faintest hint of something sweet. Perhaps the breeze had caught the gentle petals of perky wildflowers, to deliver me one last whiff. Oh! Yes, floral notes sung me a symphony, and the scene from before melted away.

Morphing into one of my teenage years. In this second, I am dragged back to my grandmother's house. A night where my teenage burdens had brought me outside, and I inhaled the spring's drifting wind, while lying among my grandma's wildflowers. I could vaguely hear her rasps calling for me to come inside, pestering me about the pollen in the air.

Grandma... I would see her soon enough. What will she think of who I have become? I was merely boy masquerading as a man, who had no clue he was being thrown onto the wrong path.

I can feel the sun beginning to penetrate my gaze, as it's brash rays prance upon my face. My eyes are glued to the light, as my vision starts to dance with sunspots. Unwaveringly, I stare, as illumination trails across my body, and the alley around me. What a tragic place to die.

Once again, I'm ripped from this moment after only a meager second, and sent to another detail of my life. Oh! Yes, the sun it was triggers it the swaying moments this time.

This moment is a radiantly prideful one. Me, dressed in a graduation gown, walking the slim stage set up outside my high school. Yes, this was a day where the sun pierced through the thick fabric, heating me from the inside out. My words that day had floated from my mouth eagerly, as all my efforts were poured into my speech. Where was that bright young man, who'd been chosen to give a speech now? This former me was lost in the translations of my life.

But this day, god this day, I had never soared higher in my life. I can remember tilting my head to the sky, as I stood beside my fellow graduates. Watching as we tossed out caps to the sky, allowing the wind to catch them for us.

Hard to believe that day was only a few years ago. I can feel loneliness beginning to bore down on me, as a cold realization dawns on me, in the new light. I'm dying, alone. With the sound of revving engines screaming in my ears, zipping around the city, where I'm just out of reach.

Oh! Just out of reach, love was always an untamable being to me. Escaping my grasp, just as I thought I'd been able to clutch it. The second's sequence evaded me, as a new one began. I saw the outline of a woman, with shoulders dotted with pale freckles. Strawberry blonde hair was cascading about her arms, parading across her back gracefully.

Lila.

In this fading second, I catch a glimpse of her tear tracked cheeks, as I lower onto one knee. At first, I had thought there were tears of joy, as she was overwhelmed with the image of the rest of our lives. Until I noticed her lips pulled downward, and her head beginning to shake. She had been my first and last "I love you" in my ill lived life.

My hearts sears as I relive this horrid memory, in the brief moments I have left. Why was my mind forcing me to re-witness old pain? I'm fading, and yet as I die, joyous moments evade me? Hell, they always did. I feel my head start to fog with bitter reminiscence, as a faulty thought comes to mind.

Oh! Old pain would not stop entrapping me, as a former wound is torn apart. A phantom whisper enters my ear, as I nearly hear the sound of skidding brakes. Alcohol had been clogging my system, as I swerved my shiny car into a tree. The wet road had slipped beneath my tires, hurtling me towards the slanted hill beside it.

That had been my first brush with death, but I had a feeling I wouldn't escape it's clutches this time.

In this same second, a hospital monitor flashes before me. Doctors swirl around me, bustling in and out of sight, as I melt into the soft plush of a hospital bed. The crash I caused that night had nearly taken my life, but I suppose the grim had decided to keep me around awhile longer. Now, my bad habits proceeded me, and death loomed around the air.

The air. I am severed from the memory again, as I feel the humidity around me. The fog that has settled over me is making it hard to breathe, or perhaps that was the knife in my stomach. My shirt is tacky, whether it was from blood, sweat, or both, I couldn't say.

Oh! Sweat. This time, I have drawn to my deal with a metaphorical devil. His blistering eyes scolded me, watching my with a cocky smirk plastered onto his jagged mouth. His hands held a weapon, and his eyes held an ominous glint. He'd told me such pretty lies, of wealth and women. Deceitfully depicting a world, in which I was at the core. Where money was my maker, and other's were at my feet. If only I worked for him. If I only I reaped what he'd sewn.

I felt the way my hands had shook that day, and the way wetness sprouted from my back. Dampening my shirt, and bleeding through the material. All I had to do was work for him, and I could be invincible. That's what he'd told me, and I'd been idiotic enough to believe him. To take the gun he held, and point it at whoever got in his way.

My hazy mind veered back to the present, as my eyes slowly began to fall shut. The sunspots were replaced by black dots, which stepped on my iris dominantly. I was close. I grit my teeth closed, wishing someone was around me, so I wasn't alone now. Desperate for my mother's fingers to comb through my hair, and whisper a lullaby in my ear, before I was laid to rest for good. But I was alone.

Alone... oh! God, my mind jolted with alarm, as I was brought back to a hollow time in life. Where I lay, draped across a cement floor, with aching muscles and a bruised knuckle. I had sacrificed my humanity that day, as I included myself in my new boss's battle.

My spirit had been devoured by fear... I had used a weapon on someone who I didn't even know. I was drained of kindness, and hope, as I laid in the aftermath of my actions. Alone, secluded from the rest of the world, hiding out from thoughts of my family and former friends. No one wanted to be around me anymore... I didn't even want to be around me anymore. So, I was left with a hammering heart, and broken body.

My heart is hammering now as well. Thumping out of my chest, like a wild animal in a tiny cage. I can't find a way to force my limbs to move, despite my most desperate efforts. I'm shutting down. How long will it be until someone finds out I'm gone? Until someone realizes they haven't seen me in my apartment in awhile, or my mother realizes I haven't called. Will I ever be remembered, or will my body just lie here? Rotting, just as my potential had.

Another second surrounds my memory, as I think back to just yesterday. When my legs we're running, and my bravery engulfed me. Every ounce of nerve I had, had been thrown into tipping off the police. Providing them with sparks of evidence, to fuel a fire of truth. To catch the man who'd taken me under his vile wing, and twisted the truth into a tremendous, false utopia.

I couldn't stand the guilt that consumed me, so I'd told the cops where to find him. And then I had run, trying to distance myself as much as possible. My hands had been so clammy, and my fingers so cold, that I couldn't even put my mother's number into my phone.

I wish she was here now. The familiar thought greeted me again, as I gave into the craving to close my eyes. It was only yesterday... it was only yesterday that I had decided to die, in order to clear my conscience. Perhaps I was a fool, but at least in death, I would be a free fool.

Death... oh! Death had invited me into it's arms when my old boss' men found me. The rage on their faces had reflected their actions, as I had screwed everything up for them as well. Their fists caused my teeth to clatter, knocking into one another, until they ached. My back must have been blue by now, and peppered in the marks of their heavy boots.

I could recall the way it felt for the knife to pierce my skin, even as the excruciation began to numb. The white hot, guttural distress had electrified my entire body. Throbbing, and throbbing as every part of me stalled. Besides my hands, which had flung to my stomach, as I crashed to the ground. I had known I wouldn't be able to hide forever, but I thought I'd at least have time to call my mama.

I wanted to call out her name, like a child lost in a grocery store, but my voice wouldn't raise. And my breath was only catching in my throat, not rising to my lips. These crucial moments of my life, were spewed before me, in the few seconds I had left.

Now, I could feel my pulsing heart beginning to slow. No longer chanting in my ears, but rather my heart was softly moaning, knowing it was soon to be out of use. One more time, I glance up at the sky. The same vivid colors still marbled across my vision. Would I be among them soon? Were the brilliant hues sticking around, to give me a proper send off?

I chuckle once more, wishing I had the strength to raise my hand, and reach for the sky. Though I know there wouldn't be any point, as greatness was always just out of my reach. And this was my final act.

And my last ten seconds had been spent remembering a handful of my life's events. Because ten seconds was enough to remember a lifetime, if it was all you had left.