Fixing Good CYOA

[Corenat Rovarnus]

C is the winner(?)

When has a little pain ever stopped you? You’re a man, and a man provides. Even when he’s sick and his body is broken. Even when it’s just a favor for another client of his attorney.

With your face set in a grim rictus of a smile, you push yourself out of bed and onto your feet.The pain only intensifies as your full weight bears down on your legs, one in a cast and only just begun to heal.

You take step after agonizing step, reaching the door to your hospital room. Finding it unlocked you throw it open and continue to limp along. It’s slow, but you’re determined to see this through.

A nurse sees you and rushes over. “Sir? You shouldn’t be up at this time, sir!”
Your mind focused on suppressing the pain, you grunt and wave her away, not to be dissuaded.

She puts a hand on your arm. “Please sir, this is for your own good!”

Ugh. You muster up the spare energy to brush her hand away and insist that you know what you’re doing.

As you forge onwards through the sterile white corridors, bright spots twinkle in your eyes, and you think about your loved ones to distract yourself. One by one, they appear in your mind’s eye: Shank Raider, Myler, Balter Junior, and the unborn child in Myler’s belly. If it’s a girl, you were thinking of naming her Molly.

Unbidden, the grinning face of Paul Hoodman also appears.

You snap back to reality, seeing now the front doors of the hospital a mere few feet away.
There are several people standing nearby, chattering loudly and staring at you, but that doesn’t matter. You’re almost there. You jog to the exit, the automatic doors sliding open to admit you.

*crack*

At last, you’re finally free. You stop for a moment to take in the plaza outside. A cool breeze blows over you, and the morning sun shines down. Perhaps you could feel more of its warmth if you didn’t have all these bandages covering up your skin.

You look down, and see that those bandages have turned a deep crimson, thoroughly soaked in your own blood. Your leg has left a trail behind as it drags along the floor.

Oh.

All the pain that impeded you before is now gone, replaced only by a sense of tiredness. Yes, maybe you’ll just take a tiny little break…

Your vision goes dark as you fall to the ground, never to rise again.

------

RIP
Balter Black
19XX – 20XX

Rather than let the cancer take him, he chose to go out on his own terms. Albeit terms that remain unknown to the hospital staff and everyone close to him.

As for his family, presumably the lawsuit filed by Paul Hoodman will bring in enough money to support them for years to come. Or will it? Sadly Balter will never know for sure.

-FIN-