Choice

It was a freezing winter and the pure snow was laying on the tombstones, creating a serene atmosphere in the graveyard. But there was a young man in a black, old-style trenchcoat and a backpack, shoveling the snow away in front of a tomb. The man was in no hurry and seemed to be in harmony with the stillness around him.

After a while, he finished one of the tombs and opened his mouth as if to say something but looked at the snow-covered tombstones around him and closed his mouth again. With a tired sigh and a faint smile on his face, he continued shoveling away at the other tombstones too. It took much longer this time and by the time he was done, it had already gone an hour and a half. 

"Hehehehe, I'm lucky this graveyard is so small" Raphael was letting out small chuckles while placing things on the first tombstone he cleaned. There were flowers, a smell candle, and a little wood carving of a deer. He placed the simple deer among the other wooden figures around the tombstone. "I've made a deer this time, Anya. You should've seen how hard it was to carve those horns. They are still not good but it's the intention that matters isn't it, my love?" 

There was no one around him and certainly no Anya, yet, he continued babbling and babbling and babbling until it was already late and dark. He seemed not to notice the darkness around him when sitting in front of the tomb with the nice candle lit. It looked more as if he was having a romantic dinner with his lover. 

Ignoring that, there suddenly came a chilly breeze right onto Raphaels' face. "Brrr" he shuddered. "It seems to be time to go home, my dear" he stood up but stopped again "Oh yeah, there's no home. Sorry that I didn't tell you, I didn't want to worry you. It doesn't matter either, at least I am alive and I have my laptop with me. With all the mods I installed on Minecraft, I will never get bored." he said and sat down again, leaning on the tombstone this time.

"You know, Anya, My uncle used to say that what leads to one becoming a villain or a hero is choice. What one does in the face of calamity and how one chooses to react to it. I want to be the hero Anya" he looked at the sky.

"Not like those dense Japanese Mcs though, hahahahaha." he laughed quietly. 

But as if the universe was getting tired of this conversation, there suddenly came an ear-piercing screech of wheels, and soon after came the sound of a horrific crash. Raphael looked towards where the sound came from and after a short daze, came to his senses and dashed to the scene.

Soon, he began hearing the screams of people. Some asking for help, some in pain and horror, but all in distress. Raphael soon reached the place and saw a car crash, probably caused by ice, with a bus and a truck. The bus seemed to have lost control for it had merged with the truck cabin at the right back side. 

'The truck driver is probably dead' Raphael thought and ran up to the bus that was on its side. Some people were crawling out from the top of it or rather what is considered the side windows of the bus. Raphael knew that he could not climb up there so he ran around and came to the front window that was shattered and entered from there. 

There were men, women, and children there, all bloodied from the glass shards. "Who's alive?!" Raphael screamed. "Me, help me, here!" came pleas, some strong and some faint. Raphael started with the children first. thankfully they were all not far back in the bus because of its build(children usually sit at the front around here) and in only 5 minutes 3 children were sitting and crying on the side of the road. Then he went back and started helping the most heavily injured, at least those he could and those he thought would survive. However cruel that might sound it's better to save someone who will continue to live rather than save someone who'll die soon.

The smell of iron and something else, something very familiar was strong in the air but Raphael ignored that and continued his "rescue" mission and some with relatively minor injuries started helping him too. With their help, the bus was soon empty of survivors but Raphael still needed to check for the unlikely chance that there was someone else there. 

"Is there anyone there?!" he screamed near the back of the bus. Right when he was going to relax he heard a muffled sound. He looked around and found in shock that it came from the back of the truck cabin. 'Don't such trucks have a little compartment for sleeping at the back?' it was then that he noticed that he was in a parking lot near the road. The driver was probably sleeping peacefully when the bus lost control and drove off the road right into the truck. 

Raphael ran up to the cabin while listening attentively when he saw a metal pipe protrude from inside. He climbed up on the cabin and saw through the little hole opened by the tube a man. "Use the pipe, man!"

Raphael immediately took the pipe and after adjusting his grip, started pulling with all his might. The man inside was pushing the pipe the other way as to help Raphael. 

Raphael gritted his teeth as the metal started to slowly deform and open up until the man could barely fit through it. Looking at the mans' broken foot, Raphael took the mans arm around his shoulder and started staggering to the other survivor. But even when saved the man didn't seem happy at all. "Hurry, hurry, the tank's filled with gasoline!" he hurried Raphael now. 

'Ofcourse it wouldn't be that simple. Haaaaaah' Raphael complained a little while quickening his pace when his body suddenly felt weightless and started flying forward. 

"PAAANGSHSTSTSTHZHZHZT" the truck exploded into a mini fire mushroom. The survivors were already far enough but Raphael and the truck driver were thrown away like two sandbags and landed on the grass near the others.

"Cough, COUGH COUGH" Raphael and the man spat their innards out. Raphael felt relieved when he saw that the man wasn't too injured and would most likely survive. "Good idea with the pipe" he said.

"Yeah, brain works best when near dea...th?" the mans eyes dilated when he regained a clear view of Raphael. "T-the p-pipe.." his voice was shaking. 

"What about the pipe?" Raphael said while following the mans gaze to his chest. There he saw the ironic "pipe". The same pipe he used to save someone had just pierced his chest, right through his backpack and back and out from the chest.

"No~, my Minecraft mods" he said so casually as if he just dropped a cookie. One could see parts of the computer or rather, what was left of them on the pipe and the flesh that was stuck on it. Blood was dripping down but Raphael didn't seem to care much and only lamented about losing his extensive collection of mods from his favourite game.

'Is it time for us to meet again, my love?' Raphael thought peacefully while closing his eyes. He died the way he wanted to, with honor and while helping others. Certainly, a death he aspired for. Although what comes next, he would never quite have guessed.

A Beautiful Sky full of Serene Clouds