No matter how hard the soldier tried, his hand kept slipping through hers. Two hands that were never meant to encounter. But the soldier didn’t seem to be bothered about this. As if he had been prepared for this moment. After the sixth unsuccessful attempt to grab her hand, the soldier looked deep into her eyes. He took his gun in his hands, placed the barrel in his mouth and pulled the trigger.

The two other soldiers didn’t even flinch to the loud bang. They just kept looking at her face, waiting for the lady to react. But the only thing “reacting” inside the house was the chandelier above them that swung back and forth to the rhythm of the tanks outside on the streets.

After a minute passed, one of the soldiers exclaimed “we found her” before lighting up a cigarette. She slowly turned her head towards him. The soldier’s was tall and the cigarette almost disappeared among his dried out lips.

He lit the cigarette. Smoke rose up from the end of it and covered the entire room. Inside the smoke, her surroundings started to disappear. First, the windows and the walls. Then the cupboards. Then the table. Then the dead soldier. Then the two other soldiers. Only the cigarette remained, floating in the air, while the smoke was gradually nearing her body.

She couldn’t move. She didn’t want to move.

She reached out for the cigarette and held in-between her fingers, like her momma used hold it. She tried to drop the cigarette, but she couldn’t; as if it was stuck in-between her fingers.

She raised her hand in front of her mouth. Stared at the cigarette until the smoke was just about the envelope her in its grey void.

“Just one last time” she murmured as her body finally disappeared forever in the smoke.