Closest Kin

There's a moment in the chaos of battle after the blood mixes with the mud, and coldness creeps into your bones. Some describe it as light; some see flashes of their life; I experience war's unforgiving nightmare. Across the battlefield, sneering at me as my lungs ache with the burden of my last breaths, stands my little brother. Once my closest kin, the surrounding madness consumes him as he watches me die, as though I'm a stranger. My failing eyes ease my burden by painting him one last time as the mischievous boy calling to me to play, and then...