The first time I came face to face with death was when I got sent to Afghanistan. I was lucky enough to spend two years without any life-threatening injuries and none of my friends dying. But right at the start of the third year, a grenade brought a whole building down on me. I lay there, bleeding with shrapnel in my chest for hours until they found me. From those moments I remembered only pain and the suffocating dust, the darkness and the cold of the crumbled concrete walls. I remembered thinking it was all over, I remembered thinking about all the things I didn’t get to do and say. Regret, grief, and anger. Those were the emotions playing in my head.

That wasn’t the case now. Now, all I could think about was the starry sky above me. It was a clear night with only a few little grey clouds, it was perfect for stargazing. It never occurred to me how pretty the sky in Wadena was. It was a small enough town surrounded by forest to have less light pollution. It never occurred to me. Why have I never bothered to just look up? It was so beautiful, the thousands and thousands of white dots glimmering above me in a long milky line. And the moon. Oh, the moon. It was so big I could see every little grey dot on it and it shone so bright it painted all the leaves of the forest around me silver. I thought I'd never seen something so beautiful in my life. I guess some people could appreciate it only when they knew it would be the last time they saw it.

A laugh escaped me, it was not a nice laugh, it would’ve probably sounded hysterical if it didn’t turn into coughing as I tasted blood. The stones hidden in the forest floor jabbed into my back but I couldn’t care less as I listened to the leaves rustle in the lazy breeze. I shuddered at the contrast of the icy early spring wind and the warm blood seeping into my clothes and pooling under my back. With every breath, the rising of my chest pulled at the mauled mess that once used to be my stomach. It hurt terribly, just like the gashes that burned on my face, arms, legs… Everything hurt. And yet I couldn’t help but stare at the endless sky. It was hypnotizing and even though I knew the monster that had attacked me was still somewhere around, the sound of leaves and the creaking of the branches as they danced lazily sounded like a lullaby to my ears luring me into the final deep sleep. And I was so tired…

The forest sang to me, called for me to just lay down in its arms and rest. I smiled as I let my eyelids fall and sunk into the forest's waiting embrace. It was warm and comfortable and oh so caring… And that was the day I died…