Anderssohn's Choice

He didn't have to be here.

One moment, Anderssohn was across the street and regarding the house opposite him. The next moment, he had brought himself inside said house after witnessing the abusive Leon return with his goons. Goons with guns meant to infiltrate Miranda's father's birthday party so that Leon-the ex-- could threaten Miranda more.

The truth was that Anderssohn had moved into this neighborhood after retiring from the life that he knew most. It was a life that returned to him as he stood in Miranda's living room with one gun pointed to Leon who held Miranda while the other gun aimed at the masked goon who held the woman's 8-year old daughter in his grip: 8-year old Lilly.

It was easy to walk away. So easy. An entire minute could change a decision though. It was like being frozen in time, though the clock pasted on the wall counted up from 01. Anderssohn could listen to Leon and pretend he hadn't seen anything, becoming disconnected from this whole thing at once.

The clock read ten seconds now.

Lilly had tears in her eyes, which apparently broke Miranda into her own quiet sobs. The two had barely even known that Anderssohn lived across the street since he mostly stayed indoors with his cigarettes. His life as a contract killer had already passed him, and retiring in his own solitude had been what he sought.

Still, he had witnessed parts of the life that Miranda and Lilly lived. He had witnessed laughing before the mother took the child to school and when family was over. Leon had always been the poison. Every time he came over, Miranda never wore that smile. Anderssohn knew it was none of his business, but something about her heartbreaking expression had awakened a side of him that he never knew existed.

Twenty seconds on the clock.

Leon glanced at Anderssohn with laughter in his eyes, thinking that one man could not put a dent to his dark plans. Little did he know that the other man had already driven through and done away with the other goons. "Who are you?" Leon asked. "My wife would have mentioned such a cocky guy like you if you were important."

Thirty seconds on the clock.

Lilly had tears welling in her eyes. It reminded Anderssohn of when she had fallen in front of her house and scraped her knee. Was this what life for a man like him: witnessing the life of others and discovering all of the things he missed by living through them? He of course did not know the answer to that for he had not been blessed with a regular life.

Someone laughed maniacally and a gun was fired. It all happened too quick--all within thirty extra seconds. That was all it took for Anderssohn to know that it only took a minute to create a life of one's own. It only took a minute to preserve that life and make it yours while doing something that mattered. It took a minute to make a decision that would impact someone for the rest of their life. It only took a minute to change and steer the direction that you're going in your life because you found something above all of that.

Even if one lived a life of darkness, it only took a minute to metamorphosize that into something meaningful.

That was what Anderssohn realized as he collapsed onto the ground after having struck Leon and his goon with two bullets each. It had been the decision he made after he saw that they legitimately were about to do away with the mother and child. So he shot, successfully striking Leon and the other man...and Anderssohn had been struck in return. He could have let the scene happen. He could have let the men do what they wanted with Miranda and Lilly.

In another life, he might have.

But in this life, he chose the decision that sixty fast seconds allowed him to have. And with his last breaths, he smiled at the two who allowed him such a transformative choice.