When you’re healthy, loved and ambitious – your death at twenty nine will always come as a surprise. She could still taste the raisin bagel she had for breakfast on the back of her tongue, mixed with fear-soured salvia. The woman was leaning against the molding wood panels of an abandoned boarding house, her damp hands clenched around the grip of her service weapon. Between breaths, she thought only of her family, waiting for her to barge exhaustedly through the door for a late dinner. Her partner was forgiving, she always was, even though she was left with the responsibility of raising their son at home.

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