More Than Alive

[00] mortis

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   Her head aches as her ragdoll body is tossed onto the pavement like a discarded child's toy. The asphalt bites into her back and calves, but she doesn't seem to feel it due to the shock of being thrown so far by the hit. Faintly, she notices she can't feel her legs or right arm; and she wonders if there will be lasting damage.
 
  Distantly, there's a screech and a skid of old tires as the car makes its escape. She doesn't blame them. College kids don't have the money to deal with an accident.  A cloud of dust kicks up and then settles in its wake,  and it dawns on the woman that she's probably going to die. There is no one around to witness nor help her, and she is bleeding out in the middle of an empty street on what was supposed to be a simple walk back to her apartment. A joke she made the other day about students being shit drivers seems to come back to haunt her.
  Blood pours around her swampy green dyed hair, making a Christmas type halo with the colors. She doesn't need to look down to see her legs are broken, nor does she raise the one finger that still moves. She is going to die here. The woman thinks to herself that she must be awful to look at, with her bent limbs and pale face. The beautiful gray jacket that was wrapped around her shoulder for comfort is now ripped to ribbons from her slide across the road, and there are pieces of the gray cloth where she slid. If she turned her head a little bit more, she knew she would also be able to see chunks of hair and skin also stuck; but she didn't. She couldn't move anymore, and there was no energy to muster up to even try. It was like the energy was flowing out of her, just like her blood was pooling on the road.

   Her already shallow breaths weaned out so far and in between that her breath didn't even cloud any more. Brown eyes shone with unshed tears, brimming and nearly dripping down her crushed face. There's a hazy pounding behind her eyes, and despite herself a small smile teases her face. I think I'm dying. The smile twitches, eyes shiny despite herself. But that's okay, Beemo always bounces back.
  
  Of all times, that sound she heard so often from those social media platforms and Adventure time echoes around in her head like a broken record.

  The faces of her parents and siblings came into her mind, the good moments and pleasant memories as well as the fights and things she always wished she could forget. Their hands brush her hand that she can't feel, and the urge to close it even though she can't is painful. Now she's holding onto them with whatever's left, hoping that she'll survive by some beautiful miracle.

Her luck has never been great though, and as God had turned His back on her, she slipped away.

          Scared and alone, Dakota "Kota" Rodriguez died on September 3rd, 2023. Her body was found early the next morning, crumpled and broken; by Campus police.

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