The gunshot echoes through the alley.

“That’s what you get for leaving me for this pig!”

She falls. He drops to his knees.

“Stay with me, baby, please! Don’t go!”

Sirens echo in the distance; too late.

His sanity is leaving him. Laughter fills the alley.

His lover is dead.

Alaina Umscheid is in 8th grade and loves to read and play her french horn.