​[CW: Violence] Eight Steps Toward the Stars

Hi, it’s really cool that you’re reading this letter!
Feedback is very welcome.

…don’t judge too hard, it’s my first time posting something on Reddit, so be gracious 🙂
Aaaaand I, sentimental little shit, thought it would be smart to write something and post it at 1:50 a.m. 👉👈

Eight Steps Toward the Stars

Grace — grace. That’s who you are… were.
This is the story of a woman who fell.

The first time I met you, you were standing in a pool of blood, shouting at me for being late.
The whole scene was chaos: twisted metal, screaming and panic pressing in from all sides.
But you… you were the one constant amidst it all.
You were the rock in a world full of corruption and manipulation.
You were simply you.

You were a young woman who had been hardened too early, shaped by a childhood that had ended long before it should have.
You had fought through every corner of hell, healed your own wounds and carried your scars with pride.
A warrior.

You fought your way up.
You held the line.
You always kept to the rules.

And yet, humanity still won inside you.
Even after everything life had taken from you and all the bitterness you had learned to hide behind a facade of discipline, there was still kindness — stubborn, quiet and unbroken.

You were an angel once.
And when you broke the rules that final time, you fell like one.

The man who came for us was lost in his own twisted mind, shooting anything that moved.
Not even you — with all your discipline, instinct and iron will — could read him.
He was unpredictable and impossible to pin down; he acted without reason or pattern.

Then he moved towards us.
Civilians. Paramedics. Young, terrified officers.
And you.

You stepped into his path.
You stopped him.
You gave us the chance to run.

Everyone survived, except…

He shot you eight times.
Each shot was a brutal reminder that our world had never been safe.

You.

You looked him in the eyes.
You fell, but you did not break.

In the end, you still reached for the stars.
You danced toward them in my arms, and I held you until your last breath.

Farewell.
Farewell, and dance with the stars — a friend, enemy, role model, sister…
and the love I realised far too late.

Your unserious, clumsy, sentimental paramedic.
In love,
James