Cornelius blinked and groaned. He was in an alley and bleeding. Apparently, the pickup didn’t work well. Cornelius blinked away tears and grimaced. He took a quick inventory of his body. He was bleeding profusely from his shoulder, but his assailants had fled before finishing the job. Amateurs, probably. Cornelius inhaled and exhaled deeply to test for any other pain. No other broken bones, a few bruises, and he was losing a lot of blood which was making him light headed.

Gritting his teeth, Cornelius half staggered and half crawled out of the alley way into the street. Spotting a lone person gaping at him, he pointed at her, a older woman with graying hair. “You! I need an ambulance. I was shot by a mugger.”

The woman hurriedly took out her cell phone and called 911 as she rushed towards him, shouting at another person to help as well.

Cornelius thought about the irony of life as his eyes glazed and he entered a dream-like state. All that time staying sober, just to lose my mind with my blood.