Only A Flesh Wound

It hurt with such a ferocity that he thought it must surely be a fatal stab.

If his hands were not covering his chest, clamped down tight over the heart he feared would explode out of his chest and lie withering and fading and oozong out its horrible red on the ground then he would, by now, have bled to death; he felt sure of it.

Such cripping pain! Such agony!

I shall die, he thought, surely I shall die; no man can endure such a pain and live. God, end this pain, end it now - I cannot live - it's much too much.

Resigned, he took his hands away from his body and spread them helpless and inviting to the side.

He was amazed to discover that rains soon came and washed the blood away while his heart still beating in its place remained.

Despite the pain it was only a flesh wound, after all.