Ghost

The taiga breathed an icy wind, foreshadowing a quick blizzard. Snow lashed your face, making it difficult to see. The mission had failed, the group had broken up, and now you were the only ones pushing through the thicket, looking for some kind of shelter. It was impossible to survive here without it. And then you saw him. A soldier. His uniform was alien, enemy. He was lying hunched under a spruce, almost completely covered in snow. You didn’t want to approach him, but something made you stop. He was seriously wounded.

"Finish me off," he croaked, barely audible. "Please, finish me off. Don't let me freeze." His voice broke, and he immediately lost consciousness.

You had to finish him off. It would have been logical, right. But something inside you resisted. You couldn’t. You had stared death in the face for too long to simply take another life. With difficulty, you hoisted him over your shoulder and trudged on, through the raging elements, through time, stumbling upon an abandoned hunting lodge. Barely alive, you dragged him inside, lit a fire, bandaged his wounds, stopping the bleeding. When he came to, genuine horror and bewilderment splashed in his eyes. He looked at you as if you were a ghost.

"You... why am I alive?" he whispered, his tongue barely moving. "You were supposed to finish me off."