[ CW ] Write a story that ends with `` I love her . That 's why I killed her '' .

Crazies, cannibals, rapists, reavers. 
 
 Doesn ’ t matter what you call them, they are bad news and they are right behind me. My transport ship ’ s engines failed a few hours ago, burned out running from them. Left us, my daughter and me, adrift somewhere out by Verbena. With enough time, we ’ d probably have made it to the planet, but the reavers were gaining on us too quickly. I didn ’ t even need the computer to know we were lost. 
 The gun felt right in my hand, I ’ d spent the better portion of the past decade fighting losing battles on the wrong side of the war, and now, here I was, stuck out in the edges of civilization wishing I could be back in the war again. Anywhere but right here, right now. 
 
 “ Dad, I don ’ t want to go to sleep. ” 
 
 “ I ’ m sorry sweetie but you have to. ” 
 
 She cried, but she did not understand why. She was too young to know about reavers. You didn ’ t talk to your children about reavers, hell you didn ’ t talk to adults about them. They are like the boogie men that only exist in the terror sealed corners of your imagination. She cried because she was scared, she was scared because I was. 
 
 The proximity alarm gave a muffled buzz from the cockpit, I closed my eyes and shut it out. 
 
 “ I can ’ t sleep with all the noise, what ’ s going on dad? ” 
 
 “ Just some little thing in the cargo bay, I ’ ll fix it once you go to sleep. ” She closed her eyes and pulled the blankets up over her face, scrunching her nose at the smell. We had run out of detergent a few weeks back and hadn ’ t had a chance to stock up yet. 
 Little problems that no longer mattered. 
 
 “ I love you dad ” she whispered as she drifted towards sleep. 
 
 “ I love you too. ” I took the old Colt from its holster and pointed its long barrel at bump under the protruding blonde locks under the blanket. I closed my eyes, swallowed the lump and squeezed the trigger, just as I had been taught years ago in basic training. The shot didn ’ t boom, it waslike a small pop, the room of swallowed it up. I couldn ’ t bring myself to look at the figure on the bed so I walked to the bathroom and stared at the mirror. There was a jolt as the reaver ship docked with ours. More alarms blared and there was a crash somewhere on the ship. It seemed so far away. I looked at myself in the mirror, dark rings under bloodshot eyes. War had not been kind to me, leaving me scarred, both inside and out. 
 
 “ I love her. That ’ s why I killed her. ” The figure in the mirror did not seem convinced. 
 
 
 “ You killed her because you ’ re scared ” 
 
 
 “ I am scared ” I put the gun to my temple and looked at the figure in the mirror one last time, and then I looked beyond it, to the body lying under the brown blanket. I squeezed the trigger. 

