Primal Urges.

The opening paragraphs from my short story “Primal Urges”

Walter slumped to the floor, his eyes wide in surprise. ‘She’s shot me! How did she know? How could she have known? It’s not possible she could have known!’
The pain was immense! Never in his life had he experienced such an intensity of pain! He couldn’t believe that a body could endure such agonies without it losing consciousness. Walter tried to take a breath, but the effort was enormous, and he vaguely wondered if he had the strength to fill his lungs.

‘Oh my God,’ a trickle of air had somehow managed to find its way into his tortured lungs but was accompanied by the screaming pain of tortured nerve endings whistling through his body. It was as though the very marrow was being scraped out of his bones with a long spoon, only to be replaced by an ice-cold vacuum.

‘I want to live,’ his mind screeched out the message although no sound issued from his lips. Concentrating all the remaining mental powers at his command, Walter tried to move his little finger; it was useless he appeared to be paralysed. He became aware of someone leaning over him. ‘It had to be her!’ Walter concentrated his remaining mental faculties trying to focus his eyes on the onlooker, to no avail…. Bitch!

Catriona looked down at the body lying still and lifeless on the floor and turned her head to get a better look, being quite surprised to find how dispassionate she felt about the whole episode. ‘Killing someone is no big deal’ she mused, ‘a bit like squeezing a spot on your face really!’ She knelt on the floor and leaned over the body to search the pockets carefully. It was important to make the murder appear as though it had been an intruder that killed him.