Glad I found you here. I’d like you to take your monkey and get back on the boat.

She turned and the monkey climbed up the sleeve of her sweater to hunch on her shoulder, clutching her auburn hair. I’m not going back.

Maybe this will change your mind –?? My hand went to an empty holster. I could only watch as the monkey handed her my pistol.

She fired, blowing my right kneecap to dust. I dropped to the ground, just managing to grab her ankle as she went to leave. Falling to one knee she fired again, blowing my wrist apart. She got back to her feet, my disembodied hand still clutching her ankle, and went out the door, her high heels click-clacking down the stone steps.

With my left hand I pulled my t-shirt over my head. I’d just managed to get the shirt tied around my right arm when I blacked out.

Later I pulled myself groggily up to the balcony railing. I looked down and saw her. She hadn’t made it far. She lay splayed out, my amputated hand still encircling her ankle. Dried blood spidered through the cracks between the cobblestones. The monkey sat with his hand in her hair. He saw me and let out a savage shriek.

The guards appeared and looked up to the balcony before I could limp away. They fired a few shots and I did one of those over-the-balcony death summersaults you see in movies. I landed in a crumpled heap. The monkey came over and in my last few second of life I felt him licking my ear. I went to grab him with my phantom hand. Then a curtain of blood obstructed my vision. I passed out. Soon after, I died.

Epilogue:
The monkey sat with me for a few hours before eventually climbing up a nearby hill and returning safely to the jungle.

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