From: "Lara c" Date: Wed, 04 Jul 2001 12:36:04 +1000 Subject: In A Heartbeat (vignette) by Spooky_Aral Source: direct Title - In A Heartbeat Author - Spooky_Aral Classification - 155-word Vignette. No specific rating. Spoilers - none ----------------- Ba-boom. Ba-boom. Ba-boom. The steady, rhythmic beating of one's heart reflects everything in nature- predictable and constant. Interference with the heartbeat, much like interference with nature, is to take an enormous gamble; the stakes are high. In a heartbeat, the thing most precious to you can be taken away, never to return. A heartbeat is what it all comes down to. It's what defines the living from the dead. To stop a heartbeat is to end a life. Therefore to hold a life in your hand is to determine this heartbeat- to decide whom lives and who dies. Should that power be held in the wrong hands, it is often the heartbeat of the innocent that is threatened. A heartbeat is to life as rhythm is to music. The heartbeat is the ostinato of life; and for its one, final phrase, it was his, the innocent, whose heart completed its song first. Ba-boom. Ba-boom. Ba-boom.