• I could feel it coming, sense it as though it were an approaching storm. My entire being screamed at me to flee, to escape at any cost. My greatest mistake, my greatest failure in my life was ignoring that sense. The day my world, my entire way of life, was destroyed. That instinct to flee would have taken me away from that spot, towards a safe house where I would have died along with everyone else on the planet. I would have lived and died with everyone I learned to love and never spent a memorable moment without them. This moment is memorable, but one I would not wish to share with anyone. I stand alone in the center of the blast, the beginning of the end, the essence of my sorrow radiating from every inch of soil that surrounds me. As I stare at the ground beneath me, watching it soak in my sweat and tears, I cannot help but wish that I had left with the rest of them so I would never have to be alone. But I am alone. And this is the way it has to be. I could never replace my life with anyone else, I could never let them feel this way. I say these words unto you as the blade rises and I fall.