Abandoned

I remembered crouching in the deep grass, watching the bodies fall. Some of them still on fire and screaming. Lighting the oil slicks that coated the water from our attempts at defense. Watching towers burn and flames engulf the outside of the walls. Climbing from the window slits in every room on the South facing wall.

Everything I’d ever known had burned.

Every person I’d ever loved had died.

And I’d sat there, huddled in the grass, covered in soot and blood. Cowering and trembling. The only clean spots on my face were trails burned by the endless tears.

Tears which had not stopped streaming my cheeks since I saw my parents bloodied bodies and then seeing Gray walking from my brother’s room with the bloody dagger and my brother bleeding out, and already unmoving on the floor behind him.

I’d known what had happened before my eyes landed on Gray’s unfeeling face. Seeing no trace of emotion and realizing that who I’d thought I