I really don't like how I ended this; neither the story nor the poem ties it all to a close… I had the poem on hand so I added it hoping it would bring a sort of closure and even with a ton of editing it really didn't. One of my friends liked it though, but that might not count; we have this thing where we both hate our own works but love all of the other's stuff. Anyways, read and review and tell me what you think.

Shadows danced along the walls as a falling blanket of snow isolated the Order, everything outside disappearing into swirling darkness.

The air was still and stagnant, the halls silent. Doors hung off their hinges and shattered glass reflected broken images of stone walls, torches, and cracked windows. A fine layer of almost uninterrupted dust coated the floors and the abandoned spider webs fluttered with the slightest wind, entering through the many cracks and gaps yet dying out unnaturally fast. Descending, soft sobs could be heard, dancing in and out of hearing. Occasionally bitter laughter could be heard or a scream would pierce the night before suddenly cutting off. Dark stains were visible on sheets and splattered on walls.

The war was over. The Order had won, yet it had lost the determination, the strength, the kindness, the hope that had kept it going. Few were left, only to wallow in despair and slink into insanity or fling themselves after their comrades into the unknown realms of Death. No guarantee had been given at the start that they would enjoy victory, and in the last years few had expected it. The most crushing to watch were those who had dared to hope and realized the fall from grace at the last moments. Or perhaps those who slowly faded were worse.

Regardless, the win of the war did not mean success or happiness. Rather it meant fear, anger, betrayal, as well as eventually being forgotten. The war was won, yet to those still alive it was a defeat that rent apart lives. Even during the fighting there was not this hopelessness or despair for they had been together. Now they were all lost, separated, perhaps forever.

You can't catch time,

Can't turn it back,

The sands will keep on falling

The dead are gone,

Never to return

All comrades and friends lost forever

Cherish the moment?

That's far too hard.

We're left regretting the past.

And the future is as impossible to see

As those wondrous memories that never last.

Never can we release our fear

Never can we recover that joy

Never can the heart erase that sadness

So shattered, so broken, so lost