They say that death is but a mystery. I can't help but agree. I'll never understand why whatever higher power there may be decided that she had to leave - that it was her time.
I wasn't ready.
She was too young.
Merely seventeen years of age, she shouldn't have had to leave her family and friends behind.
It was a day that will always remain carved into their hearts. September 19: the day she took her last breath.
I was there…I cradled her in my arms as she faded away…
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The cool rain continued to beat down as the day only seemed to heat up more and more. The wind was howling wildly, blowing in a storm from the east. Our closest peers and our most experienced professors surrounded us as we tried to make our way back towards the place we called 'home'. Little did we know that some of those people that we had been with for so many years, that we could have trusted with our lives, had their own hidden agendas.
We made mistakes.
I made mistakes.
We were too trusting. Never again.
As I rounded a corner, a figure burst forth from the shadows. He grabbed her by her auburn locks.
The next thing I knew, she was falling to the floor, a gash across her chest and side. I pulled her close to me, all the time wondering why everything bad, why every misfortune, seemed to happen to me.
She stared up at me, and I down at her. Her lips parted slowly, and she mouthed the words 'Don't let go' before she was gone.
And it was then that I gathered the resolve to end this war that turned neighbors against neighbors…relatives against relatives…
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The war finally ended a few weeks after that, but at what cost? I'll never be able to hold her in my arms again. I'll never be able to hear her laughter.
The world was once again whole…
…but my heart was not.
It will never be again.