He remembers

He remembers screaming, voices yelling and cursing.

He remembers hands, holding, gripping, tight, tight, tight.

But most of all, he remembers pain, worse than he had ever felt before, burning, tearing, cutting pain. And red. Red, red, red, more vibrant than he had ever seen before, staining his hands, his shirt, his throat, the knife.

He remembers, and more than anything, wishes that he could forget.

.

.

.

(He remembers hearing once, that the world could be as cruel as it was kind, and once upon a time, he was inclined to believe that. But now...now the only thing that he really believes is that the world is only cruel, more so in fact, in that it pretends to be kind. The world has never been kind to him, and he doubts that it ever will be.)