Because of indifference, one dies before one actually dies.

—Elie Wiesel


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It was not supposed to happen like this. No; not to me. Perhaps the others, but not me. Yet, here I am, lying here, unable to breathe. That dreaded specter clutching my throat—tightening its icy grip with each move I make. I know he is watching… it is he who tightens the wire, just as it was he who brought the terrible sickness upon us all those seasons ago. The disease that took so many of us then was not enough for the fiend lurking in the shadows. He brought a man to us as well.

By this point we thought that maybe disbelieving would shelter us from him, but it never did. He was always there: watching, waiting, smiling. Every now and then one of our friends would disappear. We knew what happened. He called their names, beckoned them into the shadows. The Black One was all about this place. We could not escape him no matter how hard we tried.

He comes for us all in the end.

It was only a matter of time….