Write To Rank 2022 | Contest Entries

(and i only have) a second to grieve | white belt

The cacophony of death is a familiar sound, always out of tune.

It's chaos; light and shadow, blood and ashes on my tongue, gunpowder and stardust and acidic rain.

It's familiar and all-encompassing, it's whirl and duck and dodge, a bullet, a blade, it's— not supposed to stop.

My eyes meet hers.

An explosion of silence falls over the battlefield like a predator. It sticks its claws in you and tears your skin open, doesn't let go until your heart just... stops.

And as the light dies from her eyes, so does she; bathed in red like blood and sunset.