I stare down at the crumpled slip of paper, feeling the weight of it between my frozen fingers. It's funny, really—one thin scrap that sums up everything I’ve lost.
"This is it...?"
It wasn’t supposed to end this way. Every deal, every sacrifice, was for them. To protect them. And now they’re gone, like smoke I can’t catch, no matter how tightly I grip the memory of them.
"This is the only thing left for me...?"
"After all I have done?"
All I have left are these receipts: every piece of myself I gave away. There’s basically nothing left of me...
I look at the receipt again. It’s so simple. So... meaningless. Yet it holds everything. My life, my choices, the things I should’ve done differently. If only I had known back then.
Now, I can’t remember their faces. The people I’d promised to protect, the ones I swore I’d never let down. They’re all gone. I don’t know when it happened. One day, they were there, and the next… they weren’t. And I’m left with nothing but a few empty memories and a receipt that’s been haunting me.
G O N E.
I could’ve stopped. Could’ve turned away, found another way. But I didn’t. I kept going. Because I thought I had time. But time ran out. And I lost it all.
There’s no turning back now. Not with what’s left of me.
I...
I thought
This would
Make me
Better.
