The Death Cure [Jeremy Gilbert]

Prologue

The bright sky gradually faded to a cold grey, and clouds of charcoal gathered together. The sun of gold was replaced by a deep, deep vastness. With a flash, the heavens opened, and a wall of rain fell down like tears. The only noise you can hear is the downpour and occasional clap of thunder. The water falls so hard it seems to shake the earth. Wind rattles in your ears, piercing the air. You are falling, you are a raindrop. Falling with everyone else. Plummeting to the implacable ground.You cannot stop it, you cannot move it, all you can do is face it and hope for the best. Falling, down, down, down...

Sadness is like when the heart spirals into a deep abyss. Shattering the warmth and confidence from within, quickly the feeling of security diminishes - wherein shame and confusion fills in their absence.

Some lucky ones can get back up quickly with support from close bonds of people and with their own realizations that become their "truth".

But there are those who are not. Experiencing deeper trauma after the first climatic one makes it harder for them. Even if they try to reach out for the "light" with all that they can, something or someone - even their own self - keeps pushing them down; thus, they become harder inside. Only a few can understand them. Always subtle like illusionary glasses, evasive from pryful ones, secretive as the fading winds yet spews out the depths of their true emotions as it is to the fury of a fierce lava, earthquake, and geyser. What their "truth" becomes is what others don't see or know in a different manner. Although they are good in their own logical thinking, prolonged self-containment can at times mislead them from better judgment.

This is exactly how I feel. My life does not allow to feel happiness. I don't even know if I'm still alive. Sometimes I think this is God's way of punishing me for my wrong doings. Lying here in this cave basically lifeless, with no possible hope of ever getting out of this black abyss.

I hear no one. See no one.

I will never here another person's voice. Never hear their laugh.

I Will never see people's beautiful smiles.

I will never see my family, ever again. I will never see a human being ever again.

What did I do to deserve this punishment. Nobody, I mean nobody, deserves this. Not even myself.

I may have done bad things in my life, but this, this punishment is far too extreme for a man like I.

To wait on this rock, for many centuries, without moving, rest, or sanity, is a punishment that should be for the devil himself, not I.

I've lost all hope of ever being able to live. Really live. Not this sad excuse of a life.

Suddenly, when lost in thought, I hear something. No, not something, but rather someone.

A voice, a voice I've heard before.

Tatia.