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            The faint notes of the song softly spread in the air. The delicate melody was but a whisper lost in the buoyant chatter of the Village Square. Families were sitting around the bonfire, friends were dancing on the snow and lovers were holding each other in the shadows. My brother was standing by the fire with other children, a scowl between his brows, staring sceptically at his branch of burned marshmallows. My mum was sitting on a large trunk just a few feet away, leaning against my dad. She shivered and my father immediately took off his coat and covered her with it. He drew her closer and tenderly kissed her temple. I smiled and looked up. The stars had never shone so bright in the sky, more vibrant and radiant than ever before. I was lost in their contemplation when my head abruptly snapped back down.

            A false key. A wrong harmony.

            The world was burning.

            The Village Square was in flames. Fire was everywhere. On the houses, in the streets.  The stars disappeared behind the smothering smoke rising to the sky. The annihilation of all life. Up and down. Here and there. Fire. Fire everywhere.

            The symphony changed. Deep shouts accompanied the percussions and shrill cries joined the strings and the winds. It was a different orchestra. It was the orchestra of the dying.

            The snow on the ground was fire and the snowflakes falling from the sky were ashes. There was no more life. Their bodies were scattered around the square. They didn't move. They didn't rise. They were dead. There was no one left. So the flames came for me.

            I ran. Faster. Always faster. Everywhere I went the music followed me. Louder. Always louder. I couldn't escape it. Corpses. There were corpses everywhere. I kept tripping over them. Stumbling over Agnes and Gregory. Tumbling over Mum. Dad. Sam. Collapsing over Seth. Caleb. Aaron. Everyone. They were all on the ground. They were all dead. Dead.

            Dead but I kept running. I kept running. It was just a few feet away. Thirty. Twenty-nine. Twenty-eight. There. Just there. The music was blasting into my ears. I couldn't hear my heartbeat. I couldn't hear my breath either. But I could still count. Twelve. Eleven. Ten. Just ten feet away. Nine feet. Eight feet. Seven feet from the border of the Village––

            I stopped. The music stopped. 

            Death was standing right in front of me. Standing between the Village and the outside world. Right on the border between the Village and the outside world. Pointing a gun at my head.

            I exhaled.

            The cannon exploded with the thunder of thousand applauses.

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