You stand in the front room of your childhood home. The curtains are drawn so that only a sliver of light slants into the room. Everything is still, as if they are waiting for something.
A ticking fills the air and you turn, slowly, to see something glint at you from a table. You step closer to see that it is a watch.
A watch with golden streaks in the wristband and a broken hand. It is the very same watch you put on this morning. The watch that you received on your sixteenth birthday. It even has the crack in the clockface from the day your mother died.
You pick it up to examine it and hear footsteps approaching. You turn to face a hooded figure. They look at you with disgust and resentment.
You hear a cracking sound and look down to find that the clock face of the watch is cracked, all the way through. The hooded figure moves closer and asks you what you did.
You reply that you did nothing to make the watch crack. But they don't believe you, insisting that you have done something. It starts to sound like they are no longer talking about the watch. But you still deny that you did anything, yet inside you know that they are right.
They demand another answer, harder and harder, and the watch explodes in your hand. Dozens of voices spill out, blaming you and calling for answers. The noise fills your ears and the guilt courses through your veins.
You tell them that you had to, there was no other way, that it was the only way, but nobody listens. You beg them to stop and they only get louder. So you do the only thing you can think of left to do; you clamp your hands over your ears and scream to cover the pounding noise. You scream long and hard, making your voice hoarse. You scream and scream until you can scream no more.
And then you weep. You fall to the ground with your head in your hands, and let the tears fall. You cry for your lost mother, for your family, for those you've loved, those you've hated, the people who were lost and the people that lost them, the people in pain, the people in love, the people who can't sleep at night, the people that won't wake from the night, the people in need, the people in want, and...for you.
And then it stops.
