Abandoned
Nacht. The word echoed in her head like the deafening silence after an armed battle. She walked out of her door, stepping over the pools of melting snow. The pools were carcasses of the people she once knew, once loved, but had since made herself forget about. The white powder drifted from the sky. It lent her no comfort. Trying to go back to an earlier time, she stuck her tongue out as she did when she was little. Instead of catching the snowflakes that promised to invigorate her soul, she only breathed in the woodsmoke that burned her throat. She coughed, shook her head, and continued. The click of her heels against the pavement pained her. Each step was a bullet piercing her heart, leaving only the smell of the gunpowder. She peered between the chain link fence, the boundary between them. She pressed her face into it until her skin was attached to the freezing, damp metal. She reached her fingers through the tiny space. Just a little farther, she thought, A little farther and I'll have made it. She thrust her hand through. It was still too far away. Her hand now laid limply, the fence was its noose. She imagined her hand caressing it, the smooth wood comforting her. She eased her hand out of the fence. She sighed. The casket was unreachable, as was he.