FROM THE PRIVATE PAPERS OF SEBASTIAN JAMES FAIRFAX

I am alone.

On the brink of eternity.

This is my reward. My punishment.

Alone—alone in the everlasting night. Soon, the Unconquered will reach out to take me.

Leave me! Let me be! I beg—

No.

There is no one to hear.

There is no one to pity me.

I am nothing. Pain, fire, grief. They are nothing.

Demons in my head and heart.

Temptations.

My heart has died. Only the demons remain. My shadows. My brothers.

I am alone.

There was someone. A girl. I remember—

She is gone. I forget.

Her name, her face, her voice. All gone into the dark.

There are no choices left. No hope. No path ahead. I am broken.

When I am gone, my dearest, sing no sad songs for me….

My dearest.

My darling.

A girl with bright hair. Lost now forever.

Words are all that is left. Hope. Life. Joy. Just words. Only pain and fear are real.

Pain forever. Eternal. Unending.

Everything has faded.

This is how it ends. Alone in the dark—the end—at last—