The Dark Lighthouse

I feel the wet grass underneath my feet, struggling to move my body to its final resting place. Everything is so quiet. The robins silently mourn the death surrounding them, and I cry out, hoping for someone to hear, hoping for someone to still be alive. Silence.

Ravens circle above, eager to feast upon the rotting flesh that surrounds me. The smell of death clings to me like a thick fog. I watch as they swoop down, tearing apart a corpse just a few feet from me, and I can't hold it in any longer. Loss.

My body shivers involuntarily from the death ravaging inside and outside my body. Only yesterday everything was bright and peaceful, how could it have changed so quickly? The man they called the Smiler killed everyone, and I'll never know why. Dread.

I slowly get up and continue walking, clutching tightly to the rose in my hand my fiancé gave to me only yesterday. He had kissed me, saying everything would be alright. He said that we'd be together forever. Joy.

Maybe he was right. Maybe we will finally be together in the afterlife, dancing in the clouds for all eternity. Maybe we will just die, erased from existence. Maybe we'll go to hell, tortured for all eternity. Would it be any worse than things are now? Doubt.

As I approach the graveyard, I see a village in the distance, gone quiet, just like the lighthouse I left behind. Death has taken its hold there as well, and continues to spread. In mere weeks they claim that all humanity will be gone. Desolation.

Here I am, at the grave of my loved one. My body hangs limp over the cold stone as my rose falls to the ground. We were supposed to get married next month, but instead he was the first victim of this madness. Sorrow.

We've been through so much, why did he have to leave me? I was there when his mother passed away, and I've never left his side. I still have the ring he gave to me when he asked to be with me forever. Memories.

Now everything is gone. I feel my body fading into ash as I collapse on the grave where my loved one rests. Soon I will join him, forever gone from this tortured world. Rest.

My mind fades as well, and I look up and see the words on the gravestone, dedicated to the one I loved, destroyed by the madness wrought upon us. It says:

"To the man who was loved by many, yet now feared by all. To the one who brought terror from the depths of his own loss. To the Smiler, may you rest in peace."

Tragedy Within.