The vacant beaches were awash with sadness; the currents of time refusing to touch its shores. Any distant rays of sunlight that seeped upon the sand were almost instantly dissolved into gray flickers of dust. Darkness was inevitable; the emptiness inescapable. The town was surely no better, as my boots crunched heavily upon ruins of collapsed stone walls. The heaviness of my shoes collided with the dullness of the light reflected in my eyes, which remained unrecognizing, as I passed the houses I think I once knew. I stumbled over several tattered flags; scattered across the ground like tears. Words were embroidered across the fabric that I could not decipher. Each flag was a different color, and although they were faded, their now pale shades suggested that they had once been very much alive. Fragments of memories then flashed through my mind of some of the few times I could still remember;

A burst of a brilliant array of colors had sprayed over me in the night sky; billowing open in every direction like an unfolding flower. Each firework that resounded off of the stars had given me quite an advantage in being unnoticed. They had been one of my most treasured distractions. I had followed my shadow - projected by the moon - across the endless field until I reached the bridge. It stretched over an ominous canal of darkness, yet had a breathtaking view of the boundless night sky. That was all I seemed to recall, before everything else became a very prominent splotch of nothingness in the back of my mind.

I opened my eyes; the flashbacks all but evaporated into thin air. I stopped when I noticed where I was standing. It seemed to be some sort of town square; all but deserted except for the sculptures that stood in front of me. Large white statues sporting intricate features stretched tall yet uncertain. There was something strange about the way they were poised, which suggested that they had once been people like me, but then grabbed by the icy fingers of time and frozen in place. However, the most questionable detail about the statues was that in a whirl of crumbled stones and ruins, they stayed untouched and pristine. Not so much as a scratch was dragged along their marble texture. It made me wonder how long this place has been unoccupied since the war. I could not remember; the farther I headed forward, the more distant I’d become, until I could not even recall knowing who I was.