The wind blows silently past my face. I close my eyes and listen. Nothing, as quiet as my empty heart. I can feel a tear pricking in the back of my eye and I hold it back because I know that I must do this. I cannot erase what has happened, as a carving is forever set in stone. I look to the sky, so clear, so pure; not at all like the guilt I feel. The grass beneath me is cold and damp on my bare feet. I shiver, a spine tingling one that reaches towards my soul and chills it to the bone. Funnily enough that shiver has nothing to do with the weather.

I hear a rustling of branches and I turn swiftly behind me. I don’t see anything, I don’t feel anything. My heart doesn’t race, my head doesn’t think and for the first time in a while I am not scared. I knew what was coming long before this. I have accepted it. I knew I could not avoid it any longer.

I turn back towards the hill and walk out of the forest. There are no more options. I cannot keep it up; it had been too much for me to handle. It is either this or….. I must not think about it. I take a final deep breath close my eyes and step forward. Pray this be the last peaceful thing I do.