The Earth shakes beneath my feet.

The sky, is a gloriously sickening shade of red.

The shrill screams of men, women and children around me flood my ears blurring together until they muffle.

Morphing into an agonizing ringing that stabs the soft spots of my temples; my head spins.

Time slows down.

I turn on my feet; desperately scanning the crowds.

A man bumps into my side, hard, turning...

She always sat on the same bench.

Quietly observing with her hands folded neatly in her lap.

Maria’s family had only lived in this town a few months and her daughter, Emily, was absolutely ecstatic when they had come across this park on an afternoon walk a couple weeks ago. Since then, they had come here just about every other day on their walk home from Emily’s school.

...

I pressed my lips into a line as tears began to burn in my eyes.

Looking to the floor, I focused on my feet as I blinked away the watery film blurring my vision.

A single tear rolled from the inner corner of my eye down the line of my nose to its tip, hanging onto it for a moment before falling to the ground.

“Don’t.”

He snapped from a few feet away.

Firm. Agitated. Tired.

“Don’t you dare...