Thirty-Five
Don't let the pain consume you.
This was the only thought I allowed myself in this moment.
Don't let it eat you alive.
But when I closed my eyes, I saw this image. The bullet that cracked Annie’s skull and blood streaming out of her head. When I touched her body, visions filled me. Visions of her and Bjorn in Lake District, their children playing, them bathing in the lakes, her kissing her husband goodnight, tucking into warm sheep’s fur while the fire burned out slowly.
All that she could have been. All they could have been.
Don't let the pain consume you.
And still it did.
Seeing all of her memories, the past, the present, was too much to bear. Then there was just blackness. She was gone. It was as if I felt her leave her body, because all those memories were gone wit
