Prompt: Image of a country road.571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT1uIRrMZJu
It's not an easy thing to turn your back on the ones you love.571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡElJ2dvf4ug
They say it's something that cowards do, and they couldn't be more wrong.571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPZtufVf8Wp
It's an act of courage. To overstep those boundaries of trust, to go against the irrationality of emotion for the greater good.571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfBBl0taYVp
I tell myself this as I walk down the road, fields passing by and their cries fading away, but it doesn't stop their tears from stinging more than mine.
Death awaits me in a carriage, with a uniform and a mustache. On his wrist, a watch that my family and I would never be able to afford with a lifetime of savings, counting down the hours until I die. It may be just twenty four. It may be over a thousand. Little metal hands clicking clockwise eternally, but eventually even their cold insides will rust and grind to a halt.571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIxp3PZUZVE
Some other boys who are joining with me seep slowly out of their houses. Their families, too, are saved.571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK3lK5Q5cLp
Their friends, too, are condemned.571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzFoAnZpaFa
Solemn glares all round, no greetings or banter now. We've come to fight against our own country in return for our family's safety.571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm9wyVSnrnw
They say that we are the spineless, but when you have to walk past the people that may die by the hands of the army you join, no one can say that we lacked the moral fiber to look them in the eyes.571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC9dZ8tAaXC
Eyes that scream, filth.
Down the road, a broken promise awaits.571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbR7PKlmIWe
You said our families would be safe.571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCPmhlXVF0e
But the watch hands keep ticking, the wheels keep rolling, and the lone hearts keep breaking, because since when was a coward's promise kept?
