And so I ran. The hot desert sand swept towards me as I tried and failed to escape. No amount of desperation is ever enough when fate has barred the gate. I ran from the demons of the past and the imps of future displeasure.

Torchlight lit the dunes and voices broke the chill. It was too late to change my plan now that I had been discovered in this disappointing wilderness. Still they pursued me as I fled towards the infinite blackness with my heart pounding in my chest like a fist. Of course there was no flight from fear but I didn’t know that then.

And so I plodded on, resigned to my fate like a beast in harness and sad thoughts trickled down my cheeks. I could go no further and the futility of my escape overwhelmed me. My heart broke, a brittle machine cast away in the wasteland of history.

And so I stood alone on the road, half man half memory. A faint light on the horizon foretold the coming dawn but I was facing the dark. Crows laughed in the distance and insects crackled and chewed in the soil below. The air was heavy around me and my chest heaved like a drowning man. There was nowhere left to go.