Prompt: Image of a country road.500Please respect copyright.PENANAqMxT6kJ7o9
It's not an easy thing to turn your back on the ones you love.500Please respect copyright.PENANAWpGFq91MNr
They say it's something that cowards do, and they couldn't be more wrong.500Please respect copyright.PENANAaldnXKb4wF
It's an act of courage. To overstep those boundaries of trust, to go against the irrationality of emotion for the greater good.500Please respect copyright.PENANALbntFOeHoi
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.500Please respect copyright.PENANA5Zc54ax0aS
Some other boys who are joining with me seep slowly out of their houses. Their families, too, are saved.500Please respect copyright.PENANA5sW1bDeTZr
Their friends, too, are condemned.500Please respect copyright.PENANAmeLF6i3PFT
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.500Please respect copyright.PENANACXSIvptn4z
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.500Please respect copyright.PENANAFvTWjUojVt
Eyes that scream, filth.
Down the road, a broken promise awaits.500Please respect copyright.PENANAO4HJDShF0l
You said our families would be safe.500Please respect copyright.PENANAhUzwZoSY3V
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?