are we alone? in the dead of the night, when the only sound is the hypnotic rise and fall of our breaths, and the rhythmic beating of our solitary heart, the metronome of our lives, keeping track of the minutes and seconds gone by. when the world is dark, and no other signs of life are present, we find peace. peace in this ravaged lifetime of warfare. not of nuclear warheads and heavy machine guns, but of the constant struggle within of demons and angels, of the good and the bad, of dr. jekyll and mr. hyde. in the night, the time for rest has come, but there is no rest for a mind constantly running. running from the darkness, but always into the darkness. the relentless pursuit of the dogs from hell leave you no room to hide, no room to breathe. and when morning comes, the blazing horns signal another day of battle. we trudge on, we march on, we fight on. we don't stop because if we do, we have lost. not so much us losing, but them winning. the day begins and the battle begins. the war has long started, even before we knew our existence. the battle never stops, not even when the end is in sight. we just keep going.

so are we alone? there are no friends, no allies, no comrades. no one besides you, no one behind. you just keep moving forward. don't stop and don't turn around. one-track mind. who are we fighting for? are we noble enough to fight this war for another? for the ones we love? for our families? or even for the greater instituition? or do we fight for ourselves? because we know we deserve better. we know we are better. is there anything big enough to drive our hearts? are we soldiers who take orders or robots programmed to function? who are we?

but the biggest question of all, are we alone? like the stars in the midnight sky, we are never alone. but this has made us feel more alone than ever before. and for the success of this mission, we will have to go it alone. the time for company is not now, for there is too much at stake, far too much to lose. but when the time comes, our souls will break down and be reborn. we will learn to stand again, and we will build ourselves up once more. for now, we grease our stubborn hinges and clean our dusty rifles, because the time to do battle has come. the blazing horns have sounded. we are better than this. i am better than this.

i am alone.