You hear a loud crack.

The ground beneath your feet shakes, the sky's darken.

Broken glass covers the ground all around you.

Over your shoulder, you see rough, stormy seas.

This is your fall. It's what we often refer to as the dark of night, the worst of times.

And me, I've had moments like these a few times. We've ultimately parted ways like two ships

passing in the night, but I know the feeling.

The feeling of despair, of helplessness.

A heart silenced by echoes, a house hollowed by fire, I know the feeling.

This is the forever relationship I know the feeling.

This is the forever relationship that ended up folding right in front of you.

Funny enough, way sooner than forever.

This is the unfathomable, indescribable loss.

This is walls falling. Promise is broken, its betrayal.

This is a knife to the back, an ending you didn't ask for.

Oh, I know the feeling.

And then, just as the sky caves in, just as your castle seems to dissolve in shifting sands,

silence, as though a 7.0 magnitude earthquake just ripped through your world and left ashes.

The remains of an ancient civilization, little keepsakes from a time that is no more.

This is when, now that the turbulence has stopped, you get to sit and think and reflect, which is often

the part that hurts worse than the castle walls coming down to begin with.

This is the emptiness of winter, a barren landscape, and all you want is home.

...