Abandon All Hope...

Sliding into the Abyss
Just past the precipice
Straining, reaching but nothing to hold
Screaming as the darkness takes you
all is lost

The cold seeps through your bones
the heart turns to stone
Ration turns to madness
logic burns to ash
Up is down, insanity crushes everything in between

When pain grows strong,
the flames freezing you blood
Death shows it's smile
opening it's arms wide in a welcoming embrace
yet still no escape

As the tourniquet of the grave circles around
you slide further down through the blackness of void
No respite is given, no easy path shown
No failure forgiven, Every mistake shown
Even the final sleep can't hold back the nightmares
As the demons creep through, each tearing out it's pound of flesh right from your heart

Machine gun rattle, rips from the night
Every round on the mark
They burn with icy screams
On and on the slicing pain tears
jagged holes never to mend

To all ye who enter here
Abandon all hope of those things to which you hold
Fear, pain, misery, death...those are the currency found here

when the heart fails...

...the silence sounds so loudly that you want to scream but you can't breathe. When the center fails at once is on the face a terrible thing yet there is a far worse tragedy. It can come on slowly and weaken the holds. Repairs can be made and the damage minimized or negated. The bulwarks can be shored up and the forces redeployed to reinforce the Keep. The two ends can be brought together to cover the hole in the line. The Keep remains weakened yet strong and held fast.

There is a moment though, during a time of peace, a moment of rest when the battles have paused that brings a far greater danger. The clouds part, a single shining beam bursts through the gloom and haze. The beauty of the things it touches is beyond radiance. The face turns up to the warmth and the eye catches a small delicate feather, floating on the currents of time and tide in the air. The glistening colors of the downy apparition sparkle in the mind. It drifts closer and the heart warms with love of this beautiful sight. The limbs feel the strength flooding through them, the soul drinks of the faith in love and life. Gazing at the plume drifting closer until is comes alight ever so gently on the breast, beneath which the heart beats, the mind sees the color for what it truly is at last. The light no longer shining through but now directly on the blood covered talisman as it at last registers in his mind that beauty has passed from his world. At that instant the shining diamond that was the warriors heart fails and shatters. No longer can this man pursue the fight or rise to meet the challenge of strength. He has withstood thousands of assaults, hundreds of blows and countless foes and always walked away victorious. The heart was intact and could not be stopped, thus the warrior could not be vanquished.

...but here in this moment of peace, under the guise of harmonious chance, the warrior has been felled. The fight has fled and the fear has found hold in him. The shattered bits of his once indestructible heart lay in a ruinous pile.

There is a piece, larger than the rest, and it says quietly inside that he can rebuild. Deep inside it speaks softly to him and let's him know that this moment shall pass. His mind acknowledges it but at the same time is helpless to give further direction, at least for the moment. When he rebuilds it, the heart will not be what it once was. The shape and strength will be different yet it will be the heart that he must rely upon. The battles will not abate and for a time he will nurse his wounds but he will rise again.