When that hammer came down, I was prepared. And the aftermath was bland-- because I was prepared.
The blood was hot but became cold quickly. Thick carmine that drips, meanders, flows, all over and everywhere and everyday, drys & dies. Gone. A remnant of life that once was. Followed by kind words about a brutal end. And in that end, the end that I saw, that I was prepared for, the end that was not as appalling as I thought it could be, was made beauty despite abject beginnings.