Prompt: Image of a country road.490Please respect copyright.PENANA4hlwtjJXyb
It's not an easy thing to turn your back on the ones you love.490Please respect copyright.PENANAoX4LwBKUhC
They say it's something that cowards do, and they couldn't be more wrong.490Please respect copyright.PENANA4vAJ2rC2e1
It's an act of courage. To overstep those boundaries of trust, to go against the irrationality of emotion for the greater good.490Please respect copyright.PENANATLuVdnUUUg
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.490Please respect copyright.PENANA3KR69hUsZh
Some other boys who are joining with me seep slowly out of their houses. Their families, too, are saved.490Please respect copyright.PENANAqDoFXjkBds
Their friends, too, are condemned.490Please respect copyright.PENANA5KtMVpg504
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.490Please respect copyright.PENANA4lXCpkuwFL
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.490Please respect copyright.PENANATB8CoRgDYu
Eyes that scream, filth.
Down the road, a broken promise awaits.490Please respect copyright.PENANAVoPZ2i87Q4
You said our families would be safe.490Please respect copyright.PENANAMubmLWJ3lj
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?