With short breaths and mild convulsions, she was slowly succumbing to the illness that had been transforming her from the vibrant and beautiful woman into a shell that now laid before her husband. Her eyes were weaker than he had ever remembered, still a lovely light blue, though they were now obscured by tears, which streamed down pale, white cheeks.

“You will remember to take care of our boys” a weak voice muttered through shivering and chapped lips.

He held her cold, soft hand and could not bare to look into her eyes, reminding her of the fate that befell their children. Each one of them, all seven of them, fell by the same disease that was now eating at her. How could he tell her that they were all gone?

From where this terrible and evil sickness derived from was unknown. Ever since the land began to die and the air turned cold, did his family begin to fall one by one.

Prayers to god to spare the young ones were made by the husband and his wife, but all would be touched by the hand of death before the coming of Spring.

“Why does god allow this to happen?” he asks softly, on his knees, looking over the face and the body of the very woman that he had sworn to love and protect for eternity.

“Do not blame god” she says in a soft tone, barely a whisper.

Perhaps, she was stronger than he had been, yet how could he not hold such feelings towards his creator? What did he ever do in his life to deserve such a fate? What living creature, no matter how sinful, deserved to suffer such utter despair and abandonment?

Her eyes pleaded with him in those final moments, not to hate and not to mourn, but fire burned beyond those orbs. He watched as her light slowly dimmed and she released her grasp. She had expired and with her passing, was the end of his dreams and the beginning of his hate.

The man had done his best to live a full and noble existence, the way that god would had intended. He had loved and blessed the world about him and his fellow man, along with it. Never once did he curse this earth, no matter how trying his life had been.

Sunshine and warm weather were once a comfort when he could see the beauty of the world. Now, the cold air was his solace and the dark corners of the grave his home.