I find myself falling to my knees and puking up fire.

The leaves blow around my ankles,

which are several feet from where I lay.

I think to myself,

"When did this begin?"

And the man in blue cradles my fingers.

"Just think of paper flowers," he says in my ear,

which soon falls off.

I try to sleep, but I can't.

I try to cry and succeed.

"Please," I start to say, a sort of panic starting to flower,

"They're going to take me away!"

And just then, I fall apart.

Literally.

Every piece of me goes in a different direction.

A piece of my hair digs into the earth

and from that place sprouts a tree,

growing to the sky in a single day.

And from that tree the people are born

and remember the girl who fell apart

trying to think of paper flowers.

And they cross the line and turn to monsters.

So in the end it was the one born of Ashes who holds the final victory

and laughs.

In the end, there was never anything in the first place.