"Welcome my dear, to the black parade."

Running. It seems to be all I’m doing nowadays. I found myself in a forest, the twigs of the branches catching on my clothes and cutting into my skin as I rushed away from the unknown source that has been haunting my dreams for the past few years of my life.

I finally got to an opening and looked around. There were three options that I could choose to escape. The first one was the way that I just came from but that would only lead me back to the predator that I was trying to hide from. The second was a road that seemed to go on and on, at first glance you could tell that you didn’t want to go that way as there was a pile of bodies at the entrance and blood covered the sign. The last one looked like it was the only option that I could take as it looked like it was the least harmful and I would hopefully find what I was looking for in one piece.

I took the third option and followed the path until I saw the silhouette of a man. I tried to call out to him but either he didn’t hear me or he was pretending I wasn’t there. I walked closer and kept on calling out to him in an attempt to grab his attention but he still ignored my feeble cries.
I ran up to the man so that I can see his face but it was no use as it was covered by a dark shadow that has been cast upon this land of misery.

One day I will get to see his face, I thought to myself, but until then I will have to make do.
We walk down the road together until he abruptly stops.
The path splits into two and the man points to points to the right one as if to say that we should go down that path.

We continue in that direction in a steady pace and keep going.
What seemed like days in this nightmare must only be few minutes in reality as we stopped and slept a few times so that we had enough energy to reach our destination.
Though we both didn’t know where that was, we both knew it was the same place that we are both heading for.

After 5 days of dream walking we come to the edge of a city. This place was a perfect place to rest. The only problem about it was that it is on fire. Although at first site you could swear that there are building and homes in this city but close up you notice that these buildings are nothing more than a great big pile of ash. The flames had surrounded and claimed their piles of leftovers and burned as bright and fierce as the sun.

I became fascinated with the flames, unconsciously my arm stretched out to touch the dancing disaster until a hand stopped me. I quickly turned my head to see that it was the man who had grabbed my arm from getting any closer to the fire. He used his other arm to point to something on my left so I turned my head to where his finger was pointing and my eyes widened in shock.
There in front of me was all my loved ones caught in this eternal flame and screaming silent screams. I so badly wanted to help them but there was nothing that I could do and the man knew that too as he dragged me away from the demonic scene.

We kept on walking, I’m staring at my feet, still in shock of what I just had to witness with my own two eyes. I wanted nothing more that to just wake up right now and never come back but I knew that would never happen as this is a place I will always return to.

The man could sense what was wrong and from what I could make out, gave me a look of sympathy and looked forward as if waiting for something to happen. I wish I knew what he was thinking as it would make everything a lot easier for me to cope with.

At last the man stopped for what seemed for the final time and walked over to me. For the first time I could tell that with him came a strong emotion of pride. He embraced me into a hug and spun me around.

What I could see was far different from the real world. There were old, broken buildings and rubble as far as my eyes could see, ashes were in heavy piles and falling in the sky as if they were replacing the snow that could not touch this land. I turned a little to see another man standing next to me; all he wore was a simple hospital sheet that looked like it had became dirty from staying in this land for so long. His hair was short and fell into little curls that framed his face and gave his face a shape that seemed to suit him but out of all of his features his eyes were what caught me off guard. From one look they seemed so dead and showed no sign of life in his body but from a closer look they held the spirit that his face lacked and held the victim in a deadly trance that was near impossible to break. These eyes were framed with huge black circles as if to duplicate a skeletons lifeless face.

This man walked ahead and ignored my gaze, transfixed on what laid before us.
I turned my head back around to see what was ahead of us and the sight shocked me.
From the short distance that the man had made me walk the scene had not changed at all but what stood in the middle of what was once a road was a float. The design of this float was very familiar to me as it haunted my dreams as a child but something that was formerly blurred out of the picture was standing before me as clear as day, the blurs were people.

The four men who were on the float wore black military outfits, each designed in a different way to one another to show their individuality but they all were made with the same colours to show us that they are the same. They stood in a manner of utmost respect and stared at the man who had a firm grip on my shoulder like a leader.

There were people stood around the float dressed in the same style, I guess these people were their marchers.

The ‘leader’ who had been waiting patiently behind me put his head on my shoulder and whispered the famous words:

“Welcome my dear, to the black parade.”