Why?

The man collapsed. His knees pressed against the cool dark floor. He wrapped one arm around his stomach and left the other idle beside him. “Why?” he faltered…  “Why?”

Around him there was nothing. Nothing but the stars illuminate the abyss.

He groaned again, more painfully still, “It didn’t have to be like this.”

“But it did,” answered a voice. A shadow darker than dark drifted towards the man. “Why do you think it happened?”

“Who are you?”

“No one. Now, answer my question. Why do you think it happened?”

“I don’t know. There was nothing I could’ve done.”

“Wrong. You could have done everything yet you chose to do nothing”

The man was quiet. Silent tears slipped from his face and soaked the ground beneath him. “I was so close…”

“Yet so far away”

“Why?”

“Because you're a creature enslaved by himself. A creature who played the victim. A creature who has done nothing to earn anything but nothing.”

“Will I have another chance?”

“I don’t know… Life doesn’t hand out second chances too often.”

“So what should I do? I can’t die like this.”

“Then don’t.”