Some turned to face it. Others looked away.

Of those who looked, one nodded solemnly. He was finally seen. Another had tears in her eyes, not for her own sake but those she had wronged.

There was an understanding. And then a moment of silence for those no longer here, who could not understand or be understood in the same way.

There were others, who were vindicated. They could be heard where they were buried. But only if one listened closely. In the deep, there was a thump, and ash moved as if by the wind.

The ones who looked away, they tried to keep their gazes averted. Yet a darkness encroached upon them.

Those who stood in the light warmed in its presence. But those who persisted in the dark had to retreat ever further, into the shadow of their own making.

Their silence spoke too, and it weighed them down.

They ran. They hid. Eventually, they saw it nonetheless. Nothing could stop something whose time had come.