“Take our daughter and run!” I relinquish baby Carmen to my husband Carter, who hesitates. “We both know if one of us can make it, it has to be you! I could never raise her on my own!”

“That’s not a good enough excuse to sacrifice yourself like that!” Carter cries. “Carmen needs a mother! She needs you!”

The air raid alarms blare louder in my ears. Thoughts mix unevenly in my mind, freezing me in place. “No…no I can’t…I won’t let you die!”

Carter reached into his shallow pocket. Pulling out a small knife, he etched the words ‘We Were In Love Here’ into the walls.

“If either of us die, our love will remain in this world,” Carter says, “in Carmen too.”

I look at baby Carmen, swaddled and out like a light in her favorite blanket. She looks angelic, just like her father.

“It’ll be here if we survive this war, too.”

He takes his calloused hand a caresses it against my cheek. With his thump, he swipes away my tears, making me briefly ignore the fact that war in this world will never truly end.

I hold my daughter and husband close, taking in their loving warmth like a blanket of protection, shielding them with my own body in turn.

Closing my eyes shut, I allowed the bombs to perform their deathly symphony.