It was getting cold. A thin cloud of mist hovered over the dirt path that lead to the stone gate harbouring an old wooden shield on wich washed away letters were engraved: 'Graveyard of the forgotten souls'. It wasn't immense nor grandiose nor particularly decorative, this graveyard, simple stone graves were scattered across the valley as if the deceased had been hazardously tossed upon the cemetery without an ounce of care. It was empty, nothing was to be heard other than the noise of my steady footsteps on the grass; there was no family visiting their deceased grandparent, no widowed husband shedding tears on his wife's grave, not a mother who had come to visit her son lost at birth.

Not a single living thing was to be found, these poor souls had nobody to cry their death, to cherish, to miss or even to remember them. The memory of their existence had ended at the exact moment that their lifeless corpses hit the tomb floor.

But there was something special about this cemetery; hence every tomb was engraved with its occupant's last words.

It was so fascinating that could I spend hours walking across the muddy path while reading the inscriptions. Most of them were last wishes, others were love declarations and some were cries for help or screams while others remained empty. Maybe they had nothing to say, or perhaps they didn't have the time to do so. They always made me search for context, sometimes I'd spend hours in front of one grave trying to imagine the most realistic scenario of the deceased; trying too understand how they left.

Today was one of these days, i was deep in reflection as I heard the sudden sound of wings flapping. A raven. This was the first time I'd seen a living creature other than myself in this place; so I stood up as my eyes followed it's trajectory. It flew into the beginning of the forest that circled around the graveyard. I don't know for what reason, probably out of exaggerated curiosity, I followed it. When it finally stopped, it sat on a grave I had never seen before, compared to the other ones it was even older, dirtier. I struggled to read its content:

'You're next.'

That night, a new grave was added to the cemetery.