It was the predawn grey of early morning. The world was still fast asleep. The dull whisper of muffled night sounds washed over and around Carrie, without her noticing. She walked in a daze, her face and eyes awash with tears

How bleak the world is. The only light that shone through my dreary life has been blown out with a gale-force wind. I was almost obliterated in the aftershock.

 How can you be gone from me?