Once I turned a certain age, and was given privileges others could only dream of, I was assigned a child who I had to make a vow of protection to. My child was a girl called Adeline.

Adeline grew up like most children: playing with friends, surrounded by people who loved her, unaware of the extent of pain and hunger the adults went through daily. Though she constantly went to bed with her stomach growling for more, I made sure she always had enough food to let her live relatively well.

One day war came to Adeline. More specifically, a bomb. While her family lay dead, her friends screaming in agony, children everywhere crying for their parents, I sheltered Adeline’s body with my own, determined not to let this be the end.

But just because war doesn’t always take lives, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t take prisoners. One officer took a fancy to Adeline, and wanted to keep her as his own. In all of the chaos and fire and blood, Adeline slipped through my grasp, straight into his arms.

I will give him some credit. For years I watched as he trained her into a fierce woman, loyal to him and him alone. She learned to put herself before others, or else her corpse would just join everyone else. Although deep down in his cold heart the officer did love Adeline, he never showed it, instead destroying all that she cared about just to toughen her up.

As the years went on, I could only watch from afar as Adeline grew older, until one special day. She had been allowed out, just to explore the world around her as any normal person would. I didn’t speak to her, but I could get close enough to hear her laugh once more.

That was the last I saw of her alive. The next day she was killed in an accident that only I could’ve foreseen, yet didn’t, because I was blinded by my love for her. I cradled her lifeless head in my arms and told her stories of pirates and vampires and ghosts, all the adventures I could have taken her on, if only I had tried a little harder to keep my vow of protection.