Remus stared down at the paper. Tears welled in his eyes. He should have known something was going on. Someone should have informed him. But no, he had to find out like this. It was all over the prophet. "One year old defeats Dark Lord", "Lily and James Potter dead in the ruins of their home", "Peter Pettigrew murdered", "Sirius Black sent to Azkaban."

It was hard to believe that in a single day, Remus' whole world had come crashing down. No more were the friends that got him through his school years, the ones who stuck by him despite what he was. He was truly alone now. And Sirius? They were saying he had a hand in the death of Lily and James, and that he killed Peter, along with all those muggles. Remus didn't want to believe it, but all the signs, and all the facts, told him it was true.

He was alone. He sat there, completely isolated in the flat he could barely pay, in the clothes that were starting to fall apart. He had never been one to accept thing from his friends, he knew it was out of pity. He had always told them that the fact that they had stuck with him all these years was gift enough. He remembered all the moments he had thanked them for that, and wished he had done it more, for now he would never be able to do it again. He would never see their faces again.

The full moon was approaching. The charts told him it was only a few days away. He could feel it too. In only a few days his body would change in excruciating pain. His skin would be lacerated as his figure shifted and morphed. This would be his first full moon alone since his beginning years at school. Even with the war going on, someone had always been there with him. It was a luxury he never thought he would have to miss. So many things would be like that now. The things he had taken for granted, the simple things, were never to be experienced again.

His fingers clutched the prophet, knuckles going red as the mere force of the grasp tore holes in the paper. His mind kept reeling, and going back to the images his imagination had concocted, the ones of his best friends lying there, dead. His mind thought of Sirius, left to go mad in prison for crimes Remus had never imagined he could commit.

Everything he thought to be true, his whole word was different. He couldn't feel anything, not the wall against his back, or the floor beneath him, or the breaths he took.

All he could think of was the lives that had been lost, and all he wanted, was to join them.

An: Written for the Test Your Limits Competition: Round 2, The Hunger Games Trilogy Challenge - Foxface: Write about someone in a situation they think death would be preferable