It Started With a Cigarette

In the end it was the smoke that brought them down. The flames they could see, the fire they could hear, so they ran and ran until they could run no more. Smoke was everywhere and from within its grasp they could no longer see a way to the air. The harder they ran the harder they breathed and the more the smoke consumed them, until at last they surrendered and lay down and the smoke covered them and tucked them in and brought to them the gift of dreams and the sleep of a longer night.