Last Innocent Record

In my time working with the archives, I’ve noticed there’s usually a final moment where the writer still believes the situation will resolve cleanly. They talk about ‘when this is over’ or ‘once things return to normal.’ I’ve been looking for that moment in our collective records here, and I don’t see it. No one is talking about ‘after’ anymore. We’re only talking about ‘now.’ Which means we’ve already passed the point of hope. We’ve accepted that this isn’t a temporary break in the story—it’s the start of a new, much darker chapter. We are past the resolution. We are just in the thick of it.