It's sounds horrible but it touches me when people tell me they've cried or shed a bit of tears over this because it means I touched someone with writing.
I purposely left the ending vague--but when I wrote it, I was leaning towards something more hopeful (and I did have a better future in mind for them)--and I did drop hints towards that. Of course, people have different perspectives and I've had a couple of people who disregarded the hints and would like to see the ending as tragic, and that's fine as well.
Thank you for commenting ♥