- Zombine
- |
- Fabled Legendary Member
Alright, here goes then. Wrote this a year ago as part of an interview to be hired as a writer on a virtual novel, but the project fell through. It's just two pages.
Posted by: iwritestories
Posted by: Zombine
It was a little interesting, but fairly repetitive. Same complaints as described above. Would anyone mind if I posted a short story I wrote? We could turn this into a Floodian writing thread.
that would be amazing!
Adrian sat in the corner, tears rolling down his eyes as he tried not to think of the body in the next room, or that the only thing he felt was relieved. He shivered and hugged the wall closer and asked himself how he could only feel relief. How could he ever forgive himself now? He was a monster, and no one would understand why he did it and he would go to jail for the rest of his life. He tried to calm himself by saying it was the only option he had, but he knew deep down that it was a lie. It was his fault for putting them in this situation and he alone was responsible. There was no getting around it.
Slowly he pulled himself off the ground and inched himself around the corner. He could just see the feet, but he was too scared to move forward. He started to sink back to the ground again but forced himself forward. He walked to the body and rolled it over. The body was so light and Adrian could see the boy's ribs through the skin which had sunk from malnourishment. Adrian rolled the body over and kissed the boy's forehead as tears rolled off his cheeks onto the boy's face.
"I'm so, so sorry," Adrian said. He got up and searched for a blanket and covered the body up. He said goodbye one last time and walked out the door into the darkened streetway, safe from the eyes of the authorities. He shivered from the cold, drew his thin blanket around his body and walked down the street to the lit area and stepped past the scanners that were placed at every corner.
The buildings in this area of the city were old; they had been around since before the war and rarely were passed over by the watchful blimps that crowded the skies of the inner city. A person couldn't get away with anything in the inner city, and could rarely escape to the outer areas without being questioned and searched. You could never reenter the inner city unless you flew in, and none of the residents of the outer city could afford that. It was a lawless area, the only of its kind on the entire Eastern seaboard. The authorities rarely bothered policing the out city, which made it a haven for criminals and the dangerous. The outer city was extremely poor, and one would often find back-alley shop that would pay for body parts and would sell those on the black market. Adrian was only fourteen, but he had already sold two fingers and a toe just to afford food.
Adrian walked up to the noodle stand as the bright purple fluorescent lights of a spinner, an older hovercraft model that was used regularly in the outer city, zipped behind him on the street. "I haven't seen you in two weeks!" said the fat man behind the stand. "You've got to be damn hungry, have you sold another finger? I've got a fresh batch of noodles, they're only three days old! Say, where's that brother of yours?"
The question stung Adrian to his core. It hurt worse than when he gave up his finger for a mere bowl of food. He could feel tears springing up to his eyes and blinked so they wouldn't pour down his face. "Oh, well, at least you've got more food for yourself now," the man said. "Now, are you going to buy something or what? There's a line behind you, now buy something or scram!"
Adrian turned and left the line, walking out into the street. He was blinded by the tears in his face as he thought of his little brother. He was going to turn six next month, and Adrian was going to sell another toe so he could afford a present. It would have been his brother's first birthday present since their dad killed their mother, then turned the gun on himself. Adrian had raised his brother since then. It had started out fine, squatting in the pre-war buildings and stealing whatever they could. They had managed to get by until last year, when a drug kingpin took over the building and kicked them out. It had all been downhill from there.
It got to the point where Adrian could no longer afford to feed his brother, so he started selling his appendages to afford food but it wasn't enough. Last week his brother had become sick, and even if Adrian had sold himself into slavery he wouldn't be able to afford any medicine. He struggled for days to think of a way to take care of his brother, but to no avail. That morning he realized he couldn't save his brother no matter how many limbs he sold or however many years of slavery he sold himself for. He snuck his brother into a pre-war building and played games with him all day long, trying to make his last day as nice as possible. When his brother went to sleep, Adrian cried and cried, desperately trying to avoid it but he knew his brother would only starve to death or die a slow death from his illness. He snuck over to his sleeping brother and suffocated him. He felt his little brother struggle, and then go limp. Adrian walked to the next room and cried and cried and eventually fell asleep. He didn't know how long he was asleep, but it felt like an eternity.
Adrian saw the purple lights out of the corner of his eyes and turned to see a spinner rushing toward him. He tried to move out of the way but the spinner hit him. He felt the vehicle crush his chest as he was sucked under it, and he lay on the ground unable to move. He could feel blood pooling under him and looked around for help, but no one in line at the stand came over to help him. Some just stood there watching him and others walked off. Not even the man in the spinner came back. He laid there in his own blood, unable to breathe as everything started to fade. He started seeing hallucinations of his brother.
"I'm so sorry," Adrian cried out, "I wasn't able to take care of you." His brother leaned closer and whispered into his ear "I forgive you." Adrian looked back up for his brother but he was gone. He leaned his head back and gasped one last time for air, then smiled as everything faded away.