During one of the hottest summers in the century, on the outskirts of Neverwinter, in a little industrial town named Mechley, a child was born. Behind some buildings in an alleyway amongst the unwanted rotting garbage, where swarms of flies feasted, a faint figure stumbled wearily out of the alleyway and disappeared into the streets; leaving the child on the ground, covered in blood and the soft red dust that carpeted the entire town of Mechley.
The pounding of the machines from the nearby coal mine covered his loud shrieks of cry for his mother. It wasn’t until later in the evening, when the machines ceased working, that the now raspy cry of the child was heard. A crowd gathered around the breathing flesh caked in blood and dust, staring at the helpless child, murmuring to others of their sympathies. It was then decided that someone should take the newborn in and raise him, however no one dared to volunteer, for the town itself was in poverty. It was already hard as it is, trying to feed the whole family, let alone another mouth. In a town where one had to sell their daughters off to brothels in nearby cities in order to make ends meet, no one was willing to be the hero.
Clinging onto life, trying to survive, the child continues to cry. However, the choice to live was not his. The crowd stood still and a man stepped forward. With his bare hands he dug a hole into the soft red earth. Holding back his tears he wiped his dirty hands on his clothes, and gently picked up the infant. Heads fell down. Silence grew. The child stopped crying, for he knew there was no hope; the cries from beneath the earth cannot be heard.
Hottest Summer
A short story about an infant’s struggle for the right to live.
Damian, about 1 year ago
Aww, that’s sad! I didn’t think you would kill the baby, so that was a surprise. The last paragraph has a lot of impact.