Tag: short story

Negligence

Unable to face the dagger-eyed crowd, the student counsellor hung his head. He had failed them all.

And as a consequence, all their families were now shredded to pieces. There was no way he could reverse what had happened. He had failed as a father and now it was time he paid the price.

He didn’t look at the boy; couldn’t recognise the twisted, convoluted child standing trial for rampaging his school, gunning down classmates and teachers alike.

Davis blamed himself. He had spent a lifetime analysing behavioural patterns in other children, failing to recognise it in his own.

What the Heart Wants

“Hey, you! Get your head inside, and listen to the class.”

His geology teacher bellowed, making David jump out of his reverie. He had been peeping through the window, staring at the moon’s reflection in the puddle outside his night school.

He faced her, still quite lost in his thoughts. The teacher’s half-moon spectacles gleamed under the dim light and he thought her face shone as bright as the Sirius A.

But her charm wasn’t enough to attract him to geology. His mind swayed higher above the ground, his soul soaring the skies. His deepest desires lay in the stars.

When Nature Calls

He had ten seconds to enter the correct combination of letters, numbers, and special characters. He bore the responsibility of an entire world. He was the only chance of saving all those people. If he failed to get back in the field, he’d lose all his hard word. He didn’t mind starting over, but it would be devastating to those who depended on his success.

And yet, he had been careless. He had rushed back, but the system had already locked him out. Frantic, he typed. The text box jiggled, indicating a mistyped password.

Video games seldom considered bathroom breaks.

Letting her go

Feeble, she couldn’t eat any more. Doctors said she’d soon move on. He wept, yet knew it was best. She had taken too much pain and painkillers that failed. She had endured injection after injection while he sifted through test reports.

He had done all to help, keep, and guard her. He could hold on no more; her weakening heart begged to let go.

He sat by her side, listening to the declining rhythm of her heartbeat. He looked at her closed eyes and smiled, remembering their first meeting.

A trash collector, he had found her purring in the dumpster.