What Not to Do With your Stories + Other Randomness

Useless

*NOT A RANT*

"Useless!" 

                   "Useless!"

                                       "Useless!"

The words echo in her head. 

She can hear the exact same words being uttered in this house. She wants to help the child, to take it out of it's misery. She can hear the meeting between flesh and flesh- it pains her to imagine the sting of the slap. 

At last when all is dark, she tiptoes into the house, unseen by a soul. She grimaces at the sight that meets her eyes and spies the little boy laying entangled in his sheets. She steps upon a rotting floorboard and winces internally at the squeak. She reaches out and taps on the little boy's bony shoulder. 

"Come along, my dear boy." she whispers as he stirs awake. 

He pads behind her in his dirtied and torn pajamas. "Where are we going?" he asks and looks up at her, wide-eyed. 

She steps over the glass that litters the hallway. "you'll see," she whispers as she places a finger on her lips. 

They walk out of the house together, leaving the door swinging in the cloudless night. She stares at the little boy's face; at the blood sliding down his pajama top, at his matted curls and feels pity in her heart for she was once just like this little boy. She was once just as afraid and just as lost. For this young boy, she feels the need to protect. 

But when she was but a wee babe, she wasn't stupid. 

She wouldn't have followed a stranger out of the house. 

She takes the little boy's hand and together they walk to a ramshackle hut behind the woods. The little boy has begun to fall asleep, he rubs his eyes with his fists and yawns, "are we there yet?"

"Yes, my dear boy, we are here." Her eyes glint with malice. 

She slowly brings out a handkerchief and smacks it upon his face. He falls to the floor in a heap in mere seconds. She carries him in her arms into the hut and sets him down on the table. Her kitchen knives glint from their place on the counters. She chooses a thin blade and walks over to the boy. Her hands swipe across his neck and a thin red line appears. She scoops him into her arms and begins to walk into the forest, the stones crunching beneath her steps. 

"Hush little baby, don't you cry

mama's gonna buy you..."