man in his worn leather seat, empty cans
brushed off the pebbles stuck in her
on the floor near him.
delicate feet and gazed upon the snoring
She wished her mom could have seen her tonight.
Humanity by Caroline Samoluk She sat at the wooden desk, gross
need it. She clicked on a tab. LinkedIn.
yellow lamp light burning sickeningly just
Nothing. Another email, another email.
above her head. Its brightness somehow
The window rattled. She jumped
made her feel more tired, more worn
out of her reverie and put her glasses back
down. A dead sun. The tea-filled mug sat
on. Nothing. She sipped the bitter tea. I
at her right hand, staring across the desk
need the caffeine.
into the outdoors. Flakes of ground black tea freckled the bottom.
Her thoughts wandered down the darkened streets and back to the hospital,
Elizabeth sighed, her breath full of
and the man who had been brought in by
something too heavy and too muddled to
his daughter. He had barely been able to
label. Disappointed in me. She scoffed. If
breathe for all the blood and the daughter
only her parents knew the things she had
had panic in her eyes. They all knew it was
seen. Seen and done.
hopeless. What a day it had been; what a
At some point within the last year she had come to the conclusion that humans were very fragile. Not mentally, necessarily, or emotionally, but physically.
week, what a year! She almost broke her mug as the pane rattled again. Opening the window, she stuck her
They died much too easily. It was a wonder
head outside. A long way down and
to Elizabeth how humans as a whole had
nothing else, at first glance. She nearly
come so far. In that moment, she struggled
missed it, but there it was. A dark shadow
to recognize herself as one.
with a human form, hovering untethered.
She pulled her glasses off her face and began typing again. Always another
email, like a never ending stream. Please, I
years of use. She stepped inside,
But there was no humanity in this figure, only darkness. Fiction 7
