Still Waters, Volume 4, Issue 4

Page 10

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


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