Destructive Embers — a Phoenix Arises
Fiction Prompt from PromptlyWritten Publications
It isn’t gray rubble, as once foretold.
The destruction of this world is far worse. The piercing lights excavate the land. One’s blinded by the lights of advertisements and vulgar images for all ages. The gluttony gorged on for decades finally gave way and society got everything they ever wanted — no restrictions for desires.
Too many scents contradict one another, too much trash litters the pavements. I huddle in the dark alley corner, too small to be taken by surprise from behind. It’s relatively safe but for how long?
How did we get here? No one liked being told, no.
People craved that which felt like a sin to hunger and became more determined to get it.
Inch by inch they picked at societal norms and hide their demons behind people of power and wealth. It was a matter of time before they’d surprise the rest of us with what they’ve been able to do all along in secret. Only now, they found enough allies to make their nefarious desires the new normal.
Watching her last breath and the pool beneath her broke something inside me that no eleven-year-old should witness but these were the times of freedom and liberty for all. After I was captured, they trained me for their carnal delights but for the last two years, I’ve been running away from the demands they initiated and set for rations and dwellings.
The things we’ve had to become in order to survive. I hate what they’ve made us because yes, there is a, they. It always starts with the greed of few and builds to appease the greed of many.
I was told once that children were innocent and gregarious in nature. They’d run joyously not out of fear or death. They’d play and only know so much of the world instead of too much. How must that have been to hear songs of a parent’s lullaby and laughter under the sun?
The sun. So much of what I’ve seen in pictures of blue skies and radiant streaks of golden glow is now clouded by soot and smoke that coats the air, you choke on the taste.
People sell that most precious to them for a taste of what the privileged have because there’s always those higher in their borrowed towers — their false safety from the world they created.
Innocence is a pastime and I only know lack, anger, vengeance for what could have been mine. With all that we’ve lost, I refuse to live and die like this. I’m determined to find a piece of solitude and turn it into my own haven of true freedom, love, and beauty.
What is beauty? The smallest of things kissed by the sun can be beautiful and I’m on a quest to find as many as I can.
I won’t be from the last generation that knew of such serenity. They’re all getting what they want — well, I want something too. I want hope for myself and all those who come after me.
