"SQUEEB! SQUEEEEEEEB!! SQUEEEEEEEEE" The sapling endlessly shreaked in pain as Fauna, bored, toyed with it. Behind her were hundreds of others, all dead, most mutilated beyond recognition. With a flick of her nail she sliced the saplings eye and drove her finger into the empty socket to silence the squeebing. Throwing the corpse over her shoulder Fauna sighed, then stood, wiping the blood on her finger off on a leaf. Eyes glanced and stared out of the bushes and sapling coos and giggles could be heard from the leaves, and their scurrying about like oh so many rodents.

A sneer of loathing darkened Fauna's face. She was tired of being around these pathetic things, listening to their babbling and whining. She whirled and left the great glade, tramping out into the forest proper. Nature was fine, but being alone among saplings had become intolerable. She meant to see Mumei.

Tears staining her eyes, Mumei looked across her domain and saw only brutalist buildings and towers belching smoke and flame. Industry indeed? Was this what this is? Progress? Making living conditions unbearable? What's the point of making life better if one lived half what one was supposed to? She jumped from the height of the art-deco tower, landing amongst the masked people and their umbrellas. Navys and browns and blacks and grays were all she could see. Where was all the color? All the life? A hacking cough came from an alleyway, and she ducked inside to see an emaciated boy, no older than 16. His face was gaunt, his eyes sunken. Liquid feces dripped from the seat of his pants, he had long stopped trying to make it to the toilet or even a secluded area. He coughed hard again, and covered his face with the palm and two fingers that were all that was left of his right hand. His left arm a stump. He held his hand out to her, his cracked, dehydrated lips smiling. "Angel? An angel from hea...ven..." He slumped to the ground, his chest rattling as his eyes began to dim. The cholera and whooping cough finally taking him.

Mumei let her tears run free as she fled down the alley, running from outstretched hands in need and cries of help. Into the street filled with darkness where she was invisible. The overcast sky lanced lightening across it, even what would normally be a brilliant blue was a muted angry purple. The clouds opened and began to weep, and the rain burned with acid. Mumei screamed and fell to her knees, powerless in this world of her industry. The acid water washed over her, burning her skin.

She was ignored as she wept.

Edit
Pub: 21 Feb 2023 13:32 UTC
Views: 178