Up Chuck

The girl was sitting on the concrete, her legs jutted out at uncomfortable angles, her arms limp at her sides like an old broken doll. Tears streamed from her eyes and recollected in her open, gaping socket of a mouth. Her dress was torn, ragged, and dirty as was her skin. Stripes on her cheeks shone pink from where her tears had eroded the dirt and chapped her flesh.

Behind her, goblins poured out of the door in hordes, each one armed. As they passed their simultaneous queen and harlot, they kicked her, spit on her, pulled at her already disheveled clothes. The girl failed to notice, her eyes reflecting the haunting absence of spirit, displaying the hollow echo left from where her soul had evacuated the quickly growing cavern of her mind.

The goblins snickered, some delighting in her suffering, others kissing her head as a sign of respect as they passed. None bothered to help her. She alone had led them to the surface. She needed to sit and see the benefits of a naive girl's labor.

Once they chamber was full, they opened the door to the sunlight. Natural light flooded into the dimly lit room, blinding all the goblins foolish enough to keep their eyes open the entire time. The others, the older and wiser ones who remembered the light, thrived under the warmth of the sun.

-Samm