Short Stories with emphasis on the Short

Anathema

It was on the last day of the month that Tien decided she'd had enough. She'd had enough of her job, that dusty office which always seems to be either freezing or burning up. She'd had enough of her apartment, creaky and stinking of booze despite her aversion to alcohol. She'd had it with the neighbours, the colleagues and the family that never called unless they wanted something from her. Put simply, she'd had enough of her life. She wanted to see what existed outside of it, beyond the city limits. So that day, the last day of the month, she left to see what else there was out there, to get away from her normal Nothing. She put on her favourite jacket, the red one that just reached to her waist, packed a small bag, left a note for the nice lady upstairs, and was on her way.

First she passed her neighborhood, then her office. Eventually, she reached a part of town she'd never even seen before. Metal and neon was slowly being replaced with stone, and then, with nothing. The ground seemed almost to tremble as she stepped on it, not used to being trampled by human feet.

She walked for a long time, waiting for the wasteland to be replaced with trees, forests and the nature she'd read so much about as a child. But the further she went, the more she realised there really was nothing out there. Instead of trees, there were metal poles erupting from the earth like thorns. No rivers ran throughout the landscape, only dried up cracks spreading like lightning on a clear night.

She continued on, every step bringing her further away from her hometown. The sun burned against her back. She felt the blisters form on her feet. But she still continued walking. She knew there must be something out there, other then scarred earth and blistering sunlight. The sun had long since set, and she shuddered against the brisk winds. After what seemed to her like days she finally reached something. Before her was a large ocean, the largest she'd ever seen. She took a few steps forward, the soft white sand sinking slightly beneath her heels. No matter how far she looked, the shore seemed to stretch on infinitely in both directions. But, there, faintly in the distance on the other side of the vast sea she noticed a flicker of light. Her eyes lit up. She'd found it! That must have been what she was looking for. If only she could get to it...

She stayed there on the shore for a while, contemplating her situation. She had to get over there, but there didn't seem to be any bridges as far as she could see. Perhaps she could build a boat? Tien didn't actually know how to build a boat -or even a raft for that matter- but she still lingered on the thought, chewing it over in her mind. She looked around herself for anything she could use as material, but of course there was nothing but sand, scarred earth and metal poles. Could metal float? She didn't think so. The revelation that she couldn't build a boat even if she knew how to dampered her enthusiasm somewhat. She put her hand to her chin in thought. What if she didn't need a boat? Perhaps she could just swim across? Yeah, that sounded reasonable. She was pretty fit, and her swimming scores had always been high back when she was in school. And she remembered reading somewhere about someone who'd swam across a lake. The light didn't seem too far off, so it was probably doable. She nodded to herself. Yes, that was it. She'd swim across and that's how she'd get there. She took a few steps forward, the sand rustling beneath her. Just as she was about to reach the shoreline, she felt a warm hand on her shoulder.

"Please don't."

Tien whirled around, hand flying up to slap away whoever it was who just dared touch her.

"Sorry," said the newcomer with a wry smile. Tien said nothing, she only stared at him. He was a young man, exactly how young she couldn't tell, but definitely younger than her. He was short, the top of his head just barely reaching her chin. His clothes were tattered and looked well worn, but he didn't seem uncomfortable. His eyes glimmered in the darkness.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Tien snarled. The man raised his hands in defence.

"Hey, chill out! I'm just trying to stop you from doing something stupid."