*Mentions of child abuse, rape, and child neglect.
~
"Taio Alexander Shelton is the next to judge you."
"A little kid?"
"You killed her."
"Who did I kill?"
A woman with brown hair shoved Isabella out of the path of the car.
"My mommy."
The woman was lying in the hospital bed. The heart monitor started flatlining.
"She died to save you from the car crash."
The little boy, Taio, held hands with a woman who led him towards a couple.
"I was put in foster care."
The man backhanded Taio, who then fell to the ground and was kicked in the ribs.
"I was abused, raped, starved. Brought to house after house, family after family. No one wanted me. I was in that situation because my mommy decided to be a hero and died saving you."
Isabella kneeled in front of the little boy and brushed his tears away. "I'm so so sorry that happened to you, Taio. You didn't deserve any of that. If I could, I would make sure I was the one who was hit instead of her."
Taio nodded his head, his curls bouncing, and like Isabella's mother, disappeared.
She stood up and angrily scrubbed the tears from her face.
Her voice cracked as she spoke, "I'm ready for the next person."
YOU ARE READING
The Murdered and the Saved
Short StoryIsabella Grace Ellwood thought that the afterlife was an instantaneous decision, Heaven or Hell. Reincarnation or Purgatory. Instead, she has to be judged by people that she affected throughout her life. Eight people, eight thoughts, one decision.
