Empty Air (BxB) (short story)

Breathe

The gray, naked wall enclosed him, suffocating him in his body. Just another shell to protect what was left of his soul. The room was bitter cold, but he was used to it. The blanket was only just a thin material and the mattress was hard and cruel, all the things he was used to. Coming from a poor, broken home, he couldn't afford much. Not even some royalties once in awhile. He stayed laying in place, staring into space, up at the gray cracked ceiling peppered with black mold in the discolored corner. He was staring but not necessarily at the ceiling itself. Maybe what he hoped for was actually beyond that wall.

He blinked away any hopes in his head and sat up. Silence. But how long will this remain? No one knew for sure. One leg over the mattress, its mate following after. He just sat there for a minute, breathing calmly, taking it all in. Taking in another day that he wakes up, realizing he's alive.

You made it this far, he thought. Just keep it up for Kiara. The only person who really needs you.

He got to his feet and walked across the gray, dusty bedroom floor, the small box of a room, and stepped into the dark hallway. It seemed the dark could go on forever, but as he walked, the dark seemed to move farther and farther away.

"Kiara?"

He quietly opened her bedroom door. In the shadows of the small room, he made out a tiny figure curled up under a faded pink quilt. He slowly crept in to get a good look. Her long brown hair was twisted under her head on the worn, yellow pillow. He could hear her breathing soundly, deep in slumber. He sighed softly.

She's safe, he thought, relieved.

He turned and crept out of her room, quietly closing her door behind him. He knew he had to wake her soon for school, but he let her sleep in a little more. Grey slowly released the rusting knob and backed away from her door. His feet turned and guided him passed the room they called the kitchen and out the cracked sliding glass door. His bare feet touched a cracked up concrete porch. Grey took in the site of a barren city. Buildings dark, hollow shells of what was once a busy place-maybe years ago-possibly even before he was born. Skies poisoned with pollution from the past few generations hung over the city. He could be breathing in Promethium for all he knew. Or Radon or even Mercury. Either way, the air was radioactive and the Earth was sick. But as evolution evolved the cavemen, Grey was apart of the generation that evolved to endure hostile conditions. Grey took in a deep breath. A 17 year old parent among many alone and forced to scavenge, not only for himself but for family. Or what family he had. But even life went on as best as it could. He felt a slight tug on his tattered sweatpants. He looked down at Kiara who stared up at him with eyes so wide and blue he wondered if he could see clear, blue skies again.

He squatted down to her eye level, taking her small hands in his large rough ones.

"Hey, are you ready for school?"

The 4 year old nodded, rubbing one of her eyes with a tiny fist. He picked her up and opened the door and stepped inside, sliding the door shut and turning the lock. He carried her back to her room and dressed her. He held in his dinner from 3 nights ago. He hated sending her off to school hungry. He really did, but there wasn't anything he could do.

"Here," he pulled out a leftover piece of bread from a few nights ago. "This was my lunch for work, but you need it."

She took it and chewed on it slowly, savoring each bite. A thing he taught her months ago.

"Ready?"

She nodded and took his hand. He walked her down the hall and to the barricaded front door. He slowly and precisely picked off the locks and wooden boards then opened the weak wooden door, barely hanging on its hinges. He tugged it open with a grunt. A dry fall wind blew in. He guided her out the door, tugging it shut behind him with his free hand. The yard, or what was once a yard, was all gray ash. Only a flat yard of all ash with black soot. Or what he hoped was soot and not a bunch of decomposed once living corpses who knows what.