Member-only story
The Boy
A twelve-year-old child is locked in an Attic
The boy huddled in the corner, holding his battered Teddy Bear close to his chest. The stench coming from his potty did not bother him after twelve years in isolation.
This dark, damp loft had been his world for as long as he could remember.
His mother, a religious woman, an ex-Sunday school teacher, had regretted ever giving birth to the bastard, as she liked to call him. The shame of being raped thirteen years ago was her secret, one she would take to the grave.
The unnamed boy brushed away cobwebs and squinted when the daily offending light hurt his eyes through the half-inch crack that allowed him a view of the world.
He focused one eye at a time on the green grass swaying and felt the cool breeze coming off a sea he had never touched, enthralled with the squabbling of seagulls over bits of bread thrown by children like himself.
Books were one of the rare luxuries that he was allowed.
He cocked his head to the side to hear the children playing, their joyful screams reaching his dungeon-like existence before he turned his back and sat cuddling his Teddy, tears streaming from his eyes.
He had not experienced human contact besides brief sessions with his mother. The light through the crack shone on…
