Flash Fiction Friday Challenge prompt: Endless Greed
It was a nightmare.
There was a hole. A hole in his heart that needed filling.
A hole his mother left.
It was greedy. Very greedy.
It wanted to swallow him up whole, to consume him.
He needs to fight it. He had brothers to care for. They need him.
But it is hard.
Every day the hole gets larger, gets greedier.
An endless greed.
It's harder to fight.
There must be something he can do to fill the hole?
Please?
Caring for his brothers helped. Did help. It doesn't seem to help anymore.
He looks to filling the hole with other things, things he hopes his brothers never find out.
Speed.
Thrills.
Cigarettes.
Alcohol.
Sex.
But they offer only temporary fulfilment and then the hole is back.
Maybe this endless greed will eat him up.
Swallow him up and spit him out.
Maybe he should just run.
Run away and leave everything behind. Everyone behind.
But that thought leaves a different kind of hole in his heart.
And he can't. He can't.
They are his breath. His reason for living.
Then one day someone puts a hand on his shoulder.
And turns him around. Staring at him.
And he looks into eyes that he has known all his life.
They are sad.
He feels guilty.
He put that pain there.
He did.
He wasn't good enough.
And the greed grows, sensing an opening.
It is about to devour him.
And then the hand is pulling.
Pulling him into a hug.
Arms are holding him tight.
And the greedy hole is lessening.
There is a hand in his hair.
The endless greed is loosening its' hold on him.
But it is fighting.
'I am so sorry, son.'
His breath hitches.
And the hole is almost gone.
'You've done good.'
A pinprick.
'I love you, son.'
A sob.
And it's gone.
The ache is there still, but the hole has gone.
It's been filled.
Maybe he can heal now.
Maybe.
