Veils

Charis smiled sadly, looking at her little boy’s face. If everything went according to the government's plan, she would never see it again. A tear slipped down her face as she caught him up in a tight hug. She pressed a card into his hand.
“Don’t you lose that card,” Charis warned, wiping a smudge of dirt off of his face and straightening his ragged clothes the best she could. “If you let go and drop it, you won’t get a better life. You don’t want that, do you?”
He shook his head hard, gripping the thin plastic as hard as he could with both small hands. “I wanna stay here.” He whispered, looking down at his feet. “I wanna stay with mommy.”
“Rilo.” She said firmly. “You’re going. You’re not staying here and starving like mommy. You can’t.” Her head shot up as a man in uniform carefully shut the door to the building they were waiting in. The lights flickered violently with the small movement, causing an annoyed expression to cross his face briefly before it settled back into calm and professional.  
“Now,” He said, straightening the badge on his white coat. “We will need all of the participating children to please line up in single file for inspection.” He smiled coldly
“Go,” Charis said quietly, pushing Rilo forward slightly and smiling sadly. She checked to make sure he was still gripping the card. “You’ll be fine, trust me. This is for your own good, even though it doesn't seem like it now."
Rilo stumbled forward slightly, shuffling the rest of the way to line up with the other kids. He stood as straight as he could, even though the man’s gaze felt withering as it passed over him. Charis had wiped all of the grime off of his face before they had left the hole where they lived. His cheeks were rosy and as healthy looking as they had ever been from her frantic scrubbing. He glanced back at his frail mother, kneeling on the hard dirt and still keeping the sad smile on her face. Even at that young age, he knew that having five children had taken too much out of her. This would be one of the last times he saw her, whether or not he made it past the final stages. 
Category:Literature
Category:Original Stories
Category:Original Stories (Unfinished)
Category:Stories