A Hollow in the Darkness

A Hollow in the Darkness

FEATURED in the WDC. Newsletter: Short Stories - Editor's Picks - by Shannon , December 30, 2015


“Sorry. I didn’t mean to bump you.”

“It’s OK. We are so many.”

“Yes.”

“It seems that the two lines became - one.”

“Yes.”

“I feel awkward, you know, this way. Besides, they didn’t give me my---my pass.”

“What pass?”

“Don’t you have one?”

“No, I don’t. I’m from the other line.”

“Ah well I don’t know but I feel so strange this way - naked.”

“Me too.”

“Which... one are you from?”

“Birkenau. And you?”

“Treblinka.”

“Will we ever go home?”

“We might.”

“Yes... maybe.”

“Did---did you hear that?”

“Yes.”

“It’s scary in all this silence.”

“Yes. I think they’re killing wild animals.”

“Why?”

“They’re evil. They are the meanest people ever. Don’t you worry now.”

“See? Again. It never stops.”

“Listen… are you alone here?”

“Yes. And you?”

“Yes. I lost contact with them in the ghetto.”

“I’m so hungry.”

“And I am so thirsty. I don’t remember what water tastes like anymore.”

“Why are we naked in a line in the woods? Why are they doing this to us? It’s so humiliating. I’m a woman. I’m a human being not an animal---and---and I have nothing more to live for. I didn’t even pray last night, you know.”

“I understand you. I’m a man and I feel useless, helpless; abandoned. I can’t change what’s done but I can talk about it; think about it and keep it alive in my mind. You should.”

“What for? We will be dead soon - each and every person in this - line. Don’t  you think that I don’t know what’s going on? If you turn around, you’ll see. There are so many of us.”

“Maybe this is why they hate us.”

“Why?”

“We are so many… and we don’t stop coming. They don’t know what to do with us anymore.”

“I want my pass.”

“There’s no pass. It’s a one way trip.”

“But...”

“Please, don’t cry. Be---be strong.”

“Did you notice those women covering their breasts and men covering their private parts? I wonder why. I was observing this.”

“We cover our vulnerability. We cover to expose - their shame. Don’t worry about this. It might stop, you know.”

“The shootings?”

“Yes. Evil needs to stop or darkness will rule forever.”

"Yes."

“This has been going on day and night for 7 days. We talk to one another in the lines. We whisper our names… Bathia, Isaac, Chava, Abraham, Olga, Adar… so that the last one will remember the names in case he or she… survives.”

“Do you think people know?”

"No, not all."

“Most of them cover their eyes and ears...”

“I wonder if they are able to sleep at night...”

“It’s getting closer! I can see them. Oh look at those guns.”

“Look at me!”

“Look at that enormous pit… full of us!

“I’m Benjamin!”

“I’m Anna!”

“It’s my turn now, Anna.”

“Benjamin, will it hurt?”

“Not as much as what you already feel in your heart."

“I will never forget you... Oh... Oh Benjamin...”

“And I, you, Anna. I will close my eyes now because I want my last thought to be of you looking at me... with your long, black hair, your somber, gray eyes and your tears rolling down your lovely face. Why---why---are your tears so dark?”


Words: 515
(Written for The Dark Euphoria Contest)