Tinsel McSparkles

Rue

Morning came slowly, beginning at the farthest edges of the night and creeping toward the center of the sky. Rue watched the sun fight the moon for its place in the daytime sky. He was just reaching the end of his morning walk, his house coming into view. It was a nice house, middle class, so not extravagant but not shambles. He closed his eyes and breathed in the morning. The silence, the freshness, the dew, the slight chill despite it being late summer. The other houses in the neighborhood were coming to life with the sun. Kids getting ready for school, parents getting ready for work, elderly couples who get up out of habit. His house was the only one on the street that remained dark. No one was greeting the new day there. No one was breathing in the fresh morning. No one wanted the world to continue its orbit there. Not that house. Not anymore.