Black-Hearted

Abe’s worn sneakers lose grip causing him to stumble down the very hill that he struggled to climb. The clatter of junk goes every which way as Beth hurries to check on her husband. He allows her to help him to his feet, rubbing the burning patch on his back.

“I told you to watch your step”. Beth gripes. She walks forward ignoring the groans and moans of her spouse. The sudden squeal of a baby snaps their head in the direction. Abe slowly walks over to the huge crate that he recently crashed into. A baby boy comes to his view. He turns on his heels, casually telling his wife that it, “must have been a stray wounded dog or something”. Knowing her well enough to know that she would want to bring the baby along if she were to see him. She humps her shoulders as they continue their scavenger of the landfill for food.

After searching high and low with no luck, a fatigued Beth decides to take a break. She lays over the smelly, and even rotten items of garbage from people’s homes in busy New York City. Discouraged, she begins to weep. Abe embraces his wife tenderly as she cries on his shoulder.

“Another day with no food”. He rubs her shoulders whispering that everything is going to be alright. He reaches to wipe her tears.

“How will it be okay?” She presses her palms flat into his chest, shoving him away. “You always say that…. everything will be okay. God will make a way”. She shoves him again. “Well, where the hell is God now?” She growls in frustration as she begins to blurt out every obscenity known to man. Abe’s head drops, defeated. His heart was extremely heavy as he, himself, wondered where God was.

A loud crash grabs both of their attention. Beth rubs her eyes to see if her eyes are deceiving her. Near a black crate lies some leftover food from what looks like a catering job. She gathers all of her strength to beat her husband to the treasure that she discovered. They scarf down half eaten rolls and chicken while stuffing all other food items they find into their pockets and small bags. Abe lifts his arms in the air to say his prayer of thanks. Beth slaps his hand before he can get a word out. She nastily wags her finger in his face.

“And don't you dare think to thank God for this”. She waves her arms around the landfill they are in the middle of. “Do you think that he would have us here?” She scoffs at the dumb look on his face. “One day you will get that through your stupid head. He doesn't love you”. Pain rushes through Abe’s chest like a heart murmur as his wife's words begin to hold some truth to him. Suddenly, the loud cries of a baby are heard not far from him. Abe grumbles under his breath when he realizes that they are in the very spot that he purposely tried to avoid.

“Aww, what is this?” Beth crawls to her feet to have a look. She exclaims, “Look! It’s a baby”. She coos as the baby stares wide eyed back at her. Abe turns his back slowly to peek over at the baby. He loves kids himself, but something deep inside of him is telling him to run… and far far away at that.

“We can’t just leave him here, Abe”. He rests his chin on his fist as his wife goes on and on about what they should name him and how they are going to care for him like he is their own.

“You can’t sanely think that we could care for him either, Beth”. For the first time, he voices his disagreements with his wife. The look he receives makes him instantly regret even doing so.

“I know what it is”. She scoffs, speaking too calmly. “It’s because it’s an African American baby, huh?”

Abe snaps his head in her direction, clearly offended. The ethnicity of the baby is far from the reason for not wanting to care for him and she knows that.

He shakes his head at her. “Not today, Satan. You won’t steal my joy”. He hears the baby giggle from behind him and he turns to see his wife and the baby playing a simple game of pull my finger. He absentmindedly smiles at their encounter. The baby’s eyes dart in his direction and he reaches for Abe. Staring into those doe eyes makes it extremely hard for Abe to hold his ground. He turns his head away when he hears his wife call his name.

“Baby, can you say, don’t be like that, Abe”. Beth baby talks. “Say, c’mon Abe”. She starts to chant his name over and over again. The baby spits and coos as he says something that almost resembles his name. No longer being able to ignore it, Abe turns and reaches for the kid.

A dark figure runs down the midnight streets dressed in a black cloak. The hysterical cries of the woman ring through the streets as she runs with no destination in mind. She stumbles, clutching her heart-shaped locket, revealing a baby in her arms. The baby babbles and spits up, oblivious to what is going on. She continues to run, hoping that someone...anyone would stop and help her.

Abe’s breath sucks back into him as if he was holding his breath. The baby looks up, frightened.

“No, no, no… Don’t”. Before he could get out the word cry the baby begins to do just that.

“Come to mama”. Beth softly shushes the baby as she rocks him. She picks the baby boy up and turns to walk out of the landfill. Shooting an evil glare towards her husband, Beth accuses him of scaring the baby. Abe calls from behind her to wait up for him as she storms off, protectively carrying the baby. Looking at him now, you would have never guessed he was ever enlisted in the army. Losing his leg to the war, Abe had to depend on a prosthetic leg to get him by.

“So what now?” Abe slaps his hands on his thighs. “We’re just going to drag a baby along to suffer with us?”

Beth shrugs, already attached to the child. They walked up to the only shelter that they hoped had a vacancy. The elderly lady with snow white hair smiles fondly at the family as they approach.

“Are you here to check in?” She pulls her clipboard out, clicking her pen. Beth shakes her head. The lady gives her an apologetic look before telling her that there are no more beds.

“Not even one spot for the child?” Abe points to the baby. The lady finally acknowledges the child and creases her eyebrows in confusion. Her eyes may have been getting worse with age, but she knew for a fact that neither of the people standing before her played any part in the making of the baby she was gazing upon. Beth shoots a warning glare at her husband who turns to walk away. The baby smiles and blows raspberries.

“Aww dear heavens”. She asks if she could hold him. Beth nods her head allowing the lady to reach for him.

Cars whirl past as the lady stands in the middle of the busy intersection hoping that someone… anyone would stop for her. She glances down at her baby boy, still healing from giving birth to him. Barely being missed by an oncoming 18-wheeler, she gives up hope of getting the help she needs. She looks to the left seeing two dumpster trucks making their way to a landfill.

The lady gasps, looking between the baby and Beth. She draws out a cross over her chest and runs into the shelter, slamming the door behind her.

“What a bitch”. Beth mumbles under her breath. She picks up her pace to catch up with her husband when she sees a sign hanging that reads “free housing”.

“Hey Abe”. He turns to see the same sign. Squinting his eyes together, he wonders why he didn’t recently see the sign hanging in clear sight. The known smell of a doctor’s office invades their nostrils as they walk through the heavily stained glass doors. Beth walks to the counter to ring the bell for assistance. An extremely tall auburn haired boy walks to the counter. His demeanor doesn’t exactly scream hospitality, but what do you expect in a free living facility?

“We were wondering if you had any room for three?” Abe rests his arms onto the counter. The desk clerk types something into his computer.

“Three adults?”

Abe steps aside so that the clerk could see Beth and their new addition to the family.

“Cute kid”. The clerk’s tone is dull as he types away. He goes to grab a key from it’s hanger and hands it to them. Beth quickly snatches the key from him, astonished.

“That’s it?” Abe questions. “No paperwork? No questions asked? Just here’s the key?”

The clerk nods his head.

“Yup”

He points to the left where a poorly painted staircase is. “Third floor is yours”.

Abe gazes at the man for a little while trying to figure out why he can’t keep his eyes off of him. Beth’s footsteps being heard running up the stairs grabs his attention. She yells from upstairs for him to follow.

“Well...umm.. thanks”. He reaches in his pocket to pull out his last dollar to give to the man.

“Oh no, that won’t be necessary”. The guy finally smiles. “Enjoy your stay at the Condos of The livE”.

Tears of joy form in Abe’s eyes. For a year he and Beth wandered the busy streets of New York City with no luck of work, shelter, and sometimes food. Being a retired veteran didn’t guarantee him the honored afterlife. He looked up to send a prayer up when he heard something similar to a growl behind him. When he looked over, Beth was waiting at the top of the stairs tapping her foot impatiently. She walked down empty handed to stand in front of him.

“Where’s the baby?” Abe asked to change the subject.

“He’s sleeping upstairs. What were you just doing?”Her voice was drenched in accusation. He glanced over to find that the desk clerk was no longer standing behind the desk. He returned suddenly with some towels in hand and gave them to Abe.

“Your towels that you requested, sir”. He leans and gives him a wink. Abe immediately catches on to the save and gratefully takes the towels from him. Beth suspiciously looks between the two before snatching the towels and stomping up the stairs. Abe holds his hands together, wagging them at the man.

“Thank you so much! I owe you one, man”. He slowly makes his way up the creaky stairway to the third floor. Their room was surprisingly clean and modernly decorated. It made Abe think of the five star hotels that he would stay in when he first enlisted.

Beth shushed him as she climbed into the bed with the baby, not leaving any room for her husband. As he walked to sit on the bed, he was stopped by the harshness of his wife’s voice.

“Oh no, honey. Your place is on that pull out over there”.

Abe raised his hands in surrender and proudly walked over to the pull out couch. Seeing a complimentary robe hanging up with the words guest written on it, he decided to take a long hot steaming shower. His heart was extremely filled with emotion as he peeled his clothing from his body and stepped into the water. Immediately, his eyes were filled with tears as he silently praised God for allowing his family to get off of the streets. Right after, the baby burst into tears causing a restless Beth to crash through the door.

“Here”. She shoved the baby into the shower with Abe and walked out, closing the door behind her. Not knowing the first thing to do with a baby, Abe washed the child in the very clothes that he was wearing. After finishing, he grabbed the handheld blow dryer and dried the baby off. The giggles of the child was enough to knock the bitterness off of his mood. Climbing into the bed, he fell sound asleep.

The tension in the air was so thick and suffocating as the dark figure ran far away from the landfill. All that was heard was her erratic breathing as she ran like her life depended on it. No matter how many corners she turned, she was still tormented with the screeching cries of the baby she had abandoned. She pulled at the ends of her hair to take her mind from the constant torture. Not paying any attention, she runs across a busy intersection immediately getting hit by a speeding car. Horns and screams of people surround her as her vision decreases. “Ma’am, are you okay?”, was the last she heard.

Abe hopped up gasping for air as he searched around the room to find his wife sound asleep, as well as the baby. The small smile on his face was cute, but there was something that would not settle in Abe’s spirit. Something isn’t right about this baby, Abe thought. The voice within him told him to get rid of the child. He tied his robe tight and began to descend down the stairs of the dimly lit hallway.

As Abe made it to the front desk, he couldn’t help but notice the entire place empty and swept with no sign of former life. He stumbled as he made his way to the door. Something metal clinked lightly as it hit the floor. Bending to pick up a heart-shaped locket, an eerie green light clicked on. Attached was a note.

“By death have you lived… in death shall you suffer.

Welcome home, Abe.”

- Condos of The livE

Beth’s blood curdling screams fill every corner of the building as the door bursts open with a rushing flood.