The Weeper

The Weeper

The sky had grown dark, except for when the lighting filled the sky, just enough to illuminate the path of trees for me to see. The tree branches felt as if they grabbed and tore at my clothes. The rainfall pounded heavily on me as I ran, but I didn’t care. The guards were running close in behide me, I thought to myself, “how did I let myself get in this situation?”

Today is a day, most of the people in this cruel state celebrate, The Day of Avarice, on this day the wealthy people, celebrate wealth. This huge celebration comes with a cost though. A big festival is put on, only those that are of the rich class take part in this celebration of greed, but for those of us who still have our humanity we hide away. The leaders of this place use deceitful words to cover up what this day really is. They use this day to place heavy emphasis on the greediest people, giving the emotion a life of its own – food for the beast, known as The Weeper. Those with a kind heart wouldn’t dare to take part in this celebration of greed. The Weeper, a creature that is always hungry, feeding off the greed of the people, which is always in supply in this state, but only the heart of a pure human can satiate it, which it requires every 3 years.

Me and my family always stayed in the house during the festival, I would stay in my room as I watched the bright lights and firework display from my window but in my heart, I knew it was wrong to even acknowledge this horrid day. I decided to sleep through the festival this year until my friend Abby started calling me, I placed my phone on the ground, using my voice to answer the call, my friend projected up out of my phone as a moving holographic image waving at me as she lied in her bed.

Abby had an incurable illness that kept her bound to her bed, she was looking worse by the day and today she looked even worse than usual. I felt so bad for her that I spoke without thinking about what today was for a minute, I asked if there was anything I could do to help her. A smile grew across her face as she asked me if I could bring a specific medication that would help her feel better. I hesitated, but when she started going on about how much it would mean to her and that it could help the pain she was in, I caved.

I knew my family wouldn’t have allowed me out of the house so I had to quietly go out of my window. I managed to get the medicine without being noticed. I made my way to my friend’s house making sure to take the path through the woods so I was not seen. I used the spare key from outside to let myself in, because sadly her family celebrates this day and no one was home to let me in. When I opened the door to Abby’s room, she looked happy to see me, but there was something off about her smile and the way she looked at me. There was something surprisingly sinister about her eyes. I handed her the medicine and told her I needed to hurry back home, she didn’t want me to leave, so we talked only for a few minutes. I managed to break the conversation some how and told her goodbye.

I closed the door to her room and started walking down the hall of her house to get back to the front door, something about walking back through the house felt darker, different then when I came in. I felt like an animal being led to the slaughter, I was almost to the door when I saw them. One of the leaders and two guards waiting for me at the door. I stopped dead in my tracks, my friend Abby had sold me out! It was the only way they would have known I was here; this explained the way she had looked at me, I thought she was my friend. Even with an illness, she was willing to play her part in the celebration by giving me up to the leaders. I tried to run to the back door of the house but more guards were waiting for me. There was no way I was going to let the guards take me.

From the corner of my eye, I could see some items that must have been left from where Abby’s mom had been baking for the festival. I grabbed a bag of opened flour, and as hard as I could I threw it across the kitchen getting it into the guard’s eyes. This was my chance to run out the back door and into the woods. Running desperately through the woods, the ground being so wet from the heavy rain, I slipped, tumbling down a hill, when I finally stopped, I thought I was in front of a tree but as I looked up, my eyes were met with the cold stare from a guard, they were everywhere.

The guards had a tight grip on my arms as they walked me to what I presumed to be the creature’s cave. To my left I could see the leader walking next to me, “sacrifices have to be made” as the leader would go on to say as we approached. The guards took me inside the cave, it wasn’t dark like most caves are, it was bright, the light coming from beautiful crystals that were on the cave’s walls. They threw me onto the ground, the guards stayed off a far as if to watch to make sure the creature finished me off. I quickly stood to my feet as I could feel the ground shaking.

There it stood before me, on all fours, the creature, was very tall, covered in black fur, its eyes had a golden glow to it, the tail dangled from its body like a snakes, its wings stretched out long and thick, draped down like the limbs of a weeping willow tree, it’s arms and legs were as huge tree stumps, the creature itself was full, but its stomach was hollow, I saw the inside of the stomach from the ground, it had some kind of old, rusty heart shaped golden locket chained to the walls of its stomach.

I stared into The Weeper’s eyes but I didn’t see a creature or a monster, I saw sadness in its eyes, all these years it was treated as some kind of beast, but was it really? It hissed loudly at me with its reptile like tongue, as it approached me it lowered its head to me, I was a bit startled and backed away some, it started sniffing me, I shakily put my hand to its cheek, “y-you’re not the b-beast everyone things you a-are.” its eyes widen then closed as it relaxed its face against my hand, it was calm?

The guards look shocked and the leader ordered them to do something, but when the guards stood there doing nothing in shock, the leader pulled one of the swords off the guard, he started coming at me and the creature, something stopped him though when it got half way, it was like some kind of in invisible force field, the leader tried to get to us but every attempt failed, the creature was protecting me? The creature’s face and body started cracking as it pulled its head back up, the cracks began to glow, I stood back some, what was happening? What had I done?

I closed my eyes and used my arms to shield myself, waiting for some type of impact, an impact that never came. I opened one eye slowly, there was some type of golden particles in the air, it was so beautiful, there was something sitting on the ground, surrounded by what looked like pieces of broken golden shell, I took a look at it, it was the creature but it looked different, it was smaller now, its fur now a golden white, its eyes now a calming blue, the tail hung down long, swaying like the ocean, so calmly, it’s wings big and lengthy, like angel wings. In front of the newly transformed creature was a beautiful golden heart locket, but it looked different than before, it looked brand new, and it was no longer chained to his stomach.

The Weeper picked it up by its mouth, raising its head to me, it was giving me the locket? but why? I took the locket and placed my hand back to its cheek. It wasn’t the beast everyone thought it was, it had been fueled by greed and anger, so many negative things, it became them, it was hungry, but it could never be full, all the money in the world couldn’t fill the hole there, even if it tried, for what The Weeper really needed was love, and that’s something no money can buy. The leader and the guards seemed to be knocked out from all that happened. This is something that never had to be. To be consumed with greed comes with a terrible cost.

Artwork and story by Tabitha Sealey

Submitted June 29, 2021