Scintillate
#1 of Furtopia Short Story Challenge
This is the latest installment in the short story challenge I started on Furtopia (http://forums.furtopia.org/furry-storytelling/iara's-writing-corner-prompt-challenge!/). Enjoy.
She wondered if she would ever see the stars again.
The rain pattered on the sides of the train car as it rattled along the track. The fluorescent glare in the car was blanketed by darkness as it moved into a tunnel. The car raced above ground, and she looked below at the city, its grime temporarily washed away by the rain.
The crumpled letter was in her clenched left paw. She brushed the tears from her fur again, drawing her legs close to her chest as she sat in the train car, her hooded sweatshirt and soaked leggings reminding her of home. Anywhere but here.
We regret to inform you...
That was all she needed to read. All she heard was the cacophony of raindrops on the rattling windows, the choked internal sobs, the years of ridicule that resurfaced. Fog enclosed the city as it enshrouded her mind, enveloping her in doubt, melancholy and fear.
She remembered the stars twinkling overhead in all those times she went camping, doing fieldwork. It didn't matter with what group, or why...all she wanted to think about were the stars. How that huge vastness held so much possibility with each scintillating speck, how she chased her hopes and dreams as if she could somehow reach those stars, and bring one home.
Now, all she could focus on was the bitterness of rejection. All she wanted was to curl up, and never see the light of day or night again.
How many times has my disability held me back? How many times have I seen their sad glances despite their false smiles? I thought I had friends...I guess I was wrong, so very wrong...about everything...I guess...this dream really is that, after all...
She pulled her hoodie over her ears tighter, let the tears flow down her muzzle freely. I don't care who sees...I just want to be accepted for who I am...and if my dream job won't let me be myself, it's not worth my time...my passion...it's gone...
She barely registered when the intercom announced her stop. She reluctantly left the train car, watching it rush off into the night like a swift vanishing into the darkness.
She sighed, her sadness engulfing her as the rain soaked her to the bone. She opened her left paw over the empty railway.
The letter fell to the rail ties unceremoniously. Its words became blurred by the water and it began to absorb the surrounding soil.
Headlights lit her silhouette, and her mate ran to her, his uniform getting drenched.
She followed him back to the car, sobbing. A freight train rushed past the station, demolishing the letter and her dreams in the same instant.