Golden Sacrifice

Gold-plated wheels tumbled through the uneven cobblestone road in London's East End. For a few seconds, all the thieves, workers, and street rats would clear the way for the broad, adorned carriage on its daily factory check-up. Driving the vehicle was the cruel Master, holding the reins to two beasts, strong as oxen, meant to run unchained in England's prairies. Taken from the wild, they were whipped and muzzled into obedience, tethered to a life of pain and service. Strapped atop was a rifle: a precaution for emergencies and a display of wealth's power. Inside the carriage was the girl: the beautiful, blessed daughter of a successful capitalist. A girl who miraculously survived an incurable disease, a miracle only explained by an Angel's Kiss. The girl had cheated her fate and Death Himself.

In an alley between the factories on that forsaken street lived a boy. He had nothing: an orphan with no belongings, surviving off used gum, some stale crumbs the factory workers left aside. Each day, he watched as a ray of light passed through his world of darkness, a bright yellow shining amidst a leaden gray. The boy could only admire from the shadows between the walls. The treasure was the girl in the carriage window, just five seconds in his view. Those few seconds became his everything. The golden carriage was his hope, his life, his universe. The girl was his passion, his soul, his love. 

Every day, while the boy watched from the alley, Death watched beside him. Death knew the boy's obsession; his devotion to the lucky girl who had survived her illness and thus cheated Him. Death was angry. The girl was meant to die. She was indebted to Him; He would need to correct His mistake. 

But Death was pitiful. That night, He gifted the boy a nightmare: a vision of the fate his love would suffer. Scenes flashed in the boy's mind: a golden horseshoe faltering on a loose cobblestone, a shaky carriage with a surprised Master tightening the reins, choking horses pushed to rebellion barreling down the road, manic, with the carriage in tow. He saw the final image: the girl who cheated Death falling out the cabin door to meet the gold-plated wheels spinning below her. 

The next day, the boy was waiting. For the first time, he left the shadows of his alley and stood in front of the loose stone he saw in his dream. He would take her fate: a replacement to fulfill the debt she owed when she had cheated her destiny. When the carriage rolled down the road, he was ready to stop the vision Death had shown him. The girl yelled out the window, shouting at him to run away. The Master cracked his whips and pulled his reins, but Death had rotted the leather muzzles and numbed the horses' hides. Whispers of a past life, memories running through the fields, free, were all the horses saw as they galloped full speed, blinded by a life of oppression, unable to acknowledge the small orphan standing there or Death at his shoulder. 

As the boy met the gold-plated wheels he had seen every day, he smiled for the first time, happy to save the gleaming world he loved more than his own. As his vision faded, he saw his love's eyes turning towards him as the carriage halted. With a final blink, he rested on the cold, dirty road beside the brilliance he called his universe. 

The wild horses, touched by Death, turned to the Master and delivered a finishing blow, their golden horseshoes striking the face of their oppressor. As the horses reared in celebration, gunshots resounded through the air, followed by two solemn thumps. The horses were finally free. The girl stood alone, four bodies surrounding her, a rifle in her hands. The carriage shined beside her, a strike of color on a blank canvas. Its gold-plated wheels stained the uneven cobblestone road in London's East End red with a sacrifice.

 

Sean Kim

CA

18 years old

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