Sewer rats

Sewer rats

A Story by Washed away man
"

Ignore the mistakes, English is not my first language. I used to write poems and this is the first time ever that I'm writing a short story.

"
In the sewers of a big industrial city lived two rats. One of them was older and bigger, mostly black and covered with many small scars. The other one was younger, about the same size, only white with small black dots all over his body and with no scars. These rats don't know the name of their city because rats can't read. They don't even know how many people live above them and how much food they could find there, only if they knew how to escape this place. Several years of their small lives in the sewers introduced them to many things, however today they were given a special treat. Today, the sewers washed in a corpse of an unknown man. "What is this fleshy thing", asked the young rat. "These animals are called humans. They cover themselves in all sorts of inedible fabric. I guess it keeps them safe from other predators", said the older one. "What is it doing here in our pipes? Is it alive? And if not, can we eat it?", asked the younger one with his pupils expanding more and more with each question. The older rat decided to investigate, so he poked the corpse's hand with his sharp nails, but the body gave no signs of life. "Dead", he said, "dead and very much edible.", added the rat.
The body was still somewhat fresh, not more a day has passed by since his death. The black suit this man was wearing was all wet because of the sewer water, and white shirt was now gripping tight around the body. His hair was messy and bloody, dark brown with a few silver hairs, and reeked of cigarette smoke combined with the sewer's aroma. His eyes were still half-open, grey in color and his mouth had many cuts and were open just a little, enough to see the ends of his front teeth. His beard was short, but obviously well taken care of. On this man's broken cheeks now sat two rats, discussing what part of him should they eat first. These rats don't understand that they're sitting on a man who suffered heavy injuries to it's head, because they have never seen a human face before.
"I think this is soft meat, so we should be able to chew easily through it", said the older rat. "However, we should first inspect it's entire body. You never know when a nice slice of cheese might pop up.", he squeaked joyfully. "Ugh, you know I hate cheese", said the younger one, with his eyes now bigger than ever. In unison, they started touching every inch of his this corpse, in hopes to find anything valuable. "I think I have something", said the younger one, pulling out a wallet from the suit's inner pocket. He quickly ran his small fingers through it."Eh. There's nothing here!", said the rat disappointed. "Just a bunch of papers, and papers and more thicker papers, and some plastic. Whatever am I supposed to do with this junk?". The rat pulled all the money from the wallet. It was a large amount of money to carry in your wallet. The rat instantly threw all the credit cards away, knowing they are useless. In his tiny hands was now only left a picture. "Hey, check this out! Why is there a smaller human and a large human next to it on this piece of paper?", asked the young rat. "Who cares?", said the older one, "It probably had a family or friends. And if so, it must have been a lousy parent if it was on it's way to bring home some worthless paper. Instead, it could have brought some cheese. Or an apple. Or an egg." Indeed it appears that this man had a wife and a little daughter, around the age of four or so. However this man was not returning home. He was running away from it.
"Hey, I'm gonna try and open it's mouth, could you give me a hand?", said the older one. With their strengths combined, the rats were able to open the corpse's mouth, only to discover something peculiar in them. "What is this? Can I eat it?", asked the younger rat. "Don't touch it, you idiot!", yelled the older one, "it might be poisonous. And of course it's edible! Everything is edible if you're brave enough.", said the older rat, slapping  the smaller one across his face. "You really are an idiot, you know that. One day you'll get yourself killed because all you can think of is food." In corpse's mouth was a golden coin, but not an ordinary one, more like the one you get in casinos. "Okay, I will try and get it out of it's mouth, but if it's anything remotely dangerous, you run and leave me behind. Deal?", asked the older rat. "Yeah", said the younger one, still trying to hold his tears from the unexpected slap before. A quick push and pull, and in rat's hands was a shiny coin with some kind of engravings on it. "So shiny", said the younger one, fascinated with the glow of the coin. "Yes", answered the old rat, "shiny and useless!". Time passed, and these two rats still sat on the corpse's torso, passing around this seemingly worthless, yet strangely addictive glowing coin. Drunk with it's shine, they completely forgot that the sewers will bring another flood of water soon. "What if we carry it all the time with us?", asked the young rat. "There's no way something so beautiful won't prove useful in some time." The old rat closed his eyes and started thinking. "What if I take it because I put my life in danger for it, and you walk away to another part of the sewer.", answered the black rat, visibly angry now. "You can't just make me go away. I know you want this coin as much as I do, even though you are resistant to admit it. I might keep it for myself!", yelled the smaller rat. A fight soon emerged between the two, each struggling with all of their individual might to keep the coin in their hands. Throughout all this fighting, they haven't noticed the slight tremor in the sewers, and a massive flood of water, just like every day, every hour, passed through the pipes, now carrying a corpse of a man, two corpses of rats, one older and one younger, and a shiny golden coin with it.
The man these rats found was Mark B., a math prodigy who ended up teaching in elementary school. He always had talent for numbers, but he had almost no luck in life. Ever so often decided to use his talent by counting cards in casinos. Unfortunately, what once was a talent soon grew into gambling addiction, and Mark decided that he wants to test not only his knowledge, but also his luck. Last Sunday, when he left the casino, he was over half a million dollars in debt. This Sunday, he decided to withdraw all of his and his wife's deposit. What used to be his daughter college fund now transformed into his demise. After hiding the money for almost a week, he waited for the right time for his wife to put his daughter to sleep. He grabbed the money, quickly stashed it in his wallet, and knew that this time luck will be on his side. The man ran out of the house into his car and drove 30 miles to the casino. Before entering gates of his own Hell, he put his lucky coin in his mouth to help him concentrate on counting the cards. Fast forward six hours, a man was beaten up in an alley for trying to rob the casino by counting cards. His body was dumped by three guys double his size in a nearby sewer entrance, where he will be washed away and forgotten.

© 2019 Washed away man


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Added on August 12, 2019
Last Updated on August 12, 2019

Author

Washed away man
Washed away man

Croatia



About
English is not my first language, so there may be some mistakes in my writing. Sorry about that! more..

Writing