Close to the Road

The headlights of the passing cars, shifted over the small heap of a being in front of me. The thing couldn’t have been bigger than my two hands together, so small I was surprised that it even had any energy left in it to live. It’s long, jet black fur was matted with dirt and mud, coated with the weeks of neglect that this poor creature most have had. It could only have been weeks, or it wouldn’t have still been alive. Its skin was so tight over its ribs that you could practically see the air moving slowly beneath them. It eyes were closed, but I could only imagine the look they held. That haunted look that came from neglect and the look of desperation that comes with the realization of death. I clasped my hands tightly together, urging myself to somehow leave this poor animal to die in peace. The ground around it was wet from the recent rain, and it blended so well into the hard, black asphalt that it was a surprise that I had even seen it. But now that I had I couldn’t have looked away. It was like a car wreck, the damage of it so dramatizing that something in our human nature forces us to keep looking. I wanted to touch it, wanted to be the last warm, comforting form that held this thing before it died, but I couldn’t bring myself to it. It was ravaged by hunger, torn apart at the seams it seemed by the desperation of surviving. I was afraid that I might catch a disease. Like it was some vagabond that everyone saw, but no one went near because they were untouchable. I looked at it again, and its minuscule ears seemed to slowly wilt into its head, like a flower in winter, finally giving up. I bent closer transfixed by this little creature that should by all medical means be dead by now. My breath caught in my throat, just as its breath got its pencil of a throat. My hands clenched, as its little wisp of a tail clenched behind it in once last attempt. As its eyelids flickered like a new born baby I drew in a deep breath, fearing the worst. And let it out as the final breath escaped it, and its lungs finally collapsed on the pitiable animal that everyone passed by.

Author's Note

I know this is kind of morbid. It's okay if you don't like it, give me whatever you feel.

Reviews

[PhoeniX]

its good to know that there are people still out there that will take time to notice a life that is slipping away in front of our eyes. i see too many people disregard a being just because they are too high headed to care. your description was sorrowful. but it was beautiful. well done.

[deactivated account. pl..]

Heartbreaking.
I love the title. It's perfect.
Your descriptions are so clear, I love that I can see this little dying thing, feel like I, myself, don't want to touch it, but at the same time, am begging that your character will.
Very well done.