The Oldest Crime

Daggled and bloodied, the young man lay upon the ground where he’d been left.. .left by vile men who, spurred by senseless hate and ravenous for a taste of violence, had lured him with false fellowship and brought him to this secluded spot by veil of darkened day. At first, they bound his arms, rendering him defenseless to what was to ensue. After dragging him a small way from the back seat of their van, they proceeded to pummel his stomach and his face, breaking his nose almost instantly. When he stumbled to the ground, he received the heels of their boots as they kicked at his extremities and then again, he received their cruel blows to his stomach and face. When certain they had done enough damage so he would not last a night in the cold, they spat on him and drove away. As his attackers sat far away in a bar, drunk and boasting how they’d “done the world a favor,” he’d already passed the stage of vomiting and gasping for his breath. And though his brain was writhing with awful pain, with knowledge of his sure obliteration, his chilled and broken body stayed inert. Reposed as if inside the womb, he felt the ache receding, and before night’s shadows passed into the dawn, his blood had stanched. Now as flesh turns into carrion lying undiscovered in the dust, his spirit… never quashed. . .cries out for justice.