Once this was a mighty metropolis- its streets swarmed with people of every age, every race, every religion…
Life thrived here- love thrived here- money was made here.
Now, it is a tomb.
Crows caw in the winter-denuded trees, huge and fat and glossy-black, fed on a seemingly never-ending supply of corpses.
The wind whispers through streets choked with abandoned vehicles- through buildings dark and foreboding, through home and shop and palace- through once well-tended parks and gardens now choked by weed and wildflower.
The river that runs through it is clean for the first time in a thousand years- fish swim again in waters they abandoned centuries ago- ducks nest in the rusting hulks of boats scuttled by neglect.
What happened here?
Was it war, or plague, or famine?
What brought down this place, what calamity struck it so low?
No-one now knows.
Was it invaders from another world, or was the city destroyed from within?
No-one now knows.
The buildings tower to the skies, mute testament to the skills of their builders, silent monuments of a world that has passed on.
Will anyone ever return to this place, this city of the dead, will life ever spring here anew?
No-one now knows…
Author notes
More of a mood piece than anything else, but once it was in my head it wouldn't go away. Kudos on the cool contest!
A contest entry
- Ok, here's the deal... by Drac.
510 points, ended July 2, 2008, 21 entries
• next story in this contest, remove from contest
Please tell me what you think
Comments
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Hey, I like this!
A description of a completely dead place, but it's just written as an observation, as the narrator doesn't seem to know anything about it! Original and great idea! =)
Good luck in the contest =)
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Oooo, now this is spooky. I want to know what happened there. Nice scene setting! you have made a very vivid picture here. It would be fun to hold a contest yourself and get people to tell their versions of what has happened! I loved the contrast between all the things that had died, and were run down, and the stream, which was alive with fish again. We make a lot of things grow and flourish, yet we destroy others too. Nice observation.
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