[Officelover]

Things weren't really the same after that. I didn't go back for almost two weeks, and when I did, I felt like I wasn't being cruel enough. I actually felt guilty about that—and I ascribed my sadness to the increasing evil I had brought upon the city by “going soft” on The Child.
I came back less and less frequently. Every time I'd go, the Child would say something to me: “You look nice today, miss,” or “What would you like to do today, miss?” It almost seemed to be egging me on; no matter how I humiliated it, it only seemed to smile some weary smile at me. Even when I kicked its stupid balls in, it winced but never yelled or shied away from me. The fear was gone; I guess I had done everything I could do to it. Nothing phased it anymore.
One day, I went to the library, convinced I was going to break my 'weak streak' and put it back in line. I came in, ready to beat him, cut him, shit on him, do something... and I did nothing. I don't know why. I sat down in a chair, looked at him for an hour or two. Didn't say a word. I felt petrified, transfixed in his gaze.
The Child finally said to me, “Are you going to hurt me, miss?”
I looked at him a long time, and said at length, “No.”
I never hurt him again, but I came back. There was no restriction on time you could use him. I think the librarians grew concerned when they found him less badly damaged, and in generally higher spirits. But they never tried to get me to be crueler to him. I came back now three, four times a week, just to enjoy his company. At first, we didn't talk. Then one day I asked him to show me the city from his eyes.
We walked around all of the dark corners of Omelas. All of the places he felt safe, he was free from passers-by attacking him. We ran breathless from alleyway to alleyway. He knew his way around like a feral cat, knowing how to pinch food from such and such shop, or how to draw a sip of clean water from the fountain. At first I thought of his theft as justification for my treatment of him, and then I asked him why he stole.
“Because no one gives me food. I get hungry,” he said, somberly. Then he brightened up, and said, “Except you, Yalda—you've given me more to swallow than anyone else in this town.”
I had to smile at the thought of him being depraved and starved enough to enjoy my shit.
He said, “Come on, Yalda, I have someplace special that I want to show you.”
The Child took me to a back alley I'd never seen before. At the end of it there was a sewer drain. He lifted the circle up, and heaved it on its side, motioning for me to go down the ladder.
“I'm not going down there!” I whispered.
“Come on,” he said, “it'll be an adventure.”
“It's not safe!” I protested.
“I've been down there hundreds of times, never had any problems.”
I hesitated, but started down the rung ladder. It didn't smell as bad as I thought it would.
“There's a flashlight on your right, hanging on the wall,” he called down to me as he descended. I flicked it on, and saw that we were standing in the middle of a long tunnel. There was a sidewalk, and a sort of loud river of wastewater. With every step we took, I could hear an echo.
We walked a little ways to the right, and he stopped, holding his hand out in front of me.
“Hear something?” I asked nervously.
He whistled, and all of a sudden a swarm of large, gray rats came bustling forward, swimming across the river and hopping in front of us on the pavement.
“Hey, little guys!” he said, as one ran up his leg, perching itself instantaneously on his left arm.
I screamed. I'd never seen so many rats.
“What's the matter?” he asked.
“What's the matter?! There are... rats. Everywhere!”
“These are my friends,” he said, “they're harmless. They hide out here all day because the people of Omelas banished them to the sewers long ago.”
One of them came up to my shoes and sniffed my feet. I was about to kick it into the sewage river, but he calmed me, and held me in his arms. The rat climbed onto my shoe and wrapped around the trunk of my leg, curling up like a kitten. I must admit, it was one of the most bizarrely cute moments of my life.
“Do you have names for them?” I asked.
“Do you have a name for me?”
“No.”
“Would you like to know my name?”
I thought a moment.
“No, I'd like to name you.”
He smiled, and said, “As you wish.”
I looked at him, and said, “I'll call you... Shitface.”
He laughed, and said, “If that's really the best thing you can come up with.”
Standing there, silence sort of fell on us, and the roaring of the sewage river became more apparent. In that moment, for whatever reason, I wanted to humiliate him one more time. I pushed him into the river, out of the blue. He looked so surprised, and I laughed my ass off. His naked skin was soaked in that toilet water.
After a minute or so, I offered him my hand to get out of the river. He grinned slyly and pulled me into the river too. I couldn't believe it. My dress was completely sodden by that shameful stream, and I yelled at him. I pushed his head under the current, and tried to keep it there. I think I would have drowned the Child, Shitface, if... I don't know. Maybe I wasn't strong enough. But his head popped out, and he actually laughed in my face.
It was there, in the grayish wastewater of the sewer of Omelas, that I had my first kiss.
It was there that everything changed.


Thanks for the feedback guys, I'd really like to hear what people think about the story. Interpretations? Questions?