Plague of Consequence
The plague spread affecting any in its presence. Those who escaped locked themselves within walls made of wood and stone. Those touched by the plague were deemed as lepers. Like lepers they were cast aside by any and all who could help or grant sympathetic reason. They were made to become disfigured with hunched backs by the early stages of the plague. Many died within weeks at the start of the affliction’s later stage. This plague was not fatal, a strange fact too late to save many. Then how did they die you ask? Though many tried to give it reason, I know why. Each and everyone died of a broken heart set forth by their abandonment to the dark, giving up on life, itself. Their families - their lives tossed them out. Once abandoned and cold they took to crawl into dark alleyways giving up their lives as forfeit.
Alone they did die. For as disfigured as they were they still retained their biased minds. As one would look onto the other they disgusted one another. This desperate loneliness could have been thwarted. If not for what they were taught lead to their lonely thoughts.
This plague has claimed far too many in this town. Many townsfolk understood just how close they came to the very precipice of Hell’s jagged edge. Many a heart-torn action had befallen these very townsfolk. For parents of many had cast aside their children of youth, just as these same parents years prior cast asunder their elderly parents of old. For fear crept within the town’s very veins forcing all to cast aside that, which they once loved and cared for, this plague having squeezed to a stop the very growth of this once great town’s future hope.
Left did the plague just as instantaneously as its ravaged force spewed forth across the town. The townsfolk did rejoice by this newfound breath at life and with mournful hearts heaved by recent past transgressions pushed ever onward. In time, the town bloomed anew towards their future’s assured hope. The parents of youth and loss began to rekindle new offspring once more. These parents who had cast aside their parents of old, over time, did too became parents of old. This one-time plague of the past they did bury deep and coat with ample lime. A town’s dirty secret never to be retold.
One sunny day in the later part of May came the resurgence of the town’s past secret carried forth on the winds of the day. Took the parents now old only a short breath of life to recognize this one-time plague had returned. The plague spread through the streets infecting all for whom it touched. Like before the town could have split into two, those uninfected, those rejected. However, times having changed so too had the minds and souls of the parents of youth. These new parents of youth gave over to protect their offspring. Fear had not simply cast aside the afflicted to the dark, to die alone. Through this change of heart these children of youth fought their disfigurations, to survive this plague of old. The children of youth surely will pass through to reach their age of old.
Neither had the children of old cast out their elderly parents when fear did creep within their veins. These parents of old did become plagued by their forgotten thoughts to dark actions manifested. For they had cast them out upon the cold cruel streets their children of youth when fear did burrow deep to lay sickness within their hearts.
These same parents now elderly grew to fear for their forsaken fate. They come to feel the agony of their children of youth keeping around them. The abandon’s retribution is at hand. These parents of youth - now old, speak to tell their children of now to what atrocities had feverishly commenced upon their forgotten brethren. One by one, these guilt-ridden parents of old died within their cloth tombs. With the last of the old beginning to fade he spoke on seeing his child of youth standing before the foot of his bed. Her arms outstretched beckoning him to come hither. His final words did send shivers through his children of now. “I’m so sorry.”
The plague of old has never since been seen to return. This plague, like a spirit of unresolved grief appears fulfilled by what has since been finished. This plague crept within this town twice over. Once forgotten, this forgotten hardship shall surely again return giving to question the townsfolk as to the cost of regaining one’s own innocence.