Do Not Disturb

By Sean C. Wright Neeley

I thought my people loved me. I gave my last speech in the communal relief-carved temple, and they cheered. My guards flanked me, as we walked back to my royal chambers. I recall the desert sun beating down on my bald head, and the sandal on my clubbed foot, dragging through the blazing sand. I wasn’t hungry, come evening. Maybe my upset stomach was foreboding of something horrible? I refused the roasted bird, fruits, and vegetables on the banquet table, and only sipped beer from an ornate bowl. I then prepared for bed. As I sat at my dressing table, removing the kohl from my eyes, someone struck me from behind. Gone; just like that, at about nineteen years of age. Was it a treasonous guard? A family member? I know not. I loved my people. Why didn’t they love me back?

A concentration camp survivor visited my tenth-grade history class, as a guest speaker. It had quite an impact on me. Some of the facts in this story are indeed what this man told us bug-eyed teenagers. This short story you are about to read is my way of bringing justice to those who were affected by one of the most incorrigible crimes in human history. If you are squeamish, you may not want to go any further.

Auschwitz Forever

By Sean C. Wright-Neeley

It was always the same, but different. He woke up in the barracks, every morning. This time, he was a Jewish man. The Star of David on his prison uniform told him so. Today, they had him and the other prisoners, clearing a field in the snow. He tried as hard as he could to conceal his cold, but a Nazi guard heard him cough and sniffle…