WQ168

Another Saturday, another Iron Writer Weekend Quickie. As long as I can type, I'll keep doing them...might not be for much longer.

WQ168


200 words. Elements:Your main character must …be in transit for entire story, be running from something, die doing a good deed.

The tram bumped along its track, digging the rusting frame of the window into his shoulder. On this night he felt a hollow emptiness that was the sum of his life. He would take no more. The last tram, the last stop. A short walk to the southernest most bridge on the river. He wouldn’t miss the work, the flat, the faces he met day in day out. Running from a life that wasn’t his own.
Like his life, this tram was empty. At the next stop, a quarreling gypsy couple got on. Earlier, he would’ve got off at the next, now he didn’t care.
The noise they were making grew and the man took out a knife and slashed the girl across her arm. He saw the size of her belly: she was pregnant. The man stabbed her again and shouted more, spitting in her face.
Something got him up, something deep within. With no thought, he ran down the carriage and knocked down the man, both of them falling to the floor. In his last moments, he held the gypsy and watched the girl make her escape at the next stop. He welcomed the darkness, his pain diminishing.