A finger less

Atlas walks down an empty, dark hallway. Slowly, he sits down on a white vintage chair. His mind drifts twenty years back into the past when he was just sixteen years old. The young Atlas was sitting on a hospital bed next to his mother who was fatally ill. Her eyes are big, kind and, most notably, sad; they look like bright flames luminously glowing in dark ocean blue water. “Everything is going to be just fine. We’ll pay for the surgery and you’ll be at home with me again. And we’ll cook your favourite meal together! I promise, just stay with me. Stay alive.” Atlas said with his innocent bright cerulean eyes radiating in the even brighter hospital room light. His face looked like that of a sad baby tiger. “Sweetheart, there’s no point. We don’t have enough money for the surgery.” Atlas’ mother, Maria said with tears present in her eyes. She moved a piece of atlas’ messy glossy coffee-brown hair behind his right ear as a nurse walked into the room. “Visitor hours are over.” Said the nurse in a calm voice. “Right.” Replied Atlas as he got up. “Bye mom, love you.” He said in a disappointed voice. “I love you too, sweetheart. “Atlas’ mother said in a tone that perfectly reflected her loving and caring nature.

As Atlas walked out of the hospital he promised himself that he would pay for his mother’s treatment even if he loses his fingers in the process. She was the only parent he had left since his dad had been missing for weeks. The next day was Monday. Atlas was an amazing student. He always did his homework and never showed up late to class. He was active in all his lessons and always got straight A’s. All this made him well-liked by the teachers and earned him the titles of head boy and prefect.

However, today he was acting a bit different. He dozed off in his math class and didn’t attend to any of his duties as prefect or head boy; he was very quiet and didn’t make eye contact with anyone, even his best friend, Connor. Some of his teachers noticed his weird behaviour and tried to ask him some questions. Atlas didn’t answer. At one point he thought about telling Connor about his situation but soon brushed it off with the argument ‘How will he help?’ After school atlas went to the dark alley behind his school. The day before, after he left the hospital he went onto the dark web and was able to contact a gang near his area. Although he was sixteen at that point in time, he looked like a third-grader compared to the people in the alley. After several minutes of walking, he finally found the gang that he had contacted. “Hello?”

Atlas said to the leader. He wasn’t really sure what to say or do and the innocent unclear tone in his voice highlighted that fact. “I’m Atlas Miller.” He continued. “So you’re finally here, kid?” Said the leader in an unsympathetic voice. “I’m sorry- I had school so,” Atlas said, tripping over his vocabulary and mispronouncing the simplest of words. “Here’s the money.” The leader said, “Pay back in a week or we’ll cut off your finger.” He continued in a threatening voice. Atlas rolled his eyes at the empty threat, but then politely nodded his head at him. Slowly, Atlas turned around and left the alley with two hundred thousand pounds.

On his commute to his house, he thought about how messed up what he just did was. He never in his life thought that he would have to take stolen money. Once he gets home, he eats lunch and changes out of his school uniform and wears a grey turtle-neck shirt and a pair of dusty blue jeans. After all of that, he immediately goes to the hospital. At the hospital, he pays for his mother’s surgery. He tells his mother that she can have her surgery. When she asked how Atlas got the money he said that it was from a local charity. On his way back to his house he sternly told himself how messed up this whole situation is. In a moment of sudden realization, he asked himself, “How will I pay them back?”

Two days later Atlas’ mother gets her cancer surgery. However, Maria didn’t make it. She died two hours and seventeen minutes into the surgery. Atlas was distraught by this. When he heard the news his eyes started tearing up, and his heart was already one step ahead of him and had cried an ocean worth of tears seconds after he got the news. That night Atlas laid on his bed with his eyes open “What am I supposed to do now?” He asked himself. He took his phone and called Connor. No reply. At that moment his heart sunk to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean like the titanic. He had never felt so alone before. He wanted this to all just be a horrible dream. That’s when tears started falling down his cheeks and at that very moment, Connor called him. Atlas hesitantly picked up the phone. “Hey, Atlas! What happened? It’s literally one am.” Said Conner who was clearly concerned. “Nothing.” Atlas said with little to no emotion, “I don’t want to talk about it.” Atlas abruptly hung up.

Five days later, Atlas was kidnapped. “You didn’t pay up.” Said the kidnapper. Atlas looked around to room. There were two grown men standing in front of him. The room looked like a dark basement. Atlas noticed some blood in the room too. There was a wooden door behind the second guy and a small square window, the only source of light, behind himself. “Are you deaf? I said you didn’t pay up!” Said the kidnapper in a threatening voice. Atlas was too scared to say anything. Even if he knew what to say it was pointless. His mouth was covered with duct tape. “I wasn’t joking when I said that I’ll cut off your finger you know?” Said the second man. Five hours later Atlas was sent back home with nine fingers and a death threat. They cut off his thumb on his left hand and placed it in a tin. One week later Atlas decided to rob a store to be able to pay off his debt. However, Atlas was an amateur at robberies so he quickly got caught by the police. Now Atlas, who was once a promising student is just a criminal.