Nobody is evil. The wish to slaughter and crush heads comes from the outside, from an exterior trigger. Denying our animalistic nature only fuels the sadistic desire to kill even more. I broke the stake, although blood was gushing. I pulled with force, using the piece of wood as a plug for the deep wound. I had to choose between myself and others. I made a ladder out of the stakes of those who fell along with me in this hole. I ripped them out with no empathy, I stuck them into the wet clay, and I got out of the wood cabin's latrine.
Elena Fermuș
When he spoke, I would go into a trance. His voice was a rare medicine that rebuilt every piece of me. He would always start with the same words, spoken like a creed: rest and even happiness are healthy feelings; as for the sickening ones, you will need to learn to squash them under your foot, for they are just delusions. He counted to three, and I would become his slave. I listened mindlessly. I felt my arms were weightless, like seagull feathers, and my closed and relaxed eyes shot waves of serenity over the storm that raged inside me. The session would last for about an hour.
Iulia Biro
The noon sun shines into the room in slivers cut by the blinds. Dora squints her eyes and traces the speck of dust through the light. She has brought her hot coffee into bed to have it while she searches with her feet for cold spots around the bed sheets. She drinks, feels it, and looks over to Mimi, who has taken up the rocking chair. It has stretched on it to its heart's content, like a skydiver falling towards the ground. Underneath, on a floor patch reached by only one sliver of light, Bubu is purring. Carefree cats. To drink coffee and get sleepy at the same time, that is how a good Sunday feels.
(Translated by Francisc Csiki / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year I / Corrected by Silvia Petrescu, coordinator of the translations)
Versiunea în română a acestui text se poate citi aici, în rubrica Ficțiuni Reale.