Bulgarian Creative Writing Competition

The wind carried a desperate cry for help that night. It broke through the curtain of noise, so thick it rarely allowed the ear to hear, let alone listen…

But this time even the deaf heard. Morbidly, the scream resonated as if it were trying to make sure its presence was known of. It had been there for too long. A life was on the line. Deafened by the noise of factories and blinded by the shimmering of gold man never listened to the warnings of his mother and was blind for her suffering. He could hear everything, but dared not to open his eyes. Of course it is a lot easier to take all you have for granted and not even consider the risk of losing it. As if not seeing what’s happening around us means it is not happening…

Tonight, however, it was different. Man heard, man listened and finally opened the eyes he had kept closed for centuries. And what he saw was terrifying. Earth was bleeding. A tight rope of smoke was hanging around her neck with an etiquette Made by man decorating one of its ends. Then all he felt was guilt. If only he had listened it might not have come to this. His heart was shaken. He desperately wanted to give up his gold to save her, but it was too late. A murderer’s regret could never bring back their victim…

The mother perished, she did, and her son didn’t see the sunrise, either.

This beautiful and truly powerful essay was written by Mikaela Zlatanova from Svishtov. She was the winner in the 11th grade category in this year's Bulgarian Creatvie Writing Competition.

You can read the 2017 BCWC winning works at: http://www.creativewriting-bg.com/assets/booklet-2017.pdf