Gray's 100-word story for June 6, 2025

Gray wrote the following micro-story on Hectalex on June 6, 2025. Each story on Hectalex is inspired by a daily visual prompt and must be exactly 100 words.

Ruben's boot struck something that didn't feel like a rock. It bounced, describing three diminishing vibrant yellow arcs before landing with a pff! in the underbrush. Pinching his earbuds out and pocketing them, he squatted next to the autumn drift and sifted until the doll's head, cushioned by the detritus, stared up at him with its idiot blue gaze. Plastic blonde ringlets, button nose, wide, toothless smile. Ruben choked out a sob which startled birds into flight. This was why he'd sold the business. He was haunted by plastic children he'd sold to real ones. Kids whose world he'd destroyed.

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