Why Don't We Just Kill the Kid In the Omelas Hole
ShortStory 3,190 words Recommended by 10 award/anthology sources
"So they broke into the hole in the ground, and they killed the kid, and all the lights went out in Omelas: click, click, click. And the pipes burst and there was a sewage leak and the newscasters said there was a typhoon on the way, so they (a different “they,” these were the “they” in charge, the “they” who lived in the nice houses in Omelas..."
Content warnings 4
child-abusechild-deathgoreviolence
Quasar links out; the story lives on Clarkesworld, where the author gets the click.