Grabbed on the shoulders and hoisted up.Fell.Dragged by rough hands.Smell of sweat and smoke.Clanging and yelling.Head still hurts.Can't see properly.Where am I?Vision clearing slightly.See walkways sided by bars.Hands reach out.Yelling,no jeering.What are they doing?Darkness.Pain.Hear voices.So clear,those voices.Not like the others.
"Not so tough now huh?"
"You're gonna love this punk."
"Hey,I'm talking to you!"
"Leave off,Frank,I think he got hit too hard."
A snort."He wasn't hit hard enough."
Sudden brightness.The jeering fades.The voices stop.Can see clearly now.White washed room.Table and two chairs.A large wide window where nothing could be seen except myself.Another door.Manhandled into a chair.A click,and I see handcuffs fall away.Bloody stripes on my wrist.Hurts when I rub them.A door slams.I am alone.Only then do I see the gun on the table.
The other door opens.Another man enters.He looks haggard.Defeated.He is set down on the other chair roughly.Handcuffs go off.He does not look up.The guards leave.A voice laced with static sounds.The voice was full of authority and arrogance.Its tone reminded me of a dictator I once saw on television.
"Alright cons do you know what is Russian Roulette?" The man opposite me swallows and nods.I shake my head slowly.A growl was the response.A mutter,"There's always one." The voice continues. "Russian Roulette is simple.You two take turns shooting yourselves with this six-shooter on the table until one of you dies.Since both of you are on death row,it hardly matters eh?Now,the gun only has one bullet in the barrel.One of my guys has spun the barrel already.You with the bloody wrists,you'll go first.Take the gun,point it to your head and pull the trigger in under twenty seconds." The voice pauses.I look down at my wrists,blood still oozing from the chafing they received from the handcuffs.The other man raises clean wrists for me to see and says nothing. The voice called,"Alright there are two other things.You can spin the barrel again,but you can only do it once in the entire round.Also,you can shoot your opponent,but like the spin, you can only do it once.Now begin."
I pick up the gun and hovered it near my head.The other man finally raises his head and stares at me.His eyes contained a mixed set of emotions.Fear,anticipation,disgust.His lips move,and I realize he was silently mouthing, "Not me.Please not me." over and over again.I pity him.I will not die now.I close my eyes and pull the trigger.
A click.The barrel rotates to give way to another chamber.I place the gun down and slides it to the other man who uttered a strangled cry when it came within his reach.I hid my shaking hands under the table.Sweat coated the back of my neck.Tense as a cat.We stared at each other for a few moments,drinking in the fact that I had survived.There are five chambers left.The man shakes his head and asks accusingly, "How can you be so calm about this?This,this is wrong." I motion with my eyes to the gun.He looks at it, and slowly,deliberately he picks it up and aims it at his head.He whispers,"God help me." He is beyond God's reach now.He left Him when he sinned,like me and so many others.He yells and pulls the trigger.
A click.The man throws it down on the table,panting.His expression was wild.Eyes wide, he stares at me expectantly.I pick up the gun.His eyes follow my hands' movements fearfully.I look at the gun.Four chambers left.I shift my gaze to the man,then to the gun and back again.He notices my wandering gaze.He holds up his hands,"No wait, you can't be serio-" I snap up the gun and shoot him in the head.
The man and I fell back.The recoil shook the now smoking gun out of my hands.I look at the man,whose head was tilted backwards so all I could see was his neck and chin.His upper body was splayed.I look at the wall behind him and my eyes widen as I saw a mess of blood and gray matter splattered on it.I dropped the gun.It clattered mournfully on the floor.I hug myself and rocked.The voice came back and announced,"We have a winner." Doors open.Handcuffs are snapped back on.Dragged away.I can only stare straight ahead and all I could see was the man whose life I took on purpose.Silence as I am dragged back to my cell.Felt stares both in awe and anger.I did not die today.Keys jingle.Bars swing open and close.Handcuffs were still on.I lie down on the bunk.The man was right,how can I be so calm?
I hear voices,whispers,screams.Bone breaking.Blood everywhere.Crying.A flash of steel.Small,still figures.A hand in a bin.A lovely face stained with blood and tears.Sirens.A hammer falls.Bars clang.A single shot.A fountain of blood.I am a murder.
"Alright cons do you know what is Russian Roulette?" The man opposite me swallows and nods.I shake my head slowly.A growl was the response.A mutter,"There's always one." The voice continues. "Russian Roulette is simple.You two take turns shooting yourselves with this six-shooter on the table until one of you dies.Since both of you are on death row,it hardly matters eh?Now,the gun only has one bullet in the barrel.One of my guys has spun the barrel already.You with the bloody wrists,you'll go first.Take the gun,point it to your head and pull the trigger in under twenty seconds." The voice pauses.I look down at my wrists,blood still oozing from the chafing they received from the handcuffs.The other man raises clean wrists for me to see and says nothing. The voice called,"Alright there are two other things.You can spin the barrel again,but you can only do it once in the entire round.Also,you can shoot your opponent,but like the spin, you can only do it once.Now begin."
I pick up the gun and hovered it near my head.The other man finally raises his head and stares at me.His eyes contained a mixed set of emotions.Fear,anticipation,disgust.His lips move,and I realize he was silently mouthing, "Not me.Please not me." over and over again.I pity him.I will not die now.I close my eyes and pull the trigger.
A click.The barrel rotates to give way to another chamber.I place the gun down and slides it to the other man who uttered a strangled cry when it came within his reach.I hid my shaking hands under the table.Sweat coated the back of my neck.Tense as a cat.We stared at each other for a few moments,drinking in the fact that I had survived.There are five chambers left.The man shakes his head and asks accusingly, "How can you be so calm about this?This,this is wrong." I motion with my eyes to the gun.He looks at it, and slowly,deliberately he picks it up and aims it at his head.He whispers,"God help me." He is beyond God's reach now.He left Him when he sinned,like me and so many others.He yells and pulls the trigger.
A click.The man throws it down on the table,panting.His expression was wild.Eyes wide, he stares at me expectantly.I pick up the gun.His eyes follow my hands' movements fearfully.I look at the gun.Four chambers left.I shift my gaze to the man,then to the gun and back again.He notices my wandering gaze.He holds up his hands,"No wait, you can't be serio-" I snap up the gun and shoot him in the head.
The man and I fell back.The recoil shook the now smoking gun out of my hands.I look at the man,whose head was tilted backwards so all I could see was his neck and chin.His upper body was splayed.I look at the wall behind him and my eyes widen as I saw a mess of blood and gray matter splattered on it.I dropped the gun.It clattered mournfully on the floor.I hug myself and rocked.The voice came back and announced,"We have a winner." Doors open.Handcuffs are snapped back on.Dragged away.I can only stare straight ahead and all I could see was the man whose life I took on purpose.Silence as I am dragged back to my cell.Felt stares both in awe and anger.I did not die today.Keys jingle.Bars swing open and close.Handcuffs were still on.I lie down on the bunk.The man was right,how can I be so calm?
I hear voices,whispers,screams.Bone breaking.Blood everywhere.Crying.A flash of steel.Small,still figures.A hand in a bin.A lovely face stained with blood and tears.Sirens.A hammer falls.Bars clang.A single shot.A fountain of blood.I am a murder.
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