The First Decade by J.T. Ellison

Author:J.T. Ellison [Ellison, J.T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Two Tales Press

May God Have Mercy on Your Soul

“In this, as in all things, may God have mercy on your soul.”

The intonation echoes in the chamber. The priest closes the Good Book, the leather covers slapping together like birds’ wings. Dark birds, ravens and crows, the harbingers of death. Death has come. I feel it lurking in the corner, a gap-jawed beast, ready to take me away.

The priest hasn’t met my eyes. Is he worried what he might see reflected in them? The Devil? God? A poor, lost soul? No, if he thought that, he wouldn’t be avoiding my gaze.

Come to think of it, no one has met my gaze for the past twenty minutes. My life is about to end. I’m a little concerned about that; I’m not really ready to give up the ghost. But there’s not much that can turn back the clock now. I’ve had all the lasts: the food, the blessing, the IV—the latter shoved carelessly into my vein. A small trickle of blood pools in the crook of my arm. I hear the patter of it hitting the floor.

It reminds me.

I look to my left, try to anyway. My head is tethered to the table. Four people bustle about, preparing. I ignore them, focus on the sheet of dirty windows. They’ll be pulling back the drapes any moment now.

There’s two of us being put down tonight. Not unheard of. After all, in the old days they’d line up the convicts and make them watch as their brothers were hanged by the neck, one by one. Bowels loosened in fear, flies buzzed in the hot sun—the stench was overwhelming. That won’t happen to me. They shoved a damn douche up my ass earlier, cleared me out so I wouldn’t have that last indignity.

They did Garcia too. I bet he liked it.

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