Marrow
“We never did a thing to you.”
The thief shook with defiance wild in their eyes. This was the part that I hated most. With a heavy heart, I said to him, “But you did. And now you must face the consequences.”
“Please, I beg you! At least spare my siblings-”
“No,” I cut him off sharply. “Now move forward before your chains have time to rust.” Roughly, I tugged on his shackles and yanked him towards the line of poor prisoners awaiting their fate. I leaned down until I was level with his ear. “It’s better to get it over with. Trust me.”
“This didn’t have to happen.”
“Well, maybe you should have thought of that before.”
When I pulled away, the thief stared up at me with glistening eyes. “Damn you,” he mouthed. Then he bowed his head in shame, and let me bring him to the execution ring. I let him go, and made my way over to the group of officers gathered around the ring. Mana was there, constantly pinning and repinning her badge. It was her first time at the actual event, I remember, and she had never seen one of the broadcasts they forced on the public eye. “Mana, sooner or later you’re going to prick one of your fingers.” Mana laughed and let me fasten her pin to her sash. “Sorry,” she responded. “Nervous habit of mine.”
“Why are you nervous? You completed training.”
“By completed, you mean barely passed. Give it a rest, Bo. And besides, I’ve...heard some stories from the other officers-”
“Oh, don’t tell me you-”
“Silence!”
A hush fell over the ring and Mana and I quickly stood at attention. We kept our lips shut as the general walked up to stand on the box. “I, General of our fair Homeland,” she began, her voice ringing clear across the ring. “Announce that the monthly choosing has officially begun.” General Chae turned to the officers. “Remember, do not be afraid to kill.”
“Yes, sir!”
General Chae, expression hardened, took out a list from inside her jacket and cleared her throat. “Benjamin Ferrara,” she called out. No one stepped forward. General Chae, visibly aggravated, called the name again: “Benjamin Ferrara!” From the end of the line of prisoners, a young boy revealed himself. Looking at him, I realized that it was the boy I had dragged in from the outside. Looks like I’ll be going first. I moved from my spot and strode over to him. I took him by the arm and led him to the center of the execution ring. “Ferraras,” I yelled to the crowd. “Come out now.”
Benjamin’s parents and three children, likely to be his siblings, emerged from the masses and approached the center. When I looked back at Benjamin, all the blood had drained from his face. I took a deep breath, preparing myself for what I was about to do.
“Choose.”
I felt Benjamin shaking. “No,” he whimpered. “I won’t.”
“Choose.”
“No!”
The boy was only making things harder for himself. I swept my gaze over his family members, and each face was streaked with tears. Years of training flash through my mind. Ensure that the punishment will be worse than death. My eyes fall on the little girl standing at the far right. She will do nicely, I hope. Slowly, I raise my weapon and point it straight at her. The little girl closes her eyes, as though she knew what was about to happen to her. From the corner of my sight, I saw Mana clasping her hands over her mouth in shock. I pulled the trigger, and the first blood of the day spilled onto the ground. Benjamin cried out, as did the other Ferraras, but I didn’t hear a thing. The only thing I heard in my mind was the unending praise of General Chae. Tentatively, I snuck a glance at the General, whose stare was as cold as the marble floors of the training hall. She nodded twice, urging me to continue, so I obeyed. I live to serve.
I grasped Benjamin’s chains again and tugged him over to the prison entrance, where he would spend the rest of his life in guilt and fear. He stumbled around, blinded by his sobs, but I paid no mind, for he had created his own undoing when he committed such heinous crimes. I took one last look behind me at the body of his younger sister, which lay still in a pool of crimson. The poor thing had a long life ahead of her, I’m sure, but to me, there was no excuse for criminals. Besides, it was likely that she would have grown up to be exactly like Benjamin.
Later on in the day, when all was finished and over with, I made my way down to the dining room to eat after the strenuous activity of keeping prisoners in line. I sat down next to Mana at our usual table, but something seemed off with her. She wasn’t touching her food, nor was she babbling on about who-knows-what. We stayed that way until she suddenly broke the silence.
“I saw you hesitate.”
My head snaps to the side to face her. “I don’t hesitate,” I hissed at her through gritted teeth.
“No, you did. With that little girl,” Mana slammed her fist onto the table, causing our plates and cups to shake. “I didn’t sign up for this crap.”
“They’re criminals. They deserve what they get.”
Mana remained indignant. “But killing their family members? Where’s the justice in that? You only take an innocent life!”
“They are like-blooded! Who’s to say that it doesn’t run in the blood?”
“In the blood,” Mana repeated incredulously. “Are you saying that there is some sort of...some sort of predisposition? “
At that point, I could no longer keep my anger in check. “Maybe that’s exactly what I’m trying to say!” I roared, catching some of the others in the dining hall off guard. “Mana, we’re supposed to keep the citizens safe from one another! By doing this, by ordering criminals to pick someone to die, we send a warning to the horrible people that plague our streets! Has it not proven effective? Has it not kept people in line like they’re supposed to be? Or maybe you’re just blind, like your father-!”
“That’s enough!” Mana cried out. “Take a look in the mirror! It’s you ! You’re one of the monsters you speak so lowly of!”
“What about you?” I cut her off. “You were the one who told me that you would do everything in your power to protect the public, even though sacrifices must be made. You are a part of this now!”
“I didn’t think it was this...wicked.” Mana’s voice had lowered to a softer, somber tone. Looking me straight in the eye, as though trying to pick apart my own soul, she asked me a question that would later come back to haunt me. “Why did you hesitate, then?” My throat was dry and I couldn’t seem to find the ability to speak. After a few seconds that felt like a speck of eternity, I coldly gave her my answer.
“I did not hesitate. I merely assessed my options.”
“Then you have no heart!” Mana pushed away from the table and stood up. “I cannot condone this.” With that, she left the dining room.
“Your heart is far too caring,” I mumbled, though I knew that she was no longer there to hear me.
By the time I had returned to the residence hall, the world was awash in pure darkness. I stood in front of one of the open windows overlooking the execution ring. There were other officers there, trying to clean up all the bloodstains. Those nasty bloodstains never really do wash off completely, so the grounds always have this sort of reddish tint. Outside of the ring, there was a pile of corpses; the bodies of the innocents killed. The stench wafts up to the dorms by way of the evening breeze. I thought back to what Mana said earlier during dinnertime, about how what we were doing was not the right way justice was to be dealt. To me, Mana was a dreamer, an idealist who had no concept of how order is truly achieved. But what if she’s right? Pain-stricken faces and broken bodies flashed across my mind, but I quickly shook the images away. I could not afford to allow myself to be swayed by some newbie’s ridiculous ideas.
I looked down at the courtyard again, but this time, something caught my eye. A lone figure scurried across the court carrying a potato sack, stopping occasionally to make sure they were not being followed. Who were they, and what were they doing outside a quarter to curfew? Suspicion immediately overrode my senses and I found myself running down to the General’s office.
“General Chae?” I rapped on her door with my knuckles twice. “General, I’ve come to report suspicious activity in the courtyard.” No one came to answer. I knocked once more, when all of a sudden, the door opened up by itself, hinges creaking. With apprehension, I stepped into the office, but very soon discovered that It was empty. I found this strange, since the General would normally have been inside her office at this hour. Naturally, my curiosity led me to leave the residence hall to the prison across the other side, the only other location General Chae could be.
The two guards at the entrance of the prison were exchanging banter in whispers. When they saw me coming towards them, they stopped and looked me over. “Bo?” The guard on the left, Jed was his name I think, retained an expression of utter confusion on his face. “What are you doing out? You’re off-duty, aren’t you? Isn’t it almost curfew?”
“Just let me in,” I snapped, irritated. “I’m looking for the General.”
“Huh? The General’s still in her office. The only person we let through before you came was…” Jed scrunched his brow in contemplation, clearly trying to remember something. “Millie? Mallory?”
“Do you mean Mana?”
“Yes, her. Carrying a potato sack. What a weirdo. Said she needed to get something done.”
A new sensation of foreboding arose within me, and I crept my way anxiously through the prison chambers after forcing the guards to let me get past. All around me, prisoners wept, still shaken up about what had taken place earlier in the day. No one could blame them, I supposed. As I moved further down the dark, wretched hallways, I became more and more desperate to find Mana. As I moved further down the dark, wretched hallways, I became more and more....lost. Mana’s voice grabbed at me and my feet dragged as though the weight of everything was trying to hold me down. Then, all at once, when the tortured sobs of the prisoners and the eerie silence grew imminent, it hit me. The familiar metallic, grotesquely intoxicating scent of blood. She materialized in front of me, from the shadows.
Mana, whose face was twisted into the likeness of my own, held with her--no, it’s bony fingers a potato sack that sagged down with something heavy and...red. Very, very red. Mana--or should I even call her by that name anymore--had gone and disappeared completely, morphing into this creature borne from the recesses of one’s own mind in which terror and lies made themselves at home.
“M-Mana,” my voice trembled. “What..what are you?”
Its mouth--my mouth, full with sharp, glinting teeth, stretched into a wide, horrid mimicry of a smile. “It should be obvious,” it hissed menacingly. “Aren’t I always with you?”
“What the hell do you mean?”
“At first, in your beginnings, I was kinder, healthier,” the creature continued. “But this--” it gestured to itself--”Has been a long time coming ever since you took part in the killing of poor innocents.”
“It’s justice--!”
“Ha!” the creature laughed, a terrible sound that could be more accurately called a cackle. “Justice, you call it. Take a closer look at what it has done to you.” It came closer and closer until I could see into the black holes that were its eyes. Carefully, and slowly, it opened the potato sack.
Inside was the General’s severed head.
I bit back a scream, and fought off the urge to kill the harrowing creature with the weapon at my side. The question came to me in dreadful clarity.
Why did you hesitate?
Fin.