Story 9: At Any Cost
Prologue
At that moment I realized:
Psychosis is not a mere echo of the soul
Time is not thoroughly de-evolved
From the essence of willful revolution.
And hate is not completely a reverberation of glittering antithesis.
They are all as one
Evil is a desperate cry for release.
Release from the mundane.
Torrents of information discussed
Only in dark alleys and baron abodes.
Forbid.
At Any Cost
As Kimberly gripped her mom’s wrist she made a vain attempt to pull her towards the exit of the large mall. Her palm scraped along the metallic edge of the watch face and strained not to slip off of the side of the face as it poked into the delicate flesh of the small hand.
“Hang on babe,” was her mother’s reply. She leaned in close to her daughter and in a tender voice said “I still have some clothes that I want to look at.” With that the mother and daughter turned into a large clothing and jewelry store that shined with cleanliness and sparkled with expensive rocks.
“But mom, alls you’re going to do is go in here try on a bunch of dresses that you don’t have the money for anyway, ask the guy who you want to be looking at you, what he’s looking at, then try on another outfit that you’re going to do the same thing with.”
Kimberly’s mother chuckled as she considered the insight. In a blatant lie her mother huffed; “No I won’t.”
Her eyes rolled back, taking in every detail and registering none of it at the moment. It was a trained response that gave the impression she was accepting what was said while letting her covertly retreat into a cocoon of self-denial.. She knew that her daughter was right and that it was exactly what she would do, but why should that spoil any of her fun at all. Of course she was going to flirt with anyone that looked at the extremely expensive dresses she would have on. And obviously she was going to deny that she would flirt with any of these men. It was fun to be a tease and now that she was married with a daughter she was offered so many fewer opportunities; she took a lot of pride and joy in it. It made her feel beautiful.
Kimberly’s mother looked at her daughter as she bounced around, encompassing the scenery with eyes that jerked aggravatedly inside their sockets. She was a mountain of energy, constantly thinking. Kimberly’s gears were always turning and it was obvious in everything that she did. Everything that she said had purpose and all her actions contained reason. On the surface however, she was absolutely precious. Her face had a glow that only a child can have. Her smile was something that everyone fell in love with immediately. That smile softened all eyes and made everything better even when things seemed at their worst.
Kimberly was quite unaware of the observations that her mother was making as she took everything in with a slightly tinted view, blinded of beauty and focused on the annoyance of the whole scene. All around the store she saw there were others in similar situations. Husbands who didn’t want to be where they were, attempting to find a casual spot to wait as their wives tried on things that were incredibly expensive, and that they would wear only once if ever. Other children were being dragged from clothing areas, to dressing rooms, and then to sit and blindly approve of rings with completely way too big diamonds hanging gauckingly from weighted fingers that would not experience such a feeling for more than the few minutes that they would wear them in this store. She ignored the sparkle of the jewelry in favor of the grid of the patterned floor. Her eyes scowled at the fancy materials as the exit mocked her.
It met her eyes with an unblinking stare, coated in maddening red. It never let up in its relentless pursuit that seemed only to be the want to annoy and aggravate. The sign sat there in a mesmerizing pattern of perpendicular and crisscrossed letters that stared, cold and unwavering. Then she was snapped from the trance by a voice that had been making every attempt to disturb her thoughts and intrude on her solitude. Kimberly turned her head in agitation and confusion and said. “What mom?”
“I’m going to try this dress on, stay here and wait for me so that you can tell me how I look.”
Kimmy’s response required no thought or observation, “You look great mom.”
With a small pop of laughter her mother replied “I haven’t even tried it on yet.” She watched as her daughter blushed slightly from the embarrassment of having been so distracted by seemingly nothing. “Sometimes I’d really like to know what you’re thinking about.” She added.
Kimmy merely shrugged her shoulders and said, “stuff.”
Her mother simply shook her head and sighed. “Well, stay here so I can change.”
“OK.”
As soon as her mother walked in the dressing room Kimmy immediately began to once again contemplate the exit and its teasing promise of freedom. There it was, just waiting for her to walk out, knowing that she could not. It let everyone but her enter its sanctuary of escape. And then it changed. The letters and the doorway, the floor, and the ceiling, they all remained the same, but in this instant it became an entrance for one man.
He was a tall man with harsh, lanky features, and a dark, confused demeanor. His chin was chiseled and his jaw was set giving off an unwavering air. But his eyes and his forehead betrayed the look as fraudulent with nothing to back it. His body was thin with a “wasted away in the desert” look to it that looked anything but tough. Despite that in the back of the limestone eyes there was a confidence instilled that materialized through the cold, hard metal held in his hands.
Little Kimberly was frozen in terror. She couldn’t move, she couldn’t breath. Her heart had jumped into her throat and choked away all rationale. She wanted to panic. She wanted to scream and run through the exit that no longer existed and taunted her still more.
The first shot rang out as Kimberly’s mom was admiring herself in a Caribbean Green dress that fit her incredibly well. She looked fabulous and she knew it and she loved to admire herself. Her head gave a sharp jerk as she heard the thunder-clap-like sound of gunshots being fired. Her looks completely forgotten and maternal instincts instantaneously coming to the surface she thought of her little girl. She wanted to run out of the dressing room and grab her daughter and just leave. Then she heard the voice.
“No, no one leaves, I shot him; I’ll shoot anyone of you. You, lock the doors.” The voice was angry, with a distinct nervousness. Kimberly’s mom heard doors close and locks click into place. Him, the voice said him, which meant that her daughter was probably OK for now. But her mother didn’t want to step out of a dressing room and surprise a nervous man with a gun and an itchy trigger finger. The man’s voice spoke again. “All right, good. Now if everyone will very quietly and calmly step right over here where I can see you. Ma’am, pick up that PA and yet all the rest of the customers over to this section of the store. Get all the employees to make sure of it.” The store PA came on with a nervous voice that probably had a gun to its head instructing all customers and employees to please report to women’s clothing. Then there was a pause, the PA kicked in, was silent, then shut off again. Fifteen seconds later it came back with the same voice once again instructing everyone in the store to report to women’s clothing then added “This is for everyone’s safety.” Kimmy’s mom stayed where she was, pondering what she should do.
Little Kimmy watched in frozen terror as everything unfolded and wondered why her mother had not come out of the dressing room. She couldn’t move because she was so afraid. Her mother remained in the dressing room unseen by anyone else. Kimmy wanted to scream and run into the dressing room, to the safety of her mother’s arms. But so many things had happened so fast and had been so frightening that even if she had been able to get the message to her legs to move, she might not have wanted to. The last person who had tried to run had not gotten far at all. She’d never seen a man killed before and she never wanted to again. But she resolved to use the lesson well and not move. She still missed her mother immensely.
“Ok, this is what I want to do next.” The man with the gun was once again speaking to the lady who had just made the announcement that would bring still more people to sit at this man’s mercy. “Call this number,” he continued as he handed her another piece of paper, “and speak these words and only these ones.” The woman picked up the phone with the gun still nestled close to her temple and the man dialed the number. The woman then spoke to someone name Teri and read the message as it was written.
“Several others and myself are being held hostage at the clothing and jewelry store in the west wing of the mall. These people are going to die one by one if you do not comply with Steve’s prior wishes.” The man’s name must be Steve, Thought Kimmy. The woman continued, “Don’t let these people die over something little. Just do the right thing.” She whimpered and shook with fear the entire time she read. “He will kill us all if you so choose, but the blood will be on your hands, not his. You can stop this, it doesn’t take much. You know what he wants, he isn’t asking for a lot. Just make sure that you come alone, if the cops are involved, who knows what will happen.” She hung up the phone.
Kimmy watched as Steve told the woman thank you and graciously shot her in the head. He seemed so immensely polite about the whole thing the shock of what had just happened didn’t seem to hit everyone else until the woman’s lifeless body hit the floor and the blood began to puddle around her head and neck. Her eyes stared openly at the room, not taking in anything. Then, finally it clicked with someone and Kimberly watched as a well-exercised man began to walk towards the man with the gun as he yelled threateningly.
“Hey, there was absolutely no need for that at all!”
With equal ferocity Steve replied. “That’s just like you people, always thinking that everything that we do is always wrong and without reason. You’re probably someone’s father and husband, I guarantee that you are someone’s son. The woman that is there, who is no longer a woman, was someone’s daughter; perhaps someone’s wife and mother. And I killed her with just as little passion as I am going to kill you for being the arrogant man that you are.”
Inside the dressing room Kimberly’s mother heard another shot ring out. That was a total of three shots that she had heard. Each one probably a death. Each one sort of accounted for. She had heard the second shot and panicked. Once again she had wanted to run out expecting to see her little darling’s body lying in a pool of blood. But before she could make a decision, she heard the man’s voice softened her thoughts just slightly by confirming that it had been someone else. The next shot came after more yelling which suggested that the man who had been trying to protect and innocent group, and who had been innocent himself, was now among the body count that would headline the evening news. Perhaps, thought Kimberly’s mom, it was time for her to make some headlines of her own. If only it worked as she hoped, all that it would cost her would be a little humility.
Kimmy watched as one horror after another unfolded in front of her eyes until she saw the completely unexpected happen. In the middle of the random unreasoning violence Kimmy saw her mom walk out of the dressing room with the exact same model demeanor as she always walked out with. The sight was such a shocking contrast from the red carnage that had flooded the women’s clothing department that Kimmy lost the only chance that she had to go running to her mother. Meanwhile in the half-second that it took for everyone else to notice and analyze what was happening Kimmy watched her mother wave her to be quiet and still in that silent communication that a mother has with her children.
As she walked out of the dressing room Kimmy’s mother glanced around to find her daughter and waved her silent, then prepared to put on an incredible show. She knew that she looked great in her dress. It fit tightly around each of her perfectly placed curves, and the color looked fabulous on her. It was the same Caribbean Green dress that she had been admiring when the first shot had echoed though the dressing room walls. But that was something that she couldn’t think about right now. She had to block it from her mind and think confidence and seduction. She relaxed her breathing, felt her heart pound against her ribs, trying to break free and run but having no place to go. She put the same imaginary runway that she always had when she walked out of a dressing room and began to walk it. When she reached its end all eyes had turned to her with anticipation, curiosity, and mostly fear. She turned in a model-like circle, caught the eyes of the man with the gun for a full heartbeat, put as much passion into the look as she could, finished her circle and with glowing confidence asked, “So what do you think?”
Completely on cue the man with the gun replied, “Magnificent.”
The tone was a little less flattering than she had expected or wanted, but there was nothing to do but play off of the line. She turned to him to give her response and was almost shocked out of character by the sight of a gun pointed right at the center of her forehead. No rash movements she reminded herself silently. She kept the face of seduction painted on her face and changed what she was going to say just slightly. “Well, if it’s that terrible I could just; take it off.”
“Would that be appropriate in front of all these other people?” asked the man.
It was a better response than she could have hoped for. She took a chance that what she was doing was working and began to walk forward very slowly, swaying her hips as she did. The move worked the way that it was supposed to and the man lowered his gun slightly. She got very close to him and whispered in his ear. “I could show you what’s under this dress in private.” She got even closer and whispered slightly huskier; “Men with guns are so sexy.”
The man turned to her, chuckled slightly and said, “You think you’re so smooth don’t you? People like you think that they can seduce anyone. You think your looks, and your youth can mesmerize anyone. You are Beautiful, that much I’ll give you, but I have and will have so much better. I loath people like you, you disgust me. I should just shoot you right now and be done with you.” With that the gun was raised again to her forehead and cocked with every intention if ending her life.
Kimberly couldn’t just stand by and watch anymore, it was too frightening, too serious. She didn’t want to see her mother shot too. She ran to her mother yelling, “Mommy! No, don’t kill my mommy.”
Steve leaned down close to her and asked, “ Is this your mommy little girl?”
With tears silently streaming down her face now she sniffled slightly, opened her mouth but no words would come out, she could do nothing but give a slight nod of her head in confirmation.
Kimberly’s mother watched things unfold. It hadn’t worked out at all how she had wanted it to and now it wasn’t just her in danger it was her daughter; her whole world. And the man once again turned to her to speak.
“Your daughter is very brave. You must care very much for each other to do such foolish things.”
“Please.” Kimberly’s mother tried to say more but it was chocked back by frightened tears.
“Please what? Please take you instead of your daughter? Please let her live she’s just a little girl with her whole life ahead of her? You would probably hate to see your little girl tortured and abused like some freak of society. You’d hate to see the ones you love and care for hide who they really are because they are afraid that who they are isn’t good enough and they feel like they have to be something else. Well, I see it every day and you don’t deserve to have any special excuses made for you, but I will at least spare you the torture.”
With that, a fourth shot rang out and little Kimberly fell to the floor with the look that she had had the whole time etched into her face and everyone’s memory. It was full of fear and a deep love for her mother. Her mother watched in horror and turned to look at the man that had killed everything she held dear and met the barrel of the same gun.
The man behind the gun waited a half a heartbeat and said “At least she died with some dignity, you’ll die with none.” He didn’t let her respond. The fifth shot rang out just as the sirens began to fill the air and the hum of a car lingered in the background.
Another man charged at Steve, the gun was raised again, and another man died. He knew that what he had done was wrong, but he had done it for his beloved Teri. A man he would have done anything for; including this.
Epilogue
Teri felt Steve wake up with a frightening jump and curl up to him even closer. “What’s the matter hon?” asked Teri.
“I had the same dream again. I was in the store, the sirens pulled up, and you weren’t there.”
“But I was there. Now go back to sleep; we have to be up early tomorrow.” Teri leaned over and gently kissed Steve on the forehead.
At that moment I realized:
Psychosis is not a mere echo of the soul
Time is not thoroughly de-evolved
From the essence of willful revolution.
And hate is not completely a reverberation of glittering antithesis.
They are all as one
Evil is a desperate cry for release.
Release from the mundane.
Torrents of information discussed
Only in dark alleys and baron abodes.
Forbid.
At Any Cost
As Kimberly gripped her mom’s wrist she made a vain attempt to pull her towards the exit of the large mall. Her palm scraped along the metallic edge of the watch face and strained not to slip off of the side of the face as it poked into the delicate flesh of the small hand.
“Hang on babe,” was her mother’s reply. She leaned in close to her daughter and in a tender voice said “I still have some clothes that I want to look at.” With that the mother and daughter turned into a large clothing and jewelry store that shined with cleanliness and sparkled with expensive rocks.
“But mom, alls you’re going to do is go in here try on a bunch of dresses that you don’t have the money for anyway, ask the guy who you want to be looking at you, what he’s looking at, then try on another outfit that you’re going to do the same thing with.”
Kimberly’s mother chuckled as she considered the insight. In a blatant lie her mother huffed; “No I won’t.”
Her eyes rolled back, taking in every detail and registering none of it at the moment. It was a trained response that gave the impression she was accepting what was said while letting her covertly retreat into a cocoon of self-denial.. She knew that her daughter was right and that it was exactly what she would do, but why should that spoil any of her fun at all. Of course she was going to flirt with anyone that looked at the extremely expensive dresses she would have on. And obviously she was going to deny that she would flirt with any of these men. It was fun to be a tease and now that she was married with a daughter she was offered so many fewer opportunities; she took a lot of pride and joy in it. It made her feel beautiful.
Kimberly’s mother looked at her daughter as she bounced around, encompassing the scenery with eyes that jerked aggravatedly inside their sockets. She was a mountain of energy, constantly thinking. Kimberly’s gears were always turning and it was obvious in everything that she did. Everything that she said had purpose and all her actions contained reason. On the surface however, she was absolutely precious. Her face had a glow that only a child can have. Her smile was something that everyone fell in love with immediately. That smile softened all eyes and made everything better even when things seemed at their worst.
Kimberly was quite unaware of the observations that her mother was making as she took everything in with a slightly tinted view, blinded of beauty and focused on the annoyance of the whole scene. All around the store she saw there were others in similar situations. Husbands who didn’t want to be where they were, attempting to find a casual spot to wait as their wives tried on things that were incredibly expensive, and that they would wear only once if ever. Other children were being dragged from clothing areas, to dressing rooms, and then to sit and blindly approve of rings with completely way too big diamonds hanging gauckingly from weighted fingers that would not experience such a feeling for more than the few minutes that they would wear them in this store. She ignored the sparkle of the jewelry in favor of the grid of the patterned floor. Her eyes scowled at the fancy materials as the exit mocked her.
It met her eyes with an unblinking stare, coated in maddening red. It never let up in its relentless pursuit that seemed only to be the want to annoy and aggravate. The sign sat there in a mesmerizing pattern of perpendicular and crisscrossed letters that stared, cold and unwavering. Then she was snapped from the trance by a voice that had been making every attempt to disturb her thoughts and intrude on her solitude. Kimberly turned her head in agitation and confusion and said. “What mom?”
“I’m going to try this dress on, stay here and wait for me so that you can tell me how I look.”
Kimmy’s response required no thought or observation, “You look great mom.”
With a small pop of laughter her mother replied “I haven’t even tried it on yet.” She watched as her daughter blushed slightly from the embarrassment of having been so distracted by seemingly nothing. “Sometimes I’d really like to know what you’re thinking about.” She added.
Kimmy merely shrugged her shoulders and said, “stuff.”
Her mother simply shook her head and sighed. “Well, stay here so I can change.”
“OK.”
As soon as her mother walked in the dressing room Kimmy immediately began to once again contemplate the exit and its teasing promise of freedom. There it was, just waiting for her to walk out, knowing that she could not. It let everyone but her enter its sanctuary of escape. And then it changed. The letters and the doorway, the floor, and the ceiling, they all remained the same, but in this instant it became an entrance for one man.
He was a tall man with harsh, lanky features, and a dark, confused demeanor. His chin was chiseled and his jaw was set giving off an unwavering air. But his eyes and his forehead betrayed the look as fraudulent with nothing to back it. His body was thin with a “wasted away in the desert” look to it that looked anything but tough. Despite that in the back of the limestone eyes there was a confidence instilled that materialized through the cold, hard metal held in his hands.
Little Kimberly was frozen in terror. She couldn’t move, she couldn’t breath. Her heart had jumped into her throat and choked away all rationale. She wanted to panic. She wanted to scream and run through the exit that no longer existed and taunted her still more.
The first shot rang out as Kimberly’s mom was admiring herself in a Caribbean Green dress that fit her incredibly well. She looked fabulous and she knew it and she loved to admire herself. Her head gave a sharp jerk as she heard the thunder-clap-like sound of gunshots being fired. Her looks completely forgotten and maternal instincts instantaneously coming to the surface she thought of her little girl. She wanted to run out of the dressing room and grab her daughter and just leave. Then she heard the voice.
“No, no one leaves, I shot him; I’ll shoot anyone of you. You, lock the doors.” The voice was angry, with a distinct nervousness. Kimberly’s mom heard doors close and locks click into place. Him, the voice said him, which meant that her daughter was probably OK for now. But her mother didn’t want to step out of a dressing room and surprise a nervous man with a gun and an itchy trigger finger. The man’s voice spoke again. “All right, good. Now if everyone will very quietly and calmly step right over here where I can see you. Ma’am, pick up that PA and yet all the rest of the customers over to this section of the store. Get all the employees to make sure of it.” The store PA came on with a nervous voice that probably had a gun to its head instructing all customers and employees to please report to women’s clothing. Then there was a pause, the PA kicked in, was silent, then shut off again. Fifteen seconds later it came back with the same voice once again instructing everyone in the store to report to women’s clothing then added “This is for everyone’s safety.” Kimmy’s mom stayed where she was, pondering what she should do.
Little Kimmy watched in frozen terror as everything unfolded and wondered why her mother had not come out of the dressing room. She couldn’t move because she was so afraid. Her mother remained in the dressing room unseen by anyone else. Kimmy wanted to scream and run into the dressing room, to the safety of her mother’s arms. But so many things had happened so fast and had been so frightening that even if she had been able to get the message to her legs to move, she might not have wanted to. The last person who had tried to run had not gotten far at all. She’d never seen a man killed before and she never wanted to again. But she resolved to use the lesson well and not move. She still missed her mother immensely.
“Ok, this is what I want to do next.” The man with the gun was once again speaking to the lady who had just made the announcement that would bring still more people to sit at this man’s mercy. “Call this number,” he continued as he handed her another piece of paper, “and speak these words and only these ones.” The woman picked up the phone with the gun still nestled close to her temple and the man dialed the number. The woman then spoke to someone name Teri and read the message as it was written.
“Several others and myself are being held hostage at the clothing and jewelry store in the west wing of the mall. These people are going to die one by one if you do not comply with Steve’s prior wishes.” The man’s name must be Steve, Thought Kimmy. The woman continued, “Don’t let these people die over something little. Just do the right thing.” She whimpered and shook with fear the entire time she read. “He will kill us all if you so choose, but the blood will be on your hands, not his. You can stop this, it doesn’t take much. You know what he wants, he isn’t asking for a lot. Just make sure that you come alone, if the cops are involved, who knows what will happen.” She hung up the phone.
Kimmy watched as Steve told the woman thank you and graciously shot her in the head. He seemed so immensely polite about the whole thing the shock of what had just happened didn’t seem to hit everyone else until the woman’s lifeless body hit the floor and the blood began to puddle around her head and neck. Her eyes stared openly at the room, not taking in anything. Then, finally it clicked with someone and Kimberly watched as a well-exercised man began to walk towards the man with the gun as he yelled threateningly.
“Hey, there was absolutely no need for that at all!”
With equal ferocity Steve replied. “That’s just like you people, always thinking that everything that we do is always wrong and without reason. You’re probably someone’s father and husband, I guarantee that you are someone’s son. The woman that is there, who is no longer a woman, was someone’s daughter; perhaps someone’s wife and mother. And I killed her with just as little passion as I am going to kill you for being the arrogant man that you are.”
Inside the dressing room Kimberly’s mother heard another shot ring out. That was a total of three shots that she had heard. Each one probably a death. Each one sort of accounted for. She had heard the second shot and panicked. Once again she had wanted to run out expecting to see her little darling’s body lying in a pool of blood. But before she could make a decision, she heard the man’s voice softened her thoughts just slightly by confirming that it had been someone else. The next shot came after more yelling which suggested that the man who had been trying to protect and innocent group, and who had been innocent himself, was now among the body count that would headline the evening news. Perhaps, thought Kimberly’s mom, it was time for her to make some headlines of her own. If only it worked as she hoped, all that it would cost her would be a little humility.
Kimmy watched as one horror after another unfolded in front of her eyes until she saw the completely unexpected happen. In the middle of the random unreasoning violence Kimmy saw her mom walk out of the dressing room with the exact same model demeanor as she always walked out with. The sight was such a shocking contrast from the red carnage that had flooded the women’s clothing department that Kimmy lost the only chance that she had to go running to her mother. Meanwhile in the half-second that it took for everyone else to notice and analyze what was happening Kimmy watched her mother wave her to be quiet and still in that silent communication that a mother has with her children.
As she walked out of the dressing room Kimmy’s mother glanced around to find her daughter and waved her silent, then prepared to put on an incredible show. She knew that she looked great in her dress. It fit tightly around each of her perfectly placed curves, and the color looked fabulous on her. It was the same Caribbean Green dress that she had been admiring when the first shot had echoed though the dressing room walls. But that was something that she couldn’t think about right now. She had to block it from her mind and think confidence and seduction. She relaxed her breathing, felt her heart pound against her ribs, trying to break free and run but having no place to go. She put the same imaginary runway that she always had when she walked out of a dressing room and began to walk it. When she reached its end all eyes had turned to her with anticipation, curiosity, and mostly fear. She turned in a model-like circle, caught the eyes of the man with the gun for a full heartbeat, put as much passion into the look as she could, finished her circle and with glowing confidence asked, “So what do you think?”
Completely on cue the man with the gun replied, “Magnificent.”
The tone was a little less flattering than she had expected or wanted, but there was nothing to do but play off of the line. She turned to him to give her response and was almost shocked out of character by the sight of a gun pointed right at the center of her forehead. No rash movements she reminded herself silently. She kept the face of seduction painted on her face and changed what she was going to say just slightly. “Well, if it’s that terrible I could just; take it off.”
“Would that be appropriate in front of all these other people?” asked the man.
It was a better response than she could have hoped for. She took a chance that what she was doing was working and began to walk forward very slowly, swaying her hips as she did. The move worked the way that it was supposed to and the man lowered his gun slightly. She got very close to him and whispered in his ear. “I could show you what’s under this dress in private.” She got even closer and whispered slightly huskier; “Men with guns are so sexy.”
The man turned to her, chuckled slightly and said, “You think you’re so smooth don’t you? People like you think that they can seduce anyone. You think your looks, and your youth can mesmerize anyone. You are Beautiful, that much I’ll give you, but I have and will have so much better. I loath people like you, you disgust me. I should just shoot you right now and be done with you.” With that the gun was raised again to her forehead and cocked with every intention if ending her life.
Kimberly couldn’t just stand by and watch anymore, it was too frightening, too serious. She didn’t want to see her mother shot too. She ran to her mother yelling, “Mommy! No, don’t kill my mommy.”
Steve leaned down close to her and asked, “ Is this your mommy little girl?”
With tears silently streaming down her face now she sniffled slightly, opened her mouth but no words would come out, she could do nothing but give a slight nod of her head in confirmation.
Kimberly’s mother watched things unfold. It hadn’t worked out at all how she had wanted it to and now it wasn’t just her in danger it was her daughter; her whole world. And the man once again turned to her to speak.
“Your daughter is very brave. You must care very much for each other to do such foolish things.”
“Please.” Kimberly’s mother tried to say more but it was chocked back by frightened tears.
“Please what? Please take you instead of your daughter? Please let her live she’s just a little girl with her whole life ahead of her? You would probably hate to see your little girl tortured and abused like some freak of society. You’d hate to see the ones you love and care for hide who they really are because they are afraid that who they are isn’t good enough and they feel like they have to be something else. Well, I see it every day and you don’t deserve to have any special excuses made for you, but I will at least spare you the torture.”
With that, a fourth shot rang out and little Kimberly fell to the floor with the look that she had had the whole time etched into her face and everyone’s memory. It was full of fear and a deep love for her mother. Her mother watched in horror and turned to look at the man that had killed everything she held dear and met the barrel of the same gun.
The man behind the gun waited a half a heartbeat and said “At least she died with some dignity, you’ll die with none.” He didn’t let her respond. The fifth shot rang out just as the sirens began to fill the air and the hum of a car lingered in the background.
Another man charged at Steve, the gun was raised again, and another man died. He knew that what he had done was wrong, but he had done it for his beloved Teri. A man he would have done anything for; including this.
Epilogue
Teri felt Steve wake up with a frightening jump and curl up to him even closer. “What’s the matter hon?” asked Teri.
“I had the same dream again. I was in the store, the sirens pulled up, and you weren’t there.”
“But I was there. Now go back to sleep; we have to be up early tomorrow.” Teri leaned over and gently kissed Steve on the forehead.
posted by David Fuchs (Greg Goble) @ 9:53 PM
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