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The
following short-short story was written in the Second
Person (where YOU are the protagonist... or antagonist,
as the case may be). It was written many years ago, and
is a prime example of the type of "purple prose"
one should endeavor to avoid in any kind of writing.
To be frank, it's a bit meretricious. But I have an affinity
for the story, which is something one could only imagine
existing in the deepest, darkest places of the psyche.
Enjoy!
THE LAST MINUTE
A super-short-short by
Eric Shawn
Y ou
awaken.
A glance at the clock indicates that the low, rumbling
bombs are no earlier. No earlier than the last time.
Three twenty-nine. And this is Hell.
Surprisingly, you aren't as horrified this time around.
The first times -- uncountable in number, infinite in
measure -- have in fact begun to take a complacent berth
in your dimming perception. The blur of the circumstances
rotate in a nauseating carousel. This, you note with a
beggar's lust, gives hope to the notion that it must be
a dream. All a terrible nightmare.
A smile you cannot see but can feel stretched dementedly
across your face signals its presence the second it dissolves,
as you once again snap away from the sight of Eva's corpse
draped across the sofa. The dead stare on the young bride's
face is now no longer a ray of stolen hope, but instead
a harbinger of a sealed doom. And, you now begin to dread,
a merited one. Just as before.
The bitter scent of almonds rises from her and from the
low table with its twin glass containers... the bottles
that are so much the same as the ones containing the doctor's
cocaine eye drops. Only these have no labels. But there
would be no confusion, no temporary and anesthetizing
rinse of artificial joy, in taking cocaine orally in place
of the prussic acid.
No, there would be the poison. Then there would be the
Walther. There would be the 7.65 millimeter slug entering
your brain. There would be no more of the thoughts of
inordinate, dishonorable shame at what amounts to mass
murder in the eyes of the enemy. The murder of millions.
Sickened at that, you shake your head and the aching sewage
of your brain languishes inside your skull. How many times
now have you endured this torment?
Another salvo from above ground and you jump. The walls
shake. Closer than ever. Dust rains down on the pant leg
of your uniform. The sound of the Victrola from somewhere
beyond the bunker door has stopped. The clock which had
been hanging on the granite wall has fallen to the stone
floor, broken. Its hands are stopped at 3:30 PM. It is
time.
Again.
You upend the jar of vitriolic liquid-- its ghastly flavor
sends a shivering wave of chills through you. The muzzle
of the gun is icy against your temple.
With trembling resolve, you fight the racing terror that
accompanies the single tear that now traces its way down
your cheek to the small crop of thick hair that stops
its path. You pull the trigger...
You awaken.
A glance at the clock indicates that the low, rumbling
bombs are no earlier. No earlier than the last time.
Three twenty-nine.
[end]
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