Eternal Innocence

The man looked down at his feet as yet another passed his cell doors, this one muttering 'you're next' before being yanked by his chains. The executions had been going rather smoothly lately. The man blamed it on some new law he must have missed out on during all those years he had been on death row.

It had all started off in such innocence. Hiding away some candy, swiping some money from his mother's wallet, ... Till one day, he was still a young man, he got caught. The young man got charged for shoplifting. Seen how he was indeed at such a young age, the man wasn't prosecuted.

He lived a regular life for the following few years, only to come to the conclusion that old habits die hard. At the age of 21, the man got tried for theft, but was soon to be released due to the lack of evidence. But just as soon, the man met justice. Robbing a house, the man's face went pale as he heard footsteps on the upper level of the place. A man dressed in pajamas cautiously walked down the stairs, holding his son's baseball bat up in defense. He got unarmed the moment he put his foot onto the floor. The poor man didn't even see the face of his attacker before being knocked out and onto the counter. It all happened within a matter of seconds, but the thief knew this name didn't fit him any longer. He was a murderer. Only one thought dominated his mind as he saw another shadow crossing the upper level. No witnesses. He ran upstairs, holding onto the blood-stained baseball bat. Everything happened while he was under the daze of pure panic. First came the master bedroom and the woman hiding behind her closet. Next was a somewhat smaller room, painted in blue and green, and the boy still sleeping as sound as ever. He froze. Never had he thought he would commit such a crime one day. He had never been scared of a little blood. Homicide was a word that had always caught his interest. But to commit infanticide within the blink of an eye... He ran. Not looking back, not even taking the loot with him, he ran until the noise of sirens sounded through the usually calm streets. It sounded dull in his ears as he fell to the ground and got captured and arrested for murder. He who had once been the embodiment of innocence and, after all, still looked the part, got accused of manslaughter for the whole world to see as his trial had gotten quite some attention in the media. Taking his former convictions into account, it didn't take the usual amount of time before he was condemned to death sentence. There had never been any possibility of him being acquitted and the man knew that well enough. Forensics had done quite a good job at providing the evidence.

His passenger had been right. A week later, at the age of 29, they released the man from his enclosed cell. He was now walking through the death row as tears for the little boy who never got to play that important baseball game, filled his eyes.