𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐈𝐬 𝐀 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐎𝐧 𝐄𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐡

𝖋𝐨𝐮𝐫

"Nobody was back there?" Jermaine asked.

In response I shook my head, prompting him to speak again.

"bet, we should get outta hear 'for twelve come, they got some cleaning up to do." He spoke humorously, motioning down to the dead bodies laid out in front of him.

I didn't respond verbally or physically to that, didn't matter what they did with them, my work here was done.

What did matter, was the fact that for the first time since I've been doing this...I hesitated.

Hesitation, I barely even know what it meant anymore, and yet—today, tonight, just a couple minutes ago, I couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger.

I wouldn't say I cared, because even after killing the other two —I didn't feel anything.

But for some reason, seeing whoever that was in the closet, I just froze.

My chest got tight, I think, I don't know—I'm not sure what it was but it was something I haven't felt before.

Remorse?

Can't be that, I don't even know him. He looked scared yeah, but everybody looks scared when they're about to die.

He was crying, which is also a normal reaction—so why did it make me hesitate this time?

All I could do was stare at the ground in thought as I tried to make out what just happened in my head.

I should probably go back there and kill him—just finish the job and be done with it.

So why the fuck wasn't I doing that, how come every time I thought about it—that foreign pressure in my chest would return.

It was even more surprising that he hadn't tried to make a run for it yet, because if he did—then I'd have no choice but to finish the job.

He should stay in that closet, for his own safety.

That thought made me shake my head, I didn't like how it sounded. It made it seem like I didn't want to kill him, and that can't be the case because I don't even know him.

He's just another stranger, another victim, collateral damage on top of all the bodies I've left in my path.

If I see him again, then I'll kill him.

Tonight he got lucky, for whatever reason—I'm off my game, I won't make that mistake again.

My silence throughout the entire drive away from the store was characteristic, as was the constant talking from Jermaine.