Hypothetical

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I'm going to give you a hypothetical: You are a bird. A bigger bird told you to kill another bird. If you don't, the other bird will kill you. Now if you're anything like me, you'd kill the other bird. But now, what if the other bird was really young, scared, and badly injured. That other bird would still try to kill you, but would you try to kill it?

This hypothetical is very interesting, to me. That's because it's what I have to do. A bigger bird, the capital, told me to kill another bird, Audrey. And Audrey has been told to kill me. But Audrey is only 13 at most and is very injured. If she is anything like me she is also scared. So do I kill her?

The answer should be no. You shouldn't kill anyone unless it is under special circumstances. But these are special circumstances. If I don't kill Audrey, then I've just signed my death wish. If I do kill Audrey, how will I ever look at myself the same again?

Killing the careers was easy. They didn't have to eat that poisoned food, yet they chose to. It felt like a more indirect way of murder. If I were to kill Audrey, I'd have to drive a knife through her heart. There would be no one to blame for her death, but me.

So why am I hesitating? I should make a truce with Audrey and whoever bleeds to death last, wins. But then Audrey does something unexpected.

She begs.

She begs for me to kill her.

I twist the ring on my finger. Vance's mother's ring. "For Vance," I think as I stab Audrey's heart with my knife.

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