Try Begging

Episode 243

They brought him to the interrogation room and handcuffed his hands to the chair, so I thought it had been a long time since I'd had to interrogate him. I was wondering if that devil had died or something, since things had been so quiet for the past few months. But instead of Winston, it was an unexpected visitor who was interrogating him.

Staring blankly at Jimmy's face, swollen with bruises, Jimmy chuckled. He had the same look on his face for the first few months after he was captured.

He never thought he would see Grace like this again. And he never imagined he would hear this story.

"Do you know which hospital Mrs. Hattie is in?"

The twisted smile disappeared from his face as soon as he heard the name Hattie.

"Ahhh! My daughter! Why did you do this! Jimmy, why did you do this to me!"

The words Mrs. Hattie had screamed at him, three-year-old Jimmy, with a hot gun in his hand echoed vividly in his mind.

"Jimmy, please tell me where it is. If you help me find Ellie, I'll reward you..."

"Annie! Please open your eyes. There's so much blood, so much blood."

Annie. Ellie. Their names sounded so similar.

Usually, people don't remember when they were three years old, but he couldn't forget what happened when he was three.

He found a gun in his father's desk drawer and thought it looked cool. He took it to the village daycare to show off. And then the accident happened.

"Jimmy, why did you do it? Huh? Why did you do it, I ask you!"

Mrs. Hattie, who seemed to forget about the incident most of the time, went crazy every winter when Annie died. Whenever she saw him, she would bring up that day, reviving the memories he wanted to forget, so they sent him away. But now, this damned, cursed woman was bringing it all back.

Jimmy glared at Grace, who was begging with teary eyes, just like the crazed Mrs. Hattie, and then closed his eyes tightly.

It wasn't my fault.

"It wasn't your fault," the adults had said.

"Jimmy, you're a child who will lead a revolution. There are inevitable sacrifices for a greater cause. So forget the past."

"You're our commander. You can't let personal feelings get in the way. You need to think of the greater good, of everyone."

"Yes, Jimmy, you're a leader."

"A child is innocent."

"Yes, I was innocent back then."

"Are you going to let a child die? If Ellie dies, you're an accomplice."