Silent Lucidity

LXX

[The Executioner's Song]

INT. CELL

An inmate was lying on his bunk.

INT. CELLBLOCK

A prison guard walked down the cellblock, banging his night stick on the cell doors. He looked in on one of the cells and continued walking.

"Lights out in five," guard one said.

INT. CELL

The inmate sat up on his cot and asked, "Hey, animal?"

The guard stopped outside the cell as the inmate looked out the small window in the door. "Oh, the usual... postcards from anti-penalty folk, proposals from your lady admirers. You said you were done with those." He walked away from the cell.

"Hey, how's your wife, by the way... Amanda? That's her name, isn't it? You know I killed an Amanda once? My fourth. I'd do your wife the same, buddy, only slower."

The guard turned and walked back towards the cell, facing the inmate. "Two weeks from Tuesday Tommy." The guard walked away.

"Yeah. Let's do it now, tonight!"

The guard was at the gate at the end of the row. He signaled to guard two who was watching the surveillance cameras to open the gate. After guard one was through the gate, guard two stepped away from the cameras to get coffee.

Tommy, in his cell, sat on his cot and hung his head.

Electricity crackled and a man stepped in front of the locked gate. The light blinked off and when they came back on, the man was on the other side of the gate.

Guard two made his coffee as guard one walked into the room, and backed to the cellblock where the man was walking down the town.

"Tolliver giving you the usual grief?" guard two asked.

"Nothing new," guard one replied.

The man, Cain, was walking down the cellblock, the lights going out as he passed each cell.

"I can't wait till he's gone."

Guard one glanced at the monitors and saw Cain walking down the darkened cellblock. He walked closer and saw Cain standing outside Tommy's cell. Tommy looked out his window. The camera monitors blinked off and when they came back on, the man was on the other side of the gate. The guards looked at each other and shrugged.

Tommy was in his cell looking nervous. He turned and Cain was standing in his cell.

"Who the hell are you?" Tommy asked. "How's you get in here?!"

"I've gone by many names in this life," Cain replied. "The father of murder is one of them. And by the state's count, you've taken six lives yourself, Tommy. Although by my count, it's nine." Tommy circled around Cain with his back to the cell walls. "Oh, come on. You aren't one of those "it wasn't me" type fellas, are you?" Tommy clenched his hand into a fist at his side. "Because I know you're a killer, just like me."

Tommy smiled and got wide-eyed. "Yeah, I did it."

"Honesty." Tommy threw a punch towards Cain who grabbed Tommy's fist and held it in the air. "That's good. That's the spirit!"

Cain flung Tommy's arm down to the side and the handle of a knife stuck out between them.

"Ugh!" Tommy cried.

"Now, I bet you're wondering what I'm doing here," Cain said. "Did I come to punish you, or save you? Well..." he pulled the knife from its sheath and leaned in and whispered in Tommy's ear, "The truth is, Tommy... I'm here to do both."