We can still get a few shades darker. Prolonged death after a botched jailhouse suicide or that perennial favorite around these parts: raped and murdered in prison. The fact that that last fate has gone from kiwi meme to an actual strong possibility is hilarious.
Fiiiiiiiiiiiine
Tears in his eyes, Chris leaves the care facility, gets in his car and drives off. All he can think about is how this is so unfair and how the universe is playing kick the autist with his life. Such misery, such woe, such sorrow he has endured for so long would drive a lesser person mad, but not her.
Then it happens.
A spark of light at first in the horizon, then a pulsing flash that engulfed everything around her. The car skids to the side of the road as he hits the breaks with all the force he can. The world, this world, it’s changed, they can feel it, we all can feel it.
“Christine? What are you doing? Come on, we’re going home…”
“…Sonichu?”
Disbelief, and then overwhelming joy.
The wreckage of the car was pulled from the ravine within an hour. The coroner had his work cut out for him as not only was the suspect mangled in a horrific fashion, but it was hard to tell where their own blood ended and their mother’s blood began.
The police had their own issues. Barb had been discovered dead right after her son…. daughter?…. had left the care facility. The person overseeing their visit had stepped out for only a minute to use the restroom, but when they returned they found a bloody mess and the visitor missing. Her blood in the car and on his clothes would be enough to close the book on this one.
Something stuck with Cole though, that the police had mentioned. Barb had late stage dementia and was deteriorating by the day. In a weird way, Chris had done her a blessing by putting her out of her misery.
“So, what did you think, Bob?”
“You sure this ain’t Hell?”
“Hey now, I can only do so much.”
Smooth jazz played lightly in the background, a long overdue respite from the nightmare on Earth his son had wreaked.
“Besides, if this were Hell, you’d probably see him walking in in the next few minutes.”
“Ha! Don’t even joke about that.”
The figure stopped the old Victrola and looked at the man, smiling for the first time since he had arrived.
“At least…. At least it’s all over.”
Yeah……. Hey Bob, can you do me a favour?”
“Sure, whadda you need?”
“Show me again how you cut down that dang internet.”
With a toothy grin, Bob hefted his axe to his shoulder and began to make his way to the Fiber optics fields.
