One

A Chapter by Addi

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The bars don’t break. They don’t even bend. There is no getting out. There is no escaping from this fate. Kiana flops back against the wall, exhausted. There is nothing for it. She is going to die tomorrow. Die under an executioner’s axe. She isn’t a criminal. She didn’t murder anyone, or torture people, or try to set off a bomb. Kiana Rodrigo was imprisoned, trialled and sent to her death for ‘displeasing the prime minister’. And what of reason? What of justice? They don’t exist. Not in this broken world. The public get no say in who is in government or how the country is run. Not anymore. And this is where it leads. Kiana lies with her stomach against the cold, hard floor and stares up at the ceiling. She’s getting tired of the bright orange jumpsuit, the clothing that brands her as a prisoner. She just wants to go home and slip into a comfortable tracksuit. Eat a box of Favourites, maybe. But that will never happen. Because tomorrow she is scheduled to die, and the Minister for Law Enforcement never messes up his precious schedule.

“How goes it, lassie?” It’s Gary, a guard. He’s one of the few that seems like he’s actually on Kiana’s side. He’s a little dopey, but he’s kind, and his husky voice, with its Irish lilt, is somehow soothing.

“It goes just fine, thanks, Gary,” she replies, “apart from the small fact that I’m going to cark it tomorrow.”

“That’s a cruel joke. You ought not be talking like that, lass,” says Gary, shaking his head at Kiana. “Maybe there’s still a miracle in the world left for you.”

“I doubt it, but thanks for being good to me all this time,” Kiana smiles. “I wouldn’t have got through it without you.” She reaches through the bars and gives Gary’s hand a squeeze. They say nothing more, only sit in silence, glad of each other’s company but too upset or afraid or lost to speak. Kiana has spent a lot of time thinking these past few days. Wondering what lies ahead for her, in the afterlife. If there is an afterlife. Does heaven exist? Will there be pain? Kiana has so many questions, but there is no one there to answer her. She stands alone and gazes at the clock that ticks away her life. She waits for her death to arrive. But time seems to be holding out on her, just to annoy her. They are old enemies. One last jab at the dying girl, perhaps. The poor sixteen-year-old who will be killed for a careless word. Kiana assumes getting her head lopped off with an axe is going to hurt… It’s a shame, really. But they don’t give you a choice any more, apparently. You don’t get to end it quickly and quietly with a lethal injection. It’s ‘off with your head’ for anyone who irritates the prime minister. And there’s no small number of them. Kiana’s is only one in hundreds of executions every year. It’s not so bad for her. Her family and friends are few and far between. But other people… They have husbands, wives, children, parents, friends. It’s almost okay to be the dead one. You get to be re-born as another animal, or go to a perfect world, or just cease to exist. The people that stay in the world, however, and have to live with the pain of your absence? They are the ones that deserve sympathy. They are the ones who really suffer.

And so with this attitude, Kiana holds her head a little higher. I will not grovel, she tells herself. I will not plead for mercy. I will die without succumbing to their evil. She turns her attention back to the clock, which chimes out the next hour as it passes by: midnight. Gary has since been replaced by a thin, ragged woman whose eyes bulge alarmingly. She does not sit and hold Kiana’s hand. Midnight. Ten hours of sitting and thinking over her life before Kiana Rodrigo will be guided out onto the platform and forced to kneel before the axe. Her brother, Felix, will be in the audience. He promised he would. When Kiana was first arrested, Felix came to visit her. They talked through the glass on those telephones that you see in the movies.

“Will you watch me die, Felix?” she had asked.

“Yes,” her brother had replied. “Yes. I will watch your spirit drift away to a better world and know that you will be happy.”

“You really believe in all that?”

“I have to,” had been his words. Then he stood up and walked away. The memory is still fresh in Kiana’s mind. Felix will be the only member of their family in Australia after tomorrow. Kiana finds her eyelids drooping. She doesn’t want to sleep, knowing that when she wakes up her death will be much, much closer than before. But she is only human and eventually exhaustion overcomes her. She falls into a fitful sleep, punctured by nightmares of blood splattering and spirits floating around the room.

A rough hand shakes Kiana awake. Her eyes snap open and the first thing she does is look at the clock. Nine-thirty. Half an hour to go. She searches the room for the one face she wants to see, but Gary isn’t there. He doesn’t have a shift this morning. Kiana expects the thirty minutes to crawl past like the night before. But before she knows it, two guards have slid open the door of her cell and are marching her outside. Sunlight. She hasn’t seen it in months. No bars, not an orange jumpsuit in sight. There are hundreds of people squashed up in the square and as Kiana emerges, their eyes find her and stare openly. It makes her sick, the fact that people have come to spectate her death, as if it were a soccer match. She sees the platform, raised several metres above the rest of the square, with little steps on either side. The block, where Kiana will rest her head before it is cut off, sits in the centre. The executioner stands over it. He is a tall man, quite striking with strong, defined features and broad shoulders. He wears a simple uniform that marks him as a member of the Law Enforcement Squad. Yes, there is a Law Enforcement Squad now. The executioner’s hair is golden-brown, set in waves by a thick coating of gel. Kiana looks into the eyes of her killer. Grey, distant, emotionless.

“Kiana Atala Erin Rodrigo has been sentenced to the death penalty,” begins the Minister for Law Enforcement. How nice that he found time to make an appearance at the execution of someone as unimportant as Kiana. “The charges, Bartholomew?”

“Uh, the charges…” The man called Bartholomew hesitates. He stands to the left of the podium behind which the Minister looks momentarily flustered. Then he quickly returns to his usual self.

“Let’s just skip over the charges, shall we? No reason to waste any more time, Bartholomew,” says the Minister. “The death penalty. Miss Rodrigo, if you would kneel and place your head on the block.” He says it like he’s inviting Kiana to have a cup of tea. The guards shove her to her knees and push her head down, so that the rough surface of the block scratches against her cheek. She feels the executioner’s cold touch as he sweeps the hair away from her neck. As Kiana lies there, she searches for her brother in the crowd. She finds him. Felix is looking straight at her, his face set in a determined line. She reads the message there. Don’t give in. But Kiana doesn’t need reminding. Her expression is unreadable, not a tear in her eye. So when the axe comes down on her neck, she does not look like a vulnerable sixteen-year-old who’s not ready to die. She looks like a fighter.

next chapter

© 2013 Addi

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Reviews

Zap-the-awesome

thats awesome, but i must say, it seems a bit rushed. Perhaps sometime you should study how you could extend it, as it just flows a bit too fast to me.

Posted 11 Years Ago

1 of 1 people found this review constructive.

11 Years Ago

Thank you, that sounds like a good idea :)

kwestion22

I'm really excited about where the story goes! That said, the immediate present tense made it more difficult for me to concentrate and for some reason harder to follow.
All in all, bravo!

Posted 11 Years Ago

1 of 1 people found this review constructive.

11 Years Ago

Thanks, fair enough :)

CLUTZ

I'm intrigued. I like this. However, your language kind of throws me off. Like:
" There is nothing for it."
" And what of reason? What of justice?"

It's a little different, it makes it seem like I'm reading a story set in an older time but your time period points to it being more modern or set in the future, so it throws me a bit. & you do it throughout the whole chapter so I know it's probably not a mistake & I was wondering it this supposed to be how everyone talks or are you writing like you normally talk? I know it might seem like I'm making a big thing out of nothing but I'd really like to know.

On another note I did really like this. There were no mistakes that I could see and it's a really good beginning. I'd be really interested to see where you go with this. You have a lot to work with too. You still haven't said how Australia (or the world if this type of rule is everywhere) got to be this way, what happened to this girls family, why this type of rule and these punishments have been implemented, etc. This has the potential to be really good so I can't wait for the next chapter. & good luck.