The devil's puppet

Amalshan GUNERATHNE

Soaked in tears of merriment, he ambled his way towards the fatal chamber. A jolt of ecstasy rushed through his veins, as he saw the electric chair. He felt happier. At last the torture is over, he thought. No one came to bid adieu. He did not mind. It suited him better. After all he didn’t deserve any fond good-byes either. Guarded by prison security, he slowly made his way towards the electric chair. As he walked towards a distinct death, he felt at peace. Yet, his peace was short-lived. His moment of tranquility was crushed, as a police man in a khaki uniform burst through the chamber door.

“Stop,” he screamed while panting.

“Who are you?” the executioner inquired.

“The judge has sent a letter to stop the execution.”

“I don’t understand, but why?”

“Just read this court order please,” the courier said while handing the letter to the executioner.

The executioner took the letter and started to read.

“By immediate order of the court of ‘Never-Land’, I as the judge demand to terminate the scheduled execution of the prison inmate 121. An explanation for the termination will be given at a later court-hearing,” the letter read.

“What does it say?” the inmate inquired anxiously.

The inmate didn’t want any undue interventions. He wanted the execution to go smoothly. He didn’t want anything to come in the way of the execution, he wanted to die.

“The execution is not happening today.”

“But why?”

“Aren’t you happy that you won’t be killed today?”

“I am not. I want to die, what does the letter say?”

“A court order to terminate to execution.”

“No, this cant be happening, just ignore the court order and pull the switch.”

“I can’t do that. I can’t go against a court order.”

“You can. Just tell them that you got the letter only after the execution.”

“No I can’t do that, you are to face the hearing again. Guards take him to his prison chamber,” the executioner demanded in an unyielding tone.

The inmate 101 was crushed. He felt as if he has been caught red-handed. His best laid plan has gone sour. He wanted it to be a death sentence and he got it. Everything was going according to plan till the execution was halted by some obscure court order. He thought the plan was flawless. It was his plan was to intentionally get caught and get convicted for first degree murder.

The POLICE will arrest him, the court will prosecute him and he will finally be sent to the electric chair, he thought. And that they did.

They arrested him while he was holding the revolver that killed his old granny. The court case went smoothly. The motive and ample testimony were there to convict him. “He killed his own granny to inherit her property”, they thought.

He hired a cheap attorney, not because he couldn’t afford a good one, but because he wanted to get convicted. He wanted the court to prosecute him. He wanted to go to jail. He wanted it to be nothing short of death sentence.

That was the escape plan. As far-fetched and absurd as it may sound, it was a perfect plan to crush the darkness.

He has seen the enemy, his vicious twin double, that wretched creature of hell who induced him to do sickening things that he wouldn’t have dreamt of doing even in his wildest fantasies.

The one who made him suffer-the one who sucked every ounce of happiness from his hapless genes. His body was nothing more than a mere vessel for his dark presence.

He had to kill him. If the vessel is set on fire, the darkness would die with it, he thought. He had to kill the devil’s minion that existed within his own self. To put it simply, to kill the darkness, he had to kill himself.

He started to mastermind the plan. He had to do it in a manner that the darkness wouldn’t have a clue on what he is up to. The darkness was always one-step ahead of him and knew what he was up to.

The stale, hackneyed suicide methods wouldn’t work, he thought. He recalled the very first conversation that they had together.

“Look I know, you want cut yourself and bleed yourself to death,” the darkness said.

“Yes and you will die with me,” the inmate pegged back.

“I won’t let it happen,”

“You have no hold over me,”

“I own you. You no longer have any control over your actions,” the darkness noted with a smile.

“I am perfectly capable of doing what I want to do.”

“No you don’t, you don’t have the courage.”

“I do.”

“No you don’t, I infected your veins.”

“You infected my veins with what?”

“With darkness, they have overwhelmed you already.”

“I will find a way”

“You are nothing but a mere puppet. My puppet. You have no control over your actions and you will continue to serve me.”

“Told you, I will find a way. I will find a way to kill myself. And yes you will die with me and the world will be rid of one wretched soul for good. No one would even notice that you existed,” this time inmate responded with a tone of sheer determination.

He hated the presence of darkness. He felt the dark presence hovering over him wherever he went. It sucked and devoured every ounce of happiness out of his dreary soul. He wanted it end. He wanted to take matters to his own hand. But his evil-self was always aware of his every action. He had to trick him.

An opening presented itself when the darkness wanted him to kill his own grandmother. She was a faithful servant of God, he said and he wanted her services to come to an end. He wanted him to kill her. He wanted to make it look like an accident.

The very thought of killing his own granny sickened him. But he saw an opening, an opportunity to catch him off-guard.

“I can’t kill my own granny can I?” he said to the mirror.

“Yes you can. You should,” the darkness responded through his reflection.

“You can’t make me go through this. I simply can’t do it. She is my granny for Christ’s sake.”

“Don’t worry, you are just a vessel. Your actions are all controlled by me and you don’t have to beat yourself about it.”

“I feel guilty.”

“You don’t have to; I am the one who is committing murder, not you. Your conscience is safe,” the darkness noted with a grin.

He started to think. But thinking independently is not something that he was able to do of-late. He had to make sure that the darkness was not eavesdropping on his thoughts. And because of that very reason, with all of his remaining mental strength, he built a small sanctuary in his mind, a tiny cubical of his mind which darkness couldn’t enter. Resting on that tiny sanctuary, he made all of his plans. Still, thinking and all the planning had to be done with tremendous caution. He didn’t risk staying in the sanctuary for more than ten-minutes, in the fear that darkness could find his safe-haven.

He thought he will go along with darkness’s plans for the time being. He will kill his own grandmother. The salvation lied in how he can control himself after the murder. Somehow he had to make himself look like the prime suspect for her death. He had to get arrested for her death. With the vessel imprisoned behind iron bars, the power of darkness would subside, he thought.

However, it was trickier than he thought. The darkness wanted it to make it look like an accident. It wanted him to push her down the stairs, as she is making her way down to her morning breakfast. At her age, such accidents could happen and nobody would suspect she was pushed, the darkness said. He listened and for the time being he pretended to be following his plan.

***

The day of the ultimate crime came. He preyed on her as she came out of her room. Driven by the dark-force, he pushed her. It was as easy as that. She didn’t put a struggle. She came rolling down the stairs. And just when she hit the floor, he started to execute his plan.

The first thing he had to do was to rush all of his thoughts back in to the safe-sanctuary in his mind. Before darkness can take hold of any of his thoughts, at a rush, he escaped in to his sanctuary and started to execute his plan.

First he called the POLICE as an anonymous caller and informed them of the murder. As he put down his mobile phone, he took out the SIM card and broke it pieces and threw the pieces to the waste-bin. He didn’t want the call to be traced back to him.

The number was registered to a fake name anyway, but he couldn’t take chances and wanted the plan to carry out smoothly. Everything had to be carried in precise order.

The plan was to somehow get a definite conviction at the court, so that he will be convicted for first degree murder.

Then he rushed to his room and took out the .38 revolver from his drawer. And to make the murder look professional, he took a pillow and rushed downstairs towards his granny’s unconscious body. He checked her pulse.

It was blank. It appeared as if, she was already dead. The fall has killed her. But for his purposes, an accident wouldn’t do. He had to make it look like a murder and appear like a murderer.

He put the pillow and held it tight against her unconscious face.

Then he pulled the trigger without making any noise. However, as he pulled the trigger, the blood burst out from her gun-wound and the sight sickened him. However, it was no time for panic. He had to wait by her dead-carcass till POLICE come and catch him red-handed.

He didn’t have to wait for more than a minute; he heard the distant sound of wailing siren. As he heard the siren, he came out of his mind-forged sanctuary.

He has stayed in the sanctuary for far too long. He looked at the clock and everything has taken close to fifteen minutes. He just hoped and preyed that the darkness has not unraveled his secret hide-out yet.

***

Everything went smoothly after that. The POLICE came and found him with the murder weapon. The prosecutor made a strong case against him and the judge was inclined to punish him with a death sentence.

However, as things stands right now, he was rattled. He didn’t quite know what caused judge to intervene. Somehow or other, he felt defeated. May be it is the work of dark presence.

May be darkness had found a loophole in his plan and stopped the execution.

The situation sickened him. If not for the court intervention, by now, he would have been dead and be at peace, away from torture of all the turmoil. From a state of euphoria, he felt like he was back to being how he used to be, crushed, tortured and demented.

***

The day of the next court-hearing came. He wasn’t looking forward to it. He knew something was wrong and that he wasn’t going to get away with an execution this time. Slowly, guarded by prison-guards he walked towards defendant’s box. It was ironical, he thought.

He knew that this time, he was walking towards ‘life’- a life that he did not want. The euphoric feelings that he had when he made his way towards the electric-chair were no more. Instead, they were replaced by feelings of absolute frustration.

The court case started. The judge started to explain the reasoning behind the second hearing.

“The decision to halt the execution was taken after a special request made by a jury member. It appears that the initial decision was not a unanimous one. It appears that one Jury member has always opposed to a direct conviction and stood by the fact that the defendant is not guilty. The juror who is also a psychologist by profession claims that the behaviour of the defendant during the court case was very uncharacteristic of criminal who wants to be discharged. He claims that the defendant gave up way too easily and acted in a very self-destructive manner, doing great harm to his own case. And after discussing, the defendant’s behaviour with several other reputed psychologists, they have come to the conclusion that the court-case is a preconceived plan at suicide and that it is the inmate wish to be killed during the execution.

They stand by the fact that the defendant wanted a conviction and did his best to make himself appear as the fall guy.

The counsel also testified to the fact that the defendant was very uncooperative and didn’t act in his best interests. The later analysis of the autopsy also reveals that the shooting of gun occurred only after the victim was dead, meaning that the victim was already dead, when the defendant shot him…

The judge’s explanation could have gone forever. The inmate didn’t want to listen. He knew his plan has gone sour. He felt sick. Irrespective of the court’s decision, he would always remain as a prisoner, a prisoner of darkness.

There is no escape. In death, he saw hope, a radiant light for salvations. But as the court case went on, that beam of survival faded away. As things stands now, the death is nothing but a distant illusion.

The life dictates that he should live. And just as the judge declared that he is innocent, he saw himself staring down at a dark prison cell, a mundane chamber devoid of any life. As the decision was announced, he heard a laugh, sadistic laugh of the darkness, his jailor, his manipulator, laughing with its usual fiendish grin, preying down upon his cursed soul. Then just as he was released, he heard its whisper echoing through the court-room, “You are mine. You are my puppet. You were doing my bidding all along. Your safe-sanctuary is not safe anymore.”

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