Friday, July 24, 2009

The Good In Man

I sat in the dimly lit room, gray walls surrounding me and the suspect. The small lamp made a small ray of light that kept the room from going completely dark, making the scene more dramatic than it already needed to be. The clock read three minutes to seven, and I had half an hour to get this over with.
The man sitting in front of me just stared down at the desk, amazed at the plain color the surface of the table held. His eyes were constantly observing everything about the room, as if he was deciding whether or not to stay here. I don’t know where we get psychos like this. It was because of people like him that atheists have an actual point against religion. If God is all loving, how could he make people like this?
A knock on the door was heard and the suspect quickly turned his head. I looked over as the door opened and one of the secretaries comes in. She had a nice face, but it was easily forgettable, which is why I couldn’t remember her name. She dropped a file on the desk and walked out, as if too afraid to say anything in front of either of us.
I picked up the file, and saw only a legally purchased gun at a nearby store. No criminal history, no other problems.
Except for the shoot out.
“Do you know what you did?”
“Can we get a nicer place to talk?”
Jackass. He shot five people, and all he could think about was the condition of the room he was in.
“No. Do you know what you did?”
“Of course I do.”
“What did you-“
“I shot five people, ok?” he responded coldly. His face had changed from interested to annoyance.
“Why?”
“I wanted to test something out.”
Test? “As in an experiment?” I asked.
He brightened up a bit, “Yeah, kinda like a…um, what do ya call those things…um…”
“Social experiment-“
“That’s it!” he exclaimed. He smiled, proud that he had figured out what he was talking about.
Now I was interested, “What were you trying to find out?”
His smile grew. I had gotten his interest, talking about something he enjoyed. Something he was actually interested in.
He leaned in on the table, the silence first being disturbed by the movement of the table, then by his voice, “You ever realize how mean people are to each other?”
The prime example of this stared e straight in the eye, intrigue oozing out of his eyes.
I responded, “They’re not that bad. I-“
He fell back into his chair, “Please, you can’t walk anywhere nowadays without someone stepping on your foot or sneezing on you, and then not even say they’re sorry. No, people are shit.”
I hoped that the guys outside of the room were listening to this, taking note of this nut.
He continued on his little rant, “Like the other day, I was at my job. Down on fifth and Madison. You know, the clothing store?”
I had no idea, but lied to keep things going, “Yeah. I go there all the time.”
He smirked, “It’s a women’s store.”
I lied again, “For my wife.”
He opened his mouth to make a silent “oh.” Then he leaned back in his chair, “Well, in any case, I got fired yesterday for no good reason. Guy doesn’t even say ‘nice to know ya’ or um… ‘We’ll see if we can do something for ya’!”
“So you shot those people because you lost your job?”
He chuckled, “No no. I began wondering why people are so mean. But then I realized, people will help each other in times of crisis. So, I went down to Time Square, pulled out the gun, and started shooting.”
My faced scrunched in confusion, “But why?”
He responded calm and steady, “To see how many people needed to die before someone stopped me.”
I froze, an unknown fear creeping up the back of my spine,
“And it took five people before anybody even came close to me. They all just kept running away, screaming and whatnot. But by the time that fifth person was shot, someone started running towards me,” he smiled, the way a man smiles when he thinks of a great time in college, “That was a good guy-“
I got up and stormed towards the door, pushing it open and yelling at the guys standing next to the window, “Take him away. I’m done here.”
I opened the door to the main office and escaped that enclosed world of darkness. When I finally reached me desk, a note was there saying that four of the five victims had died. The fifth had been taken to the hospital in time by an unknown citizen.
I threw the note into the trash, hoping that psycho would never find out he was right.

3 comments:

  1. interesting, kinda dark, but definatly a captivating message. good dialouge too.

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  2. very good, it really made me think. the dialouge kinda draws you in and you ended it at the right point too. nice job.

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  3. If you break up the paragraphs, it will be easier to read. But a very succinct, interesting, and pithy story. Nice job. :)

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