September 21st, 2012
I sip on my no-sugar, extra cream soy latte in the quiet hall of George Gauthier Science Library. I hear gunshots. Within seconds, the lights go out. We are asked to duck and cover. Glass shards fly everywhere. Blood splatters and silent screams fill the air. Books are penetrated by metal bullets. Flesh is weaved with terror. I hide inside the physics cabinet along with Newton and Schrodinger. I hear footsteps getting louder, thugs of metal shoes pressing against the concrete.
"Swat Team. Is anybody out there?"
As I peep through a wooden ridge, the men open fire on a masked young man. He is armed with a machine gun. He fights back but, they dodge the bullets. He kisses the ground with a bloody nose and bloody everything else.
A pile of corpses lie underneath my feet as they eventually find me fetal in the closet. Two medics check for my vitals.
I sit in a stretcher and the ambulance drives me away from the blood bath that will forever taint my vision.
September 22nd, 2012
A man dressed in a three piece suit takes off my blind fold. His partner pulls me by the jaw, speaking so nearby, his spit lands in my mouth.
"Bitch, tell me whatchu know?"
"I was in the library. I don't know what happened. I don't know".
"Don't lie, you f****ed that monster. Must have told you something".
The impact of his punch turns my eye black and blue. I want to faint but, he splashes me with cold water.
"Tell me where he is or you will not go out alive".
The men punch and slap and push and pull until I cannot speak anymore.
October 3rd, 2012
Somewhere in the heart of nowhere, a government official guides me in to the solitary confinement of the maximum security prison.
"Rishabh Kundra", they call his name.
He walks out, with cuts and scars, exit wounds and a condescending smile. I squirm, thinking about the lives he took; thinking about the number of heartbeats he stopped in a heartbeat.
"Why?" I speak with a blank look.
"Because I can", he supplies an equally blank answer.
I do not see remorse.
"Did I..."
"No", he does not let me finish. I suppose he knows what I want to ask. Not my fault, I know.
I hand him our promise rings tied in a necklace knot.
They take him away.
December 31st 2012
"Today marks the end of a remarkable year with a devastating tragedy".
Half a dozen news anchor persons line up outside my fixer upper condo trying to get me to speak.
"How do you feel about the hanging of your school shooter boyfriend?"
I push the microphone away from my face. Just then, two teenagers attack me with rotten eggs.
"Go die in a hole", they tell me.
"How do you feel?" she asks.
"Rot in hell", an elderly man slaps me across the face.
"You s**t, you wh**e, you bitch ass nothing", they all yell.
I kiss the mud just like he did.
"Notorious school shooter R.K. was hanged just two minutes ago in the Texas State prison".
The piercing noise drills my skull. My mother shields me from the raging mob. She drags me inside and shuts the door behind us.
All I hear is gunshots.
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