LDW

It all started six months ago. My name back then, when I had a normal life, was Bill Owens, but of course my name doesn't matter anymore. I'm a number waiting to die. All my problems started about six months ago. Six months ago I was living a normal life with my normal wife and normal kids. Now I'm wasting away in this prison cell, but today it all comes to an end.

The priest, father Mc'Dougal, came to see me earlier. He offered me absolution for all my sins, but I've never been a religious man. I told him not to waste his time on a man that doesn't believe in either god or devil.

My sweet little wife, Marie, was very religious. She was raised in a strict catholic home, and her religion followed everywhere she went. That's why it surprised me when she did what she did. I thought everything was good. I remember the day I bought her the beautiful ring to restore peace in my soul and silence the ever growing voice of my guilty conscience.

Unbeknownst to Marie I had an affair early in our marriage. I regretted the affair and to this day I don't know why I did it. I love my wife and I'm so glad she never found out or it would have killed her.

I walked in the shop and was greeted by the strangest little man I've ever met. He was strange, but harmless. From the top of his bumpy, bald head, to the bottom of his short crooked body, two words came to my mind, lonely life. As I said, he was a strange little fellow, but harmless enough.

"Greetings," said the little crooked man in an old world manner. He was certainly polite, but I guess if you own a business politeness is necessary to earning money.

I greeted him in return and began to look around the little jewelry shop. He stood patiently behind the glass counter watching me peruse the merchandise. I looked around, but nothing caught my eye until I came to the glass counter where he stood. He watched me like a cat ready to pounce. He most certainly had the look of a true, competent, business man, wary and ready for the next sale.

"Is there anything I may help you with sir?" The little man was eager to help. He wasn't eager like a child at Christmas, but eager in a pleasant sort of way as if he was a banker handing me a hefty withdraw. I liked that.

I told him that I was looking for something special for my wife; a piece of jewelry, but I added that it had to be special.

The man cocked a sharp brown eyebrow and eyed the tiny ring in the glass case beneath his arms. "I think I have exactly what you're inquiring about."

I didn't need to ask him what or where it was. I knew, even before I spoke to him, it was a small, but beautiful ring. It sat underneath the clear glass casing. It was perfect. I knew Marie would love it and that was all that was important to me. I purchased the ring.

The little man wrapped the ring in a fine silken wrap of silver and blue, my wife's favorite colors.

…………………………………………………………………

"William Owens," came a voice from outside Bill's thoughts.

"William, its time to go," came the voice again.

It's that dreaded moment. I blink my eyes, dissipating my thoughts like a heavy fog clearing in the bright rays of the morning sun. A lean guard stands in the open doorway patiently. He must have opened the barred door while I was lost in thought. "Is it that time?" I didn't know the guard's name. He was just another face among the sea of blank expressions in this steel hell.

When I first entered the federal penitentiary, I was scared and confused, but soon I escaped into my thoughts. My thoughts kept me safe. They kept me sane, and in a world of insanity, that was important to me. But I stayed lost in my own thoughts and never saw any of the watching multitudes.

"Yep," said the tall, well built, guard.

Bill Owens reluctantly stood to his feet and shuffled toward the guard. His booted feet bluntly slid along the concrete floor.

………………………………………………….

When my wife saw the ring, she went wild over it. I never saw her so happy, other then our wedding day, and to see her happy made me happy. She gave me the biggest hug and kiss combination that I have ever received. I shared in her happiness.

"Oh Bill," Marie cried as she wrapped her arms around me. "I love it and the wrapping….that was a nice touch."

She really loved the ring and that wrapping. That sure was funny. The little shopkeeper chose the right wrapping colors without a word from me. It may have been funny, but I'm glad he did. I got laid that night and I do believe it was the best sex that I ever had. I was definitely happy, happy and feeling real good. But the greatest experience was to hear the silence of my inner voice. My conscience had been appeased and my wife was happy; life was wonderful.

The next few months were beautiful. Marie and I have never been happier. The kids noticed our happiness and they even seemed happier. Everything was perfect. Life couldn't get any better. At least that's what I thought.

……………………………………………………..

"Okay William," said the guard. His voice snapped me from my thoughts again. "This is it."

I look to the guard, then to the long gray path behind us, then to the ordinary door in front of us. The door in front of us may have been ordinary to look at, but it was far from ordinary. That door was going to lead me to a new place and a new time. That door, that ordinary door, was leading me to death. I was going to be embraced by the reapers dark grasp and there wasn't a thing I could do about it.

The worst part of this whole thing was not the fact that I was getting ready to die, but the knowledge that I didn't really do anything wrong. Sure, it stabbed me through the heart to think of my wife lying dead by my own hands; her blood covering me. But I never murdered our children and none of this was my fault. I only did it in self defense.

………………………………………………

It all happened one day after I came home from work. I pulled into my home, thinking that everything was still happy and normal, but I was wrong. My home was a vision of macabre horror.

The front door was unlocked, and that was the first thing that struck me as odd. There were no joyful sounds of children running around playfully. That was the second thing that struck me.

When I walked through the front door, I had to force myself to look back outside. I wanted to be sure that this horrible house that I had stumbled upon was really my own. To my dismay it was. The walls were covered in faint streaks of blood and the smell of fearful death filled the dismal sight. Furniture was overturned and there was no sound of life. There was no sound of anything.

After I held my stomach down, I gathered my courage and walked to the next room. The kitchen was even worse than the living room. Scattered body parts of unknown food things were tossed all over the once clean floor. Parts of chicken and turkey looked as if they were sacrificed to some dark god. Blood was all over the walls and floor. The blood was formed into gruesome letters. K. I. L. L. The gruesome letters were formed into the word kill, over and over again.

I felt the world swirl around me. I thought everything was going to go black, but a scream from upstairs saved me from swooning. Those next few moments were a blurry nightmare. All I can remember is my wife sitting in our daughter's bedroom. She was covered in blood and cackling madly at herself as she continuously drove a knife into our eldest daughters back. Where our youngest daughter was, I had no idea, but the pile of gore in the corner of the little bedroom gave me a good idea.

My whole world had come crashing down around my feet and all I could see around me was the word kill written in our daughter's blood across the walls. My wife had turned into some mad-eyed fiend and my lovely children had been cursed by an untimely death. They were murdered by the one they should have been able to trust the most, their mother.

The whole situation was awful, but it got worst. The thing sitting on the blood-covered floor, once my gentle wife and mother of our beautiful children, raised itself and looked at me with a voided expression of pure insanity. It wasn't the kind of insanity that one could see on the postman that was ready to gun down his co-workers, but the dark insanity that lurks in the eyes of the possessed. This lunacy was dark and evil. It had eaten what was once the love of my life and left a husk of a mad woman. A mad woman bent on death.

"KILL!!! KILL!!! KILL!!! KILL!!! KILL!!! KILL!!!" She cried and yelled at the same time as she started walking toward me. It was as if two different people were inside her body, battling for control.

She lunged at me with the bloody knife. Her lips were twisted into a sinister grin, praying for death, but her eyes were stricken with grief. The mad tormentor was winning once again and his sweet Marie was slowly being killed by the madness within.

What happened next is a mystery to me. All I remember is waking up cradling my blood-covered wife in my arms. Marie was dead and my hands were covered with her blood.

The trial was quick, as everything against me pointed to a bright neon sign that shouted guilty. I was sent to prison and have been waiting for my electric death until today. Now I sit in the electric chair awaiting death and awaiting the moment when I will be reunited with my family. Hopefully death will bring the peace and joy that this life has failed to give me.

As I look through the clear glass into the crowd of spectators that came to see the killer put to death, I see something that disturbs me. I see that little, crooked man from the shop. He stares at me with those hawk-like eyes. It looked as if he were getting ready to close the deal on an important piece of merchandise.

As they pulled the black shroud over my face, the little man winked at me. He wore the nastiest smile I have ever seen.

All went black as the shroud tightened, and every voice outside the darkness was nothing but static. I know death is coming, and with it peace will shortly follow. But suddenly a voice spoke inside my head, or at least I think it's in my head. Who knows?

"I would like to thank you for the purchase of my ring. I really didn't think anyone was going to buy it. But then I saw you walk in and I knew my long hours of pestering your family were over. I knew that the ring would do my dirty work so I could focus my efforts upon someone else." The voice of the odd little man filled his head.

What does this mean? Why can I hear him for? It must be a figment of my imagination. It's understandable with the approach of death that my mind would play tricks with me.

"Oh this is no trick my friend, trust me. I wouldn't lie….at least not now that I have you where I want you. Oh yes, I did trick you. I have to admit it wasn't the nicest thing that I've done, but then again look at it this way. At least now you'll get to spend the rest of eternity with your wife, instead of all alone like you would have been. There's no way in hell that heaven is going to accept her now." The little man's voice broke up into wicked laughter as the first surge of electricity filled Bill Owen's brain with shocking pain.