Revenge (for a contest)

"Russian Roulette.1

There's one Milton Bradley missed out on, huh?2

During the Second World War, russian soldiers would force POW's to play it with each other. They'd take five bullets out of a revolver. The prisoners would have a one-in-six chance of getting their heads blown off. then it was one-in-five. Then four. And eventually somebody died."3

I recognized the gun. It was mine. He must have stolen it from the evidence room. Cheeky bastard. I thought I was the one with the poetic streak.4

"You know why they made them do it, Sam?" I don't answer. 5

"Because it amused them." 6

I still don't answer. I know what he wants, but I won't give it to him. I know I'm smarter than him. But I don't think he does.7

"You wanna play?"8

Officer Dackerty smells like a bar room floor, but it's not on his breath. He's sober as a monk. He must have slapped it on instead of his cheap department store aftershave to add... authenticity. Again, I'm smarter than him. Now I know he's delusional.9

"Forgive me for being so morbid, but I've been short on amusement lately. You know all about that, right?"10

I do.11

"But hey, it worked for some depressed Russian prison guards, so maybe it'll do the trick here."12

It won't. But then, he doesn't intend to amuse himself. He wants to watch me blow my head off. I imagine he won't be disappointed. If the guard hasn't returned by now, it doesn't look like he's going to. I decide now's as good a time as any to lay it on him.13

"How's the wife, Officer Dackerty?"14

The wife was not well. She was tied to three cinderblocks lying silent at the bottom of the Manhattan River while scum-sucking bottom feeders snacked on her eight-month pregnant belly. The half-drunken smile disappears from his face. 15

Five bullets clatter as they hit the cold steel table. Before I know it the gun and the five empty chambers and one bullet are pointed at my head. The hammer pulls back-16

and it clicks. Now it's one in five.17

Dackerty's stone faced as the barrel kisses his temple. For the first time I wonder about who he really wants to die here. If it's him, he's out of luck this time, because the hammer clicks a second time.18

One in four.19

He's not talking now. The time for words is passed. My turn again. Something's wrong here.20

Fuck.21

One in three.22

I'm getting tired of this. I'm the one who's supposed to drag out the killing. Is that it, Dackerty? You want me to feel a little bit? Well, I won't give it to you. I won't say a damn word.23

But it's starting to work. 24

If Dackerty's going to blow his brains out it's going to be now or never. He knows it, too. There's hesitation there. He opens his mouth. He's not done talking.25

"She was perfect."26

Is he crying?27

"Absolutely perfect. You want to know how we met?"28

I don't.29

"Some dope fiend pulled a knife on her and I shot him three times."30

Well that's fucking maudlin.31

"Fucked up, right? Yeah, I thought so too. She was so scared. She was real shaken up about it while I was taking her down to make a statement. Her teeth wouldn't stop chattering. She told me 'I thought I was going to die. I thought 'I'll never get to do everything I wanted to do.'' On our first date, she told me- her knight in shining armor, that's what she called me, dumb right? she told me she wanted to go to Paris."32

I don't want to hear this.33

"We were going to move there after the baby was born."34

click.35

now it's my turn.36

one in two. Or it's supposed to be. But Dackerty's gone off the deep end now. He points it up at the ceiling, and-37

click.38

Fuck.39

One in one.40

I still don't talk. I'm not going to give the bastard his revenge. I've got my own reasons for what I did, and what I am. I don't know what he wants to get ot of this, but I know I'm not going to give it to him. 41

He points the gun at me.42

Something's-43

click.44

What?45

I knew he couldn't do it. There's no bullets in the damn gun. Dackerty's a god damn coward. Well, looks like I was worried for no reason.46

Then he blows a hole in my stomach with the gun he's got hidden in his pocket.47

Fuck.48

My chairs tips back, and I follow. Dackerty's standing over me as my blood fills the spiderweb of the dirty tile grout. That bastard. That stone cold bastard.49

"They said she's chewed through her ropes when you'd gone out. I never saw the crime scene, but the detective on duty said you'd gotten back just in time to slice her achilles tendon when she was halfway out the window. What do you think she felt, Sam? You think she had a glimmer of hope for just one second, when she ot her first look at the sun in four days? You think she thought 'I'm not going to die. Everything is going to be okay.'? I'll bet she did."50

He's right. She probably did.51

So did I.52

Fuck.53

Dackerty got what he wanted after all.