Killjoy Initial Post-Capture Interview
(TRANSMISSION OVERRIDDEN) DANGER LEVEL: RED
Jenny opened her eyes again and glared at me as if I was the one who let her go. I felt once again that despair she left me with, and the hole in my heart started throbbing the way it did for years after she created it. At that moment I replayed the games and remade her mistakes and reripped the seams that held us so tightly together. I refought our battles and shouted those hurtful things we said louder than we did the first and tenth and thousandth time. I met her over and over and said goodbye again and again.
This monochromatic stranger was someone I'd never seen before with new colors spattered all over her ghost-white face. Maybe what I did was wrong, but I can't change it. Love is a pill. A person is a number. The aftermath is secondary.
I leaned all the way over; so close that our lips were only an instinct away.
I felt her shaky breath lodged in my throat one last time, but I refused to touch her again.
Ever again.
I slowly drew in a breath and whispered past her lips crusted with dried blood and tears, "Do you love me?"
She closed her eyes in surrender.
"Yes."
My finger gripped the trigger of the Glitter Shark tight, sending a beam of blinding light through Jenny's skull that made her body go permanently limp. My eyes closed as it shot through the barrel without changing the expression on her face.
Maybe what I did was wrong, but I can't change it.
A feeling of freedom fell over my heart and I could take in a full deep breath again. I lifted my leg to stand on one knee and rested my arms on my blood-stained jeans with the Glitter Shark at my side. She looked so strange to me, like she was finally at peace. Like she did when we first met.
I'm glad the feeling was mutual. Now I could keep running.
I stood up slow and returned my ray gun to its holster. I walked over to the interrogation table and picked up my cigarettes, just staring at the concrete.
Jenny was gone. I would never get her back.
I would have to cease to search for her because she was lying right in front of me.
She couldn't have lived her life any other way. She was ready.
She laid there, good as ghosted, and I could picture Prudence holding her in her arms. She and I could both move on. I could move forward and she could go back, living in the past where she'd always belonged.
I pulled out a cigarette and lit it, inhaling deeply and taking one last sentimental look before I had to be Diet Choke again.
The ashes fluttered onto the ground, and I leaned over to pluck Jenny's name tag from the bottom of her white coat jacket, stood back up and walked to the thick metal door. I scanned the tag and walked out of the room, taking in another long drag and letting the door slam behind me and flicking more ash onto the ground that I guessed was still cold, but I'd already lost too much time and couldn't afford to wonder.
This monochromatic stranger was someone I'd never seen before with new colors spattered all over her ghost-white face. Maybe what I did was wrong, but I can't change it. Love is a pill. A person is a number. The aftermath is secondary.
I leaned all the way over; so close that our lips were only an instinct away.
I felt her shaky breath lodged in my throat one last time, but I refused to touch her again.
Ever again.
I slowly drew in a breath and whispered past her lips crusted with dried blood and tears, "Do you love me?"
She closed her eyes in surrender.
"Yes."
My finger gripped the trigger of the Glitter Shark tight, sending a beam of blinding light through Jenny's skull that made her body go permanently limp. My eyes closed as it shot through the barrel without changing the expression on her face.
Maybe what I did was wrong, but I can't change it.
A feeling of freedom fell over my heart and I could take in a full deep breath again. I lifted my leg to stand on one knee and rested my arms on my blood-stained jeans with the Glitter Shark at my side. She looked so strange to me, like she was finally at peace. Like she did when we first met.
I'm glad the feeling was mutual. Now I could keep running.
I stood up slow and returned my ray gun to its holster. I walked over to the interrogation table and picked up my cigarettes, just staring at the concrete.
Jenny was gone. I would never get her back.
I would have to cease to search for her because she was lying right in front of me.
She couldn't have lived her life any other way. She was ready.
She laid there, good as ghosted, and I could picture Prudence holding her in her arms. She and I could both move on. I could move forward and she could go back, living in the past where she'd always belonged.
I pulled out a cigarette and lit it, inhaling deeply and taking one last sentimental look before I had to be Diet Choke again.
The ashes fluttered onto the ground, and I leaned over to pluck Jenny's name tag from the bottom of her white coat jacket, stood back up and walked to the thick metal door. I scanned the tag and walked out of the room, taking in another long drag and letting the door slam behind me and flicking more ash onto the ground that I guessed was still cold, but I'd already lost too much time and couldn't afford to wonder.