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“So, you’re going to be the one to kill me?” The woman in chains asked.
Garth flinched, but kept his eyes ahead.
She was sitting behind him and to the right. There were chains around her wrists and ankles that connected to a pole on the floor, keeping her in place. In a few minutes, they would both be collected and brought out to the leader’s hall for a public execution.
Garth adjusted his grasp on the axe pommel.
“You gonna answer me or what?” The woman pestered.
Garth looked around uncomfortably.
“I know you’re not allowed to talk to me, but no one’s around to see you break the rules. Just let loose. Humour me before I die.”
Garth shifted his weight a little, considering. “…Can you stop talking about the fact that I’m about to kill you?”
“So you are? I mean, you’re the one to kill me?”
Garth sighed. “Obviously.”
“You don’t seem to like your job very much.” The woman observed, quite astutely.
Garth narrowed his eyes and didn’t say anything. It didn’t do any good to converse with people before he killed him. Especially not in this place. They would usually beg for their lives and claim innocence, and the thick tears in their voice was always convincing. Thinking about it too long made his heart hurt.
“Gone quiet again?” The woman hummed. “Ah, it’s okay. I’m sure you’ve killed plenty of people before.”
“Will you shut up?” Garth growled, whipping around to face her.
The woman actually had the decency to look surprised. Maybe even a little scared. He stepped back.
“Sorry.” He turned back around.
The woman sighed and her chains rattled slightly. “Don’t be. This isn’t fun for either of us. At least you’ll still walk away with your life.”
Garth turned back around, axe clattering to the floor. “Can you stop talking about death?”
The woman blinked, but didn’t look surprised this time. “Sorry, it’s just so relevant to our current situation.”
“And you think I don’t know that?”
The woman shrugged. “Who knows how repressed you are.”
Garth felt his hands ball into fists, but he forced them to relax. This woman was about to die. By his hand. She was allowed to badmouth for a bit.
“So…”
Garth picked his axe back up and resumed his position. “So what?”
“Why do you do this job?”
Garth frowned. “What, you think I have a say in it?”
The woman hummed, and he heard her chains rattle again. He really hated those noises.
“I mean, maybe. I’m sure there are some twisted folk who get some enjoyment out of this.”
“I don’t.”
“So why are you here?”
Garth’s mind immediately jumped back to his sixteenth birthday, and the three years before that when he signed up.
“I was… forced. Into this job.”
“Well, why don’t you just kill yourself?”
Talk about straightforward. Sure, it was a thought that crossed everybody’s mind in here, but no one had really said it out loud before. This woman had guts. Or maybe just nothing to lose.
Garth didn’t have much to lose either. “…They picked me for this job because of how big I am. I’m intimidating, basically. But that doesn’t mean I’m not expendable. If I quit… they’ll just find someone else to do it.”
The woman had no audible reaction, but there was a considering pause before she spoke. “So, why wouldn’t you just kill yourself anyway to spare the trouble?”
“Well, at least I can ensure that the people I… kill will have a quick and clean death. And… I’ve got a family to get back to. When my service is over.”
The woman was silent for a bit, before speaking up again with actual seriousness in her tone. “You know we’re all innocent, right? It’s this prison that’s actually criminal.”
Garth forced himself to nod. “Yeah. I thought so.”
Silence again.
“You know, a real criminal would have better gallows humour.”
The woman gasped in mock offense. “The mouth on you!”
Garth turned around to face the woman, and this time he really saw her. Her black hair had been cut short at her neck and was hanging limply around her face. Her cheeks were sunken in and you could probably fit a gold coin in the bags underneath her eyes. There was a certain light in her eye that had yet to be extinguished. He would be the one to put it out soon.
“...My innocence means nothing, doesn’t it?”
Garth knelt down, placing the axe next to him on the floor. He took the woman’s chained hands in his own. This time, she was the one to flinch. But she didn’t pull back.
“I’m sorry that I can’t save you… But I can make you an offer.”
The woman’s eyes went wide. Maybe this time she really saw him as well.
“What’s your name?” Garth asked. “Mine’s Garth.”
“Hey, Garth.” The woman stammered. “My name is Jain.”
Garth nodded. “Okay, Jain. I could either take you out there when I’m called, and kill you in front of thousands of people.”
“This doesn’t seem like a very good offer.” She laughed dryly.
Garth continued. “Or, I could kill you right here, and I won’t let them put on their show.”
“Shit.”
Garth furrowed his brow. “What?”
“This is really happening. I’m about to fucking die.” Jain’s complexion seems to have finally caught up with her eyes. The spark was gone.
“I’m sorry.”
Jain looked up and bore her gaze into his own eyes. “Please. Kill me now.”
Garth nodded and stood up, grasping his axe.
—
When the cue sounded, Garth walked onto the stage with not even the axe in his hand.
“I apologise for denying you your entertainment, but the condemned has died in her cell due to poor health conditions.” He announced.
He turned on his heel and walked off the stage.
—
Garth fell asleep laying on his stomach that night. His back was burning too much from the whip marks to be comfortable in any other position. He dreamt of Jain. And he woke up exhausted.