Crime and Punishment
"Do the crime, do the time."
A logical conclusion; a legal conclusion.
But I was not bound by law, or logic, or even physics.
Such power blurs boundaries, melts the mind – why should one of such power as I be bound?
The irony does not escape me, now that I am forever enchained. My magicks were powerful – and a metal body cannot age. Cannot die.
Unchanged and unchanging.
But, wait: A change…
The atmosphere contracts, like a sharp inward breath… A sonic boom. The trophy case has flown apart; I fly, released.
Light! Heat! Such blessed heat.
Such pain, such pain. My casing is only bronze after all. But I welcome the pain. An end, an end. Please, God, an end!
No, wait! Weight. Something pressing down on me; something that will not burn. I am cooling… Cooling.
The pain is gone, yet this is far worse agony.
I am compacted on every side. I do not need to breathe, but my mind is convinced it is suffocating. Everything is black – far darker than when the school is closed.
I cannot see. I realise I will never see again.
Buried alive.
I already knew I lived in Hell. I did not know that Hell could worsen.
I do not know how much time has passed when I hear your voice again.
Once, I hated you; now, the sound of your voice leads me to hope: perhaps you have come for me, perhaps you have come to end it.
You speak of a ritual, of a sacrifice you want to stop. When the earth starts to shake I want to sing with joy!
...Until I realise it's stopped – until I realise you are going.
"It is easier to commit murder than to justify it."
When I cast that final spell, blinded by rage, intoxicated with power, by any law I did great wrong, and the greatest wrongs demand the greatest price – the death penalty.
But no law demands this; no human punishment lasts forever.
Crime. Punishment. Justice.
"Let the punishment fit the crime."
You have forgotten me. You go on with your life. And every time you save the world, you damn me once again.
For all I did wrong, what could I have possibly done to deserve this?
Fin.