Confession is Good for the Soul

Bobby Maverick knew they were coming for him. He'd prepared for this day for years, but now that it was finally here he didn't think he could face it. Alternating between pacing back and forth like the caged animal that he was and sitting on the bed shaking his knee, he tried to concentrate on anything but his impending doom. The meal that he had requested, steak, baked potato, salad & a hot fudge sundae, sat in his stomach like lead. Dead man walking he thought, soon just to be a dead man. How in hell did he end up here? He'd asked himself that question so many times over the past eight years.

"Are you OK Bobby?"

"Huh?"

"I just asked if you were OK?"

Bobby looked over at the man sitting in the corner of his cell. "Oh, sorry Father. I wasn't really paying attention. I'm glad they let you stay with me. I don't have any family you know."

"I know, son."

"Son. I haven't been anybody's son for eight years. My parents disowned me after the murders. None of my so called friends believed me. You're all I've got. I'm still not sure why you believe me."

"We started out here together Bobby. You were the first prisoner I ever counseled. There's always been a connection between us, and I know that you didn't kill those girls. I know it in my soul. You just couldn't have. You don't have it in you. It takes a special kind of monster to mutilate those girls that way and that is not you."

"I can still see her Father. When I close my eyes I see her belly slit open. I can smell the blood. Oh God! The scene plays like a movie in my head over and over again."

Father Michael got up and came and sat next to Bobby. "You need to talk about it don't you? I'm here for you. I'll listen."

"You've heard this hundreds of times Father Michael. But I guess you won't have to worry about hearing it anymore after tonight." Bobby let out a short, humorless laugh.

"Ashley came up to me. I didn't pick her, she came up to me. God she was so hot. That long, blonde hair. How could any man resist that? Hell, I'd broken up with my girlfriend two weeks before so there was no reason for me to, right? She was dancing really close, grinding her hips into mine. She was looking for a reaction and she got one too. Then she yells in my ear that she wants me to go back to her apartment. We race over there and we're practically tearing each others clothes off before we even get in the door, then Bam! That's when it goes black. The next thing I know is I'm waking up with my head feeling like it's about to explode and some dude is cuffing my hands behind my back." Bobby stopped so he could take a ragged breath.

Father Michael nodded for him to continue.

"That's when I smelled that coppery odor. The cop got me on my knees and there was blood all over me. I saw Ashley then. Her head was practically severed off her body and her intestines were just spilling out her belly. She looked like a rag doll that someone had cut open and tried to remove the stuffing. I couldn't take it and puked all over the place. The cops wouldn't help me though and I ended up with a face full of my own vomit. You saw the pictures Father. You know how bad it was."

"Yes Bobby, I saw them."

"I tried to convince them that I didn't do it, but the knife had my fingerprints on it and it turned out to be the same knife used in a killing the week before. Another pretty, long haired blonde. Yeah, it didn't help my case that my ex-girlfriend also had long blonde hair. The cops were convinced I was out killing girls that reminded me of my ex. I had no alibi for the first murder, because I was at home, alone, asleep when it happened. And of course they didn't buy that someone hit me on the head at Ashley's apartment. They said I must have tripped and fell and knocked myself unconscious. You know the neighbor heard thuds and thumps and that's why she called the cops. I bet they just missed the real son of a bitch that did this. Sorry Father."

"It's OK Bobby. I understand why you feel that way. He must truly be evil. Probably a sociopath. And unfortunately for you, he's gotten away with it for all of these years."

"Yeah, with all the evidence against me, the jury sure didn't take long to deliberate. Death by lethal injection. I'm gonna die for something I didn't do. My appeals are done and there is no way for me to prove my innocence. And no one believes me but you."

Father Michael sighed, "I truly do. Bobby, you have no idea how much I am going to miss talking to you. You are special to me."

Bobby stared at Father Michael for a minute, "At least I know one person in this world will miss me when I die tonight." A tear slid down the side of his nose.

The priest nodded understandingly. "Do you mind if I pray for you Bobby?"

"Go ahead."

Father Michael bowed his head and murmured blessings and words of salvation. The guards came and took Bobby into the gurney room to prepare him for his lethal cocktail. Tears slowly slid down his face onto the table. They strapped him down and put in the needle. It pinched as it went in, but he knew soon that he wouldn't feel any pain at all, ever. He looked over to Father Michael trying to guess what the priest was thinking.

They rolled him into the execution chamber. Father Michael and the two guards were joined by the Warden, a doctor and a physician's assistant. The Warden recited the execution speech, recounting the murders with which he was charged and how the Great State of Florida had sentenced him to death by lethal injection. Finally the Warden asked "Do you have any last words?"

"I didn't do it, I swear."

Father Michael sadly nodded his head and the Warden signaled the executioner to start the first of the drugs that would bring about the end of his life. It entered his veins and was designed to render him unconscious, so that he wouldn't feel the pain from the other drugs that would stop his heart. He knew it was useless to struggle against the final sleep, but he fought with everything he had left in him to stay awake. Father Michael leaned down toward him with a kind smile on his face and softly whispered in his ear, "I know you didn't do it, because I did it. Yes Bobby, I'm the real monster." Bobby's eyes managed to fly open and his heart monitor spiked just before the darkness overtook him.