The Games We Play | ✓

1. KENNY DIDN'T WANT TO DIE

01.
[KENNY DIDN'T WANT TO DIE]

—

"THE MORE YOU CRY, the more you'll suffer, you know? I don't have much patience for criers."

How strange it was to hear such deadly words delivered by such an angelic voice.

"Ellie, please," he sobbed, desperately trying to crawl away.

"Yeah uh, I lied. That's not my name," the hooded figure smiled apologetically.

He choked on his tears, "Why are you doing this?"

"That's a boring question," she sighed, fumbling through her victim's wallet and valuables. "I think you're quite a boring person, Kenny." She held up the ID card from the wallet and examined it.

Kenny was a boring person. He worked at a failing law firm and went home to his broken apartment every day, only to drown his miseries away with beer. Quite frankly, Kenny didn't have much to live for.

The only remotely interesting change in his life was meeting a beautiful girl named Ellie at the café the other day. She lured him in, enticing him with her winking smiles and ambrosia lips. She had displayed an interest in him no one else had in years. And well, here they were.

She followed slowly behind Kenny's weak attempts to crawl away and threw the empty wallet down at his quivering form. "You know, I really thought I'd come out of this with more than 300 hundred dollars," she shook her head. "You're really disappointing me here, Kenny." Examining the business card, she asked, "Tell me, what's it really like being a lawyer?"

Kenny stammered, "I-I love my job."

"That's not what I asked."

Kenny shook his head stubbornly, "It's my dream job."

"Right, but it's not exactly as you dreamed, is it?" she crouched down to look Kenny in the eye. "You graduated from Harvard, did everything you were supposed to, and yet here you are, barely scraping by at a failing law firm. Your boss, Dave – a total asshole by the way – he just snaps at you all day and tells you what to do. You weren't special in school and you aren't special now. You sit at your desk, and you just...waste away."

"How do you – " They had only met 2 days ago.

"That's right, Kenny. I've been watching you. And as I said, I think you're quite a boring person. You agree, don't you?"

At this point, Kenny was far too scared to make coherent sentences. He wailed pitifully, hugging himself on the ground and crying desperate pleas for mercy.

With an impatient growl, she grabbed Kenny by the collar and picked him up. "That's enough of that, you pathetic crybaby."

"Please," he gasped for air. "I don't want to die."

The statement rang throughout the empty alley like a song.

Such a simple sentence, such a hollow meaning.

"Oh Kenny," she gripped his face and stared straight into those fearful brown eyes. "Death is inevitable. It doesn't really care if you want it or not."

"Please – "

"I'm doing you a favor, darling. Dave surely won't miss you."

With a promising smile, she pulled out a knife and drew a line across Kenny's neck until his pathetic cries were no more.