“Bring the thief before me!”
The guards dragged the man before him.
“Mercy, High Judge!” the accused pleaded.
He knew that face. Before him was the boy who’d bullied him as a child. Who’d pushed his face into the mud, kicked him in the stomach and worse. How ironic that now he was at his mercy. As High Judge, he was the one who decided. The evidence spoke of innocence, but…
It would feel good to lop off his hand.
No, I would be no better than him.
“The evidence shows another committed the crime. Free him.”
I love this. It's simple yet powerful.
ReplyDeleteIt's good to see some humane behaviour amongst so many murderous virtues. And interesting to see a broader take on temperance too!
ReplyDeleteMercy, indeed... I would have let him sweat a bit first before freeing him. Like point out all the facts and ask the man questions thinking that those will be his last moments with a hand and then. WHAM! "Free him." lol Great job, you are a lot kinder than me.
ReplyDeleteYou've shown temperance in its best light here, definitely. (Though you might want to fix the typo . . . lop OFF his hand, instead of lop OF).
ReplyDeleteNicely done :D
Rebecca T. Little
http://rebeccatlittle.blogspot.com
Thank you all :)
ReplyDeleteI thought that because these are virtues I should try and get a happy ending. Also I prefer my characters to be alive and content at the end of a story if possible.
If I had more words than a hundred I would've definitely made the moron squirm.
Fixed the 'lopping of' and shall fire my "editor" for missing it.
Naaaaaw, this one was really cool. It must suck to be the judge, though. Being sinful is so much more rewarding.
ReplyDeleteNice to see him rising above the situation, as befits his position. He should definitely squirm a bit in a longer version though.
ReplyDeleteHe will, I promise. You are a cruel lot aren't you XD
ReplyDeleteNah, I want to write him squirming.
I appreciate the desire to want to make the bully squirm, but at the same time I think it speaks that much higher of the judge's Virtue that he doesn't even do that.
ReplyDeleteSwift justice, in this case letting the innocent you don't like go free. It really is telling how differently people would act in this situation, even though the feelings leading to that action would be very similar--from falsely indicting the bully to making him squirm to just letting him go.