Aurora Magazine 2018

No, boy, you’re right about that. But, do you think the devil does? (KYLE slams his hand on the table.) KYLE Listen, I’m only here to get money to help my mom pay bills. I don’t want to do this. You think I want to end your life? I don’t want to end anyone’s life. But it’s life or death, for my mom and you. You say you didn’t kill that girl, well you could have lived your life the way you had for eighteen years. It’s not my fault, God’s fault, or the devil’s fault you decided to change your story. MARSHALL Why fight when you’re already dead, boy? KYLE What do you mean? MARSHALL I’ve spent twenty years behind bars, boy, all I do is think. What else can an innocent man do? I think about being the so called boogeyman of our little town. I wonder how it happened, why it happened to me. After a while you stop wondering, and just start accepting. I would have drove myself crazy if not’ve, you understand? KYLE Why are you so hell bent on pleading your innocence to me? I’m just the guard, no more and no less. MARSHALL You’re the last person to see me on this earth, the one person I can tell my truth to. KYLE I don’t have time to hear your truth, I should have already given you this. (KYLE begins to clean MARSHALL’s arm, then places the IV

on the rack.) MARSHALL

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