I had just put the noose around his neck when the wind howled. It was a relief to have some wind blowing through as the summer was hotter than ever. It was a strange time to be thinking about the wind. When I am about to kill a man. He was pleading at first, but then he had stopped and hoped that maybe I would reconsider. I would not. All that had to be done now was to take away the base from under him. Then it wouldn’t take long. I did so. I watched him struggle, trying to find that air to breathe which was disappearing as if you were drowning. The choking and the struggling. It was a tad bit uncomfortable at first, but I steadied myself and watched the man start to lose the battle with the rope. The body went limp and the battle ceased. He was dead. I am not a lunatic, some deranged killer. I am merely righting wrongs. Wrongs that could only have one punishment. I had to remove all the traces I could from the area, and once I had done that, I was ready to leave. I looked once more at the man in the tree. The swaying had stopped, and he was still. No more hanging like meat would in a butchery. I had regained a bit of something inside of me. Would my wounds ever be repaired? No, certainly not. But at least the man in the tree had paid. He wasn’t the only one who was going to have to pay. I drove off. It would now be on to the next one who had to pay. I was looking forward to collecting the payment.
