Last Supper

Trigger Warning: This story cotains graphic themes such as physical and sexual violence, suicide and abuse.

The clanging of the bars opening jolted Russel awake as the shouts of the guards rang through the halls leading to his cell. He jumped to his feet, using his palm to smooth out the wrinkles in his bed. He has learned early on in his sentence that if he wanted to pass the random cell inspections, he needed to make sure he moved things as little as possible, even if it meant sleeping next to his bed.

"Wake up you scum!" A deep raspy voice rattled through the halls. A tall, burly man with curly brown hair stepped into the cell. His eyes darted down at Russel who was timidly picking at his nails. Russel felt his gaze and slowly looked up to meet it. The warden had come to visit. It was his last day.

"Well well well, Warner the time has come ain't it?" The warden's beard inched along his top lip like a fuzzy caterpillar. Russel could hear the thumping in his chest quicken with those words. His last day, tomorrow he would be executed for capital murder.

Russel was a quiet kid, scrawny, scruffied haired, timid kid. He was always picked last for soccer, constantly teased for having shoes with holes in them, and despite his best efforts, never mustered up the courage to tell Jeanie Croski that he was in love with her. He lived in the same small town all his life, barely scraping through high school to end up as a clerk for the local records office.

Russel walked through the halls toward the warden's office, proded by the blunt end of the warden's batton. Surrounded by criminals, some petty, others violent and dangerous. He imagined what his life would have been like had he not joined them, had he just stayed away. He reminisced about his office, the smell of old dusty papers piled on his desks, the stain of the blue ink from his stamp. He wondered if he would have been content to live the boring mundane life he'd always lived. And yet as he dreamed in his heart, the faint sounds of the shouts of prisoners crept into his subconcience, and a single word echoed, "Hero"

Russel remembered the days leading up to his arrest. It was the 4th of July 1990, families were celebrating with barbeques, sparklers lit up the dusty little town he called home. The mayor had planned to give a speech about the unity and peace in the town, how families have been able to stick together and grow and thrive, under his leadership of course. Russel rolled his eyes as he sat at his desk

"Hey, you wanna go to the town fair, I hear there's gonna be fireworks!" Jeanie gleamed as she leaned over his computer to draw his eyes to her. Russel, startled, looked up and became flushed red.

"Y-yea, s-s-sure." he stammered as he adjusted his thin metal framed glasses on the bridge of his nose. "I just have to finish this report for the sheriff's records office.

"Well don't keep me waiting too long Rusty." her words were like silk, that wrapped around his head and choked the sense out of him. He never imagined that he would get to work in the same place as Jeanie, and that even after so many years she still affectionately call him Rusty. He watched as she walked out of the building, swinging her hips as she sauntered, daintily in her brown skirt and cream coloured button down shirt. She had a thicket of curly red hair and it bounced when she walked. She disappeared into the evening and he quickly went back to work.

The smell of gun powder filled the air as explosions ruptured the air, mixed with music and laughter. The town fair was alive with celebration. Russel checked his watch as he meandered through the crowd to find Jeanie. Tonight would be the night he said to himself.

Russel remembered walking through the vendor stands, thinking of getting Jeanie a bear from the carnival games for Jenaie, then thought it best not to, since she might have found it too forward. Walking passed the empty space between the stands he suddenly had a strange feeling, that of dread. He stopped and decided to look into the space, in the dark, he saw two silhouttes moving. It wasn't uncommon for couples to use the shadows cast by these elaborate fairs to carry out elicit affairs. But something felt off about the way the shadows moved. Fighting the urge to ignore it, Russel stepped into the darkness.

What he saw next was a blur. He remembered crying, he remembered blood and muffled screams, and in the middle of it, Jeanie. Russel's feet moved before he could think and he immediately jumped on the large man crouched over Jeanie who lay bloodied and mangled on the floor. He pulled the man off and started swinging, and tussle ensued. Russel felt a punch to his gut and wrenched, and the voice behind the punch said "Mind your business boy". Russel recognised that voice. As he lay on the floor wincing he felt his consciousness slipping, but he saw between the semi closed lids, a limp Jeanie on the floor with her panties dangling off her ankles, the man turned to her with his pants half opened, spreading her legs he began thrusting into her as she lay there motionless. Russel knew he had to do something.

There was a broken soda bottle next to the garbage bag he was resting on, without hesitating, Russel grabbed it and lunged.

The warden sat Russel down in his office, and looked him with a smug face. "I've been waiting for this day for a long time, what you wanna eat for your last meal? you better pick something nice, they don't serve food where you're going.

Russel looked away and was immediately slapped with the meaty back hand of the warden.

"I'm talking to you boy" The warden spat. "Here's the list, I don't know why they even give last suppers anymore, especially for men like you, a rapist and the mayor killer."

"I wanna talk to my lawyer," Russel said.

"For what? It's not like you gettin out now." The warden scoffed.

"I-I'm supposed to get one last meeting with him."

"Guess he couldn't make it. Besides you'll het your justice. You scum." The warden shoved the list of food items across his desk and the hard binder hit Russel's chest causing him to cough. The door then burst open and a man dressed in a navy suit with a crisp white shirt and a red tie stepped in. He had a briefcase in his right hand, walking with an authoritative air

"What is this you're intimidating my client." The man said with a slighht growl in his tone. Attorney at law Darren Titchifield was a big shot lawyer in the city, who had take this case probono. knowing he might lose, he aimed to appeal several times on the grounds of self-defense. Now with Russel facing deathrow, Darren sought to reduce the sentence to life to buy more time.

"Well look who showed up, nah I wasn't tryna do nothin to the man. I know how sensitive you people can get."

Darren looked down and the bulking man with a piercing glare. "May I have a meeting with my client in private."

"No can do sir, we don't have no big fancy private rooms like your prisons upstate, anything you gotta say you can do it right here."

Darren sighed, looking down at Russel, he saw that his hair had become course and matted. His dark temple seeped with sweat that ran down a bruise outlined on his brow. Taking a deep breath, he clenched his teeth when asking for them to have a few moments in the wardens office alone. After two guards searched the briefcase, the warden stepped out and left the door slightly ajar.

"Did you hear anything?" Russel asked, his eyes becoming wide and hopeful.

"I'm sorry Russel, but unfortunately I couldn't reach your siblings. And Jeanie..."

"Please no, don't tell me."

"They currently have her on a 48 hour suicide watch. It doesn't look like she will be getting out of the psych ward."

Russel felt the tears well up in his eyes, and he held his face, swollen from the beatings. He had failed. He remembered hovering over her limp body, begging her to wake up, then the crowds coming, arms prying him off her, calling him a rapist, a murderer. By the time she did wake up, he was already charged with rape and murder and the mayor was labelled a hero who died trying to protect her. She later learned of his fate, and no words could comfort her.

"She wasn't much when I went to see her. But, the doctors said she wrote this when she was lucid." Darren then pulled a brown paper envelope from his jacket pocket and handed it to Russel. On the back it wrote "To: Rusty"

Russel unsheathed the letter inside and opened it.

"Dear Rusty,

Thank you for saving me. You will always be my hero, and my first love.

Love,

Jeanie"

Russel felt a sharp pain in his chest as he held the letter close and the tears came.

"She loves me." He whispered to himself. Darren sat with him as he cried silently.

As they finished the meeting, Darren hugged Russel for the last time. It was a deep, mournful embrace. He walked with Russel to his cell.

"Are you sure that's what you want for your last meal, I mean steak and eggs is kinda boring."

"It's my last mean, why would I wanna pick somethin I hate." Russel chuckled.

As he walked towards his cell, the sounds of prisoners shouting, the clanging of the bars as he stepped into his cell. The smell of piss and cheap bleach stung his nose, but slowly, he settled onto his bed. Tomorrow he would be hanged for murdering the mayor and for alleged raping the woman he loved. But it didn't matter who believed him anymore, because she did.

As he clutched the little brown envelop in his hands, like the little light in the dark, he lay on his bed, and pulled the sheets over his body. It didn't matter what he ate tomorrow, because finally, he had tasted love, and it was bittersweet. He closed his eyes.