[ WP ] 10 years ago a being that looked human appeared in every television , every phone and every computer saying he would return one day to painfully kill anyone who committed murder , abuse or rape . Tomorrow is that day . How is society preparing ?

**I know I'm kind of late to this thread** 
 
 **Constructive Criticism is welcome** 
 
 I stood there, in the square, as the wind blew through my hair. And standing there I got to wondering how I ended up in the public market square in the first place. I guess once I raped the girl and killed her mother I knew I was fucked. When I got convicted I supposed I was double-fucked. And when the doppelgänger, at least that's what I call him, showed up on the TV during lunch in the prison mess I understood that was the end of me. There are some things you ca n't change in the world and the word of the doppelgänger was such a thing. 
 
 I guess no one knows who the doppelgänger is. Some, mostly the more religious folk, call him an agent of god. I was raised under a merciful god, so I guess that theory does n't line up with my own understanding of life. I just refer to him as a force of something, does n't matter what. The only thing that mattered about the doppelgänger was that whatever he planned, it was coming. And my fellows, my other prisoners now stand in chains with me to wait in the public market for our death. 
 
 I guess I sort of remember when he went on and told us his plan. Some guys broke down crying, others laughed like it was a joke. I don ’ t know what I did; I mostly just stood there and knew it was coming, so I made preparations. I guess a man, when faced with his death, cleans himself. I started first with the physical cleaning: my cell, my bed, my hands, my hair, my face. That ’ s the easy cleaning because you can see the dirt washing off; you have a gauge of your cleanliness. Then came the mental cleaning, the stuff you wash and wash and it just turns out half clean if you ’ re lucky. My crimes are legitimate and my punishment is fair, I can ’ t judge anyone but myself. But the thing that bothers me, that itch which I can not scratch, is why did I do it? 
 
 Looking back I can sort of somehow complete the puzzle, but some pieces got burned away and thrown out. I think my crime stemmed from my girlfriend leaving in the middle of the night. She didn ’ t take anything that wasn ’ t hers, but it tore me up the same. I suppose I wasn ’ t strong enough to deal with it, so I quit my job and started drinking. That went on for a few months, and in my drunken stupors I developed a sharpened hate for women. In July I settled down for my daily pint in my chair and as I drank my hatred boiled over. I started feeling pretty red and I remember jumping up and staggering out the door. As I walked out into the parking lot I noticed a girl, about fifteen, and her mother. I guess you know the rest. 
 
 They, the jury, gave me a death sentence, and that was that. My years in prison were uneventful, since I was in a pretty tight joint. I won ’ t bore you with what I ate, how I pissed, which years were the worst. I suppose I got life figured out in there. That ’ s all there is to it. 
 
 Its summer and I ’ m grateful to die now. The wind goes through me, on and on. The ice cream that a child dropped an hour ago now runs like a river through the cracks in the cobblestone. I meet eyes with a woman holding a bag full of oranges, she looks at me apprehensively and I smile reassuringly. She looks away, as if in shame and leaves the crowd. I watch her lean against the doorframe of the ice cream parlor and burst into tears. A few walk over to her and ask her what ’ s wrong. She just shakes her head and keeps crying. I look up into the sky and watch the clouds twist and whirl under the wind. 
 
 I asked a guard for a paper and pencil to write this down. This ’ ll be my story in a sense, a collective understanding of yours truly. I ’ m grateful that my father isn ’ t alive; I wouldn ’ t want him seeing this. Most of the folks standing here went away, the women holding the bag of oranges nodded to me from a distance and walked off into the world. The sun burns red over the horizon and the clouds are pink and orange. I ’ m ready to go now, I ’ m ready to go. 

