Chapter 17: Different Shades Of Grey

Al'ravee sighed. "What happened to you, Ivan?." Al'ravee looked at Ivan in confusion. Although he wasn't exactly happy to see Ivan after so long, he wasn't sad either. It's just that when Murry told him that he had news of Ivan, he wasn't expecting the reunion to be in such a manner.

Hearing Al'ravee's question, Ivan frowned uncharacteristically. "What do you mean by that question huh?, do you expect me to tell you how unfair life had been for me or that I was practically living like a street dog out there so that you can relax knowing that stuff you called hard work was simply a privilege? Even Murry who had it best of all of us could not help me to protect himself, humph."

Al'ravee was a bit shocked by Ivan's reply. "Unfair?" He asked trying to hold the pure wrath that he felt towards Ivan. " Life wouldn't be unfair if you had never run away in the first place.."

"Oh come on, even you know that me running away back then made no difference. Look at Selou, when she came here, she told me it was only because Murry asked her to come. She doesn't want to see me and would rather be with that.. that guy." Ivan said. It wasn't until later that he understood that running away was a big mistake, childish and immature would be the right words to describe his actions back then. But it was already too late to turn back.

"At least 'That Guy' is taking care of your responsibility." Al'ravee fired back.

"AND THAT'S BECAUSE HE HAS THE ABILITY TO DO SO!!" Ivan shouted, attracting the attention of the guards outside.

Ivan calmed down a bit. "It doesn't really matter because I'm going to die next week anyway. Even though I killed someone, I only tried to prove my loyalty to our leader, I thought that with his help, I'd only be going to prison for some time, maybe meet some important figures of the crime world. I never knew it was a setup and that I was just a pawn." Ivan sighed. "Just like you, I'm inviting everyone else to witness my execution."

.....

Al'ravee's train of thought was cut short when the priest asked Ivan. "Do you have any last words you wish to say?"

Ivan looked at the priest before looking through the glass wall. He saw Al'ravee, Murry, and Selou who had confused looks on their face. Although she now loathed Ivan, she wouldn't be happy either to see him die. Ivan saw Lian who stood beside Selou, he saw the father of the lady he killed, no matter how anyone looked at it, no parent would want the person responsible for their child's death to remain alive. And finally, he saw his mother and father, he usually sent them letters once or twice a year secretly to let them know that he was fine. "Yes... Yes, I do, I just want you all to know I regret what I did a-and I don't want to die, I'm so sorry..."

*CLANK CLACK ZIP*

A man walked in to strap a metal head plate with a wire connected to the ceiling to Ivan's shaved head. He checked the leather holds on his arms and legs before taking out a piece of clothing and stuffing it into Ivan's mouth. The man looked at the person standing next to the lever on the wall and nodded to him.

Ivan who was previously calm could not help but start panicking when he saw the gesture, he started to struggle against the binds but to no avail."Mhmm mhmm mmhm mhmm." He tried to scream but only muffled sounds came from his gagged mouth.

Selou felt her heart shatter when she witnessed the sight of Ivan struggling like a caged animal.

Al'ravee wanted to stretch his hands to touch the glass, if possible, whisper to Ivan that 'it won't take time, just relax. Everything will be over soon.' But he never had the chance.

*CLAMP*

The man by the wall unhesitatingly pulled down the lever.

*HUMMMNMN!"

A humming sound was heard as Ivan suddenly became stiff and started convulsing violently but the straps held him in place. After five seconds, the man pulled the lever back up and Ivan's body stopped shaking. Smoke slowly rose from his still body as someone walked up to check him. After the man put his two fingers on Ivan's neck to check for a pulse, he raised his hand to signal to the spectators that Ivan… was successfully put to death through the current of electricity.

Al'ravee blankly stared at Ivan's still open, now lifeless eyes. He was trying hard not to overlap the current image of Ivan, sitting dead on a chair with the memory of Ivan when they were little.

Some people let out sighs of relief while others wept silently. Murry on the other hand never had a change in expression, he put his hand on Al'ravee's shoulder and whispered to him. "There's no good and bad my friend. I once believed that the world was divided into sides of black and white, but the truth is that it's made up of different shades of grey. I think that should simplify things for you."

Only Al'ravee heard what Murry said and his response. "I know".

After consoling Ivan's parents for their loss, Murry left in the convoy that he came in, and Selou left while crying in Lian's arms. Out of everyone here, Lian was the one who had ill will towards Ivan the most after he heard what he did to Selou in the past. He came today unwillingly with the hope that Ivan would suffer, albeit secretly, but now he was leaving with an unstable heart.

Some people could not help but imagine themselves in Ivan's place. Some of them could have experienced minor electric shocks at home from electric appliances or other accidents. The thought of more than ten times that amount of electricity passing through their body and ravaging it on a molecular level. That kind of pain could only be imagined.

....

Things pretty much progressed normally, just the way they should be. Ivan's execution did not cause any ripples in the daily life of others, though, Ivan's mother had to live the rest of her life knowing that her only child was gone. It should have been the child burying the parent, now it's the parent burying the child.

Al'ravee spent the rest of his vacation with his family and although Eva knew that his childhood friend was going to be executed, she didn't know when exactly as Al'ravee never told her. Al'ravee never even told Krene and Jurdelious but he didn't need to tell them cause they already knew somehow.

Selou was the only one of the original four still living in their home town and she didn't plan on going anywhere. She didn't wish to tell Ivan but she was pregnant with Lian's child. Duane was now old enough to understand many things he didn't understand before. Although it felt weird for him to be twenty-three years older than his unborn sibling, he was cool with it.

Murry was now in a position where work days and free days clashed a lot around him so he could pretty much decide when he wanted to work and when he didn't want to. To him, this period was excellent for hanging out with his old classmates and also renovating the old house to fit the decade. Luckily his current location was a classified subject so he didn't have to worry about his enemies targeting those he cared about in an attempt to eliminate him from the race for the council's seat.

Coincidentally, a lot of their former school classmates were here which made Selou very excited. She wanted the help of Murry and Al'ravee to organize a get-together party. At first, Al'ravee didn't want to organize such a thing seeing that one of their former classmates who was supposed to join them just died, he later conceded seeing that even Murry was excited about such an occasion.

Eventually, the invitations were sent out online and a lot of the former classmates were surprised that they were able to find them and also have the heart to invite them. They opened a group chat for more effective communication and decided on a date for the gathering and the location was going to be Murry's former house.

On the day of the gathering about a month later, people could be seen knocking on the door of the newly renovated house all through the afternoon. Different kinds of people walked through the doors that day, one of them even came in a wheelchair because of an accident that made him lose his legs… literally. Unfortunately, not every one of their set was able to make it.

Music filled the house as nearly thirty people mingled around to engage in all manner of meaningless discussions. Josephine, Murry's wife was also here and Al'ravee had to admit that she was indeed the most beautiful woman in the room.

Just when the late hours of the party were arriving, one of them decided to share some old videos with the rest of the group. Everyone was surprised that this person was able to keep these videos as they were from an old model phone and almost everyone had moved to the latest gadgets.

As they watched together, they encountered a video of a time in class when everyone was listening to what little Murry was saying during one of his 'Real World' talks. The person recording seemed to have just brought out his mobile device to record what was going on.

...

"....A hundred years from now, we might all be dead. Our grandkids might not know our names and they might not even tell their own children... I don't know the name of my great-grandparents, they're gone and forgotten, just like we all will be."

...

One of the students that was listening said. "But there's nothing we can do about it, whether we are remembered or forgotten, we will all die.

Whether by a gunshot, public execution, accident, disease, or old age. Death is inevitable, isn't that why we live our lives to the fullest....."

...

This should have dampened the mood of the people around as they would Inevitably remember Ivan, who appeared in the video, smiling cheekily, but right now, they were mostly drunk. For some reason, Al'ravee was the most clear-minded of them all even though he still felt a bit tipsy.

"Everyone! Cheers! to an inevitable death!" Murry suddenly called out while raising his glass of wine.

Al'ravee followed up as well. "Hehehe cheers, to an inevitable death."

Everyone else followed, "CHEERS, TO AN INEVITABLE DEATH!"