"The Days I Use to Believe..."

Almost Screaming his head off, that son of a bitch Genitor Paul yells, "Coming up next is a lost soul identified as Jeremy Hall." I couldn't believe it; it's been a very long time since I've seen Jeremy. About 2 years since he had to flee to the Remnants. I can't believe this is the way I was going to see him after all this time.

My arms shook, my hands trembled uncontrollably, I couldn't believe the state that he was in. The hair that he once use to take care of and loved so much is now gone, his head has been completely shaven. Something was off, unlike the rest of the strays during today's execution, Jeremy's body seemed bruised and batter. For god's sake, his entire body was bloody and bruised. No... The NAC must know something about him.

"To recap, Mr. Hall was found outside of the remnant last week having relations with another man", announces Genitor Matthew with serious infliction in his voice. He looks over to Genitor Paul and says to him, "It must have been a horrible sight to come across. Don't you think Genitor Paul?"

"I agree with you, I would've shot them right there in the middle of their act. That would be the best thing for these depraved dogs", zealously says Genitor Paul, "There is no place for these kinds of rotten apples. Yes, I think executing them without a chance of redemption is the right and only way to treat them!"

"Isn't it so great that we live in a country where we give this kind of filth-", Genitor Matthew says before being cut off by Genitor Paul's excitement, "Genitor Donovan is now escorting him up to the offering square. This would make Mr. Hall the 7th and final offering for today."

I can't believe it, as much as I try to process it over and over in mind, I just can't find it in me to believe that this is happening. Especially now that I see him being taken to the guillotine, I know it, but I don't know, I guess I don't want to believe. I can feel my eyes being overfilled with tears, not only was he a great person in my life but he was once my partner, and now, in a couple of minutes he is going to be dead.

I wish I could do something; I wish I could just jump through the screen and stop all of this from happening.

"We are now switching to a live-closeup of the execution", says Genitor Paul as the broadcast changes to live video and audio of Jeremy being escorted. All I can feel is guilt, they have turned a once great person into a circus. The viewers are throwing stuff at him, calling him names and slurs, all the while Jeremy's broken body is hauled to the offering square. His stripped quarantine uniform is now being covered and stained from the various food and drinks the audience is throwing at him. His wrist and ankles are shackled together with these awfully heavy looking links.

The Genitor is an older man, they rotate every Genitor with each death. I don't know why but this particular Genitor looks like a real hard ass. His hair is completely white, his face is covered in wrinkles, his eyes appear to be sunken into his skull: this man doesn't even look human anymore but instead a creature of the damned.

He has a microphone attached to his ear and his voice begins to play over the speakers in the arena. He tells Jeremy, "For the sins committed against the will of the NAC, do you repent my misguided lamb... so that the Elders and the elders before them may have mercy and grant you solace for what awaits you in the eternal fire? Absent of the true, divine being that is the Voice."

Despite being looked like he has been tortured to near death, Jeremy still had his fire inside of him, "Fuck you!", he shouts as his voice echoes through the arena. Then making a sound with his throat, he launches a nasty spit wad, landing on the Genitor's face. That's one aspect that I really liked about him, he was never the kind to immediately quit, even in the face of danger.

Jeremy changes his direction to the crowd, " I am an innocent man! Being put to death by a way of living that promised all of us a fruitful life! I've done more than this government ever can do for all of mankind! I've saved people that this country wants gone!" With this, the crowd begins to go even more wilder, shouting all sorts of profanities, all in the context of wanting Jeremy's death.

"A stray cannot save people, let alone his on soul! This person spouts nonsense! Pure blasphemies, my children!", the genitor addresses the crowd with his arms up, trying to calm down the crowd. He becomes noticeably agitated by Jeremy's outburst and he then turns his attention to Jeremy. "The only thing your kind is able to do is corrode the morality of The Voice's people and defile the laws of nature! If you can't repent for your crimes, then there's nothing I can do for your soul." As Genitor Donovan finishes his line, he goes behind the Guillotine to prepare it and at this point I can see in Jeremy's face that he knows there is no escape from his fate.

Looking more visibly afraid, Jeremy begins to shout, "What do I have to do so you can believe me?! Fuck a woman in front of you! I'm telling you, I'm an innocent man!"

"Please, there is no reason to be so vulgar. Having relations with a man is vulgar enough", sighs the genitor as he prepares the guillotine. "Fuck you!", shouts out Jeremy one more time but with fear in his voice. Ignoring him, Genitor Donovan walks to face the onlookers to passionately shout out the court mandates that were dealt to him.

"For all that is good and green in this world, I am the Shepherd of flesh! I will deliver this ruined world to salvation!", he shouts as the crowd grows quiet to listen.

"By killing people, you mad man!", shouts Jeremy.

A big burly man from the crowd gets up to yell at Jeremy for talking over the Genitor, "Cut that damned strays head off!" Genitor Donovan says to the man, "Please my child, The Voice's rule is supreme. Everything will take its course with time." The genitor takes time to adjust his microphone and finds himself reading his court mandate.

"I, by the ruling of the higher court, am casting Jeremy Hall to the eternal fire for the greater good of our people. The separation of the heart and mind will exhaust anything that is impure from the soul of man and in time, the gene that created Mr. Hall's fallacious desires will be forgotten. He will be remembered as nothing more but a simple steppingstone to a better world. A world, where we will all bask in the light of The Voice!"

The audience roars in excitement as they know the execution is about to happen and for a moment, I feel nothing. "Don't listen to him! You are all going to be led to a world of slavery!", shouts Jeremy trying to win over the bloodthirsty crowd but to no one's appease.

Genitor Donovan turns around and gets on his knee to talk to Jeremy directly. "Accept your fate like a man, lost lamb. If you are capable of such a task." The Genitor gets up and walks behind him to take his position as executioner. By this time, by the look on his face, Jeremy has accepted that he is going to die. It's something strange, it's almost as if his face has aged by 20 years. The young face I knew and saw looked alien and scary. All the hope on his face was gone.

Gripping the handle to the guillotine, Genitor Donovan asks Jeremy calmly, "Do you have any last words, there is still time to repent." Jeremy quietly says, "Genitor, I'm afraid."

Before releasing the handle, he sighs. I could swear that I saw the Genitor begin to tear up a bit and have a face of regret. Jeremy has been reduced to tears. Finding the correct words to say, the Genitor's final words to him are, "You should be."

The crowd is going crazy and even some begin the countdown as the father is getting ready. "3… 2… 1…", some spectators begin to chant. The guillotine is dropped and Jeremy screams, and so do I. The crowd is going crazy as the Genitor picks up his head and throws it into the sacrificial fire. The rest of Jeremy is taken somewhere else.

I can't believe it, he's dead. My heart just stopped.

"Selmaaa, I'm home. I got you something special, something you like", I heard coming from my front door. It's Daniel, he has come home. I turn to him, and I see him there standing there, smiling with a bouquet of roses in his hand.