Eli carefully loads the gun with all six bullets. “I can pull the trigger six times or I can pull it only once. The result will be the same.”
Eli presses the barrel back into the indentation it left in Passionario’s skin. “I need to be certain. All I can guarantee you is you will never wake up. You shall know The True Death and it shall keep you safe, where none of the others can find you. This I promise, unless you’re having second thoughts?”
"Be safe, sound… and forgotten? The wretch that was me an hour ago would have taken such a deal. But I won’t."
His voice assumes a rhythmic, almost chant-like cadence: "I was forgotten once. I will not be forgotten again. The lesson of my crimes must be learned, and learned well, lest they be repeated a hundredfold. My death is due, my reckoning will not be postponed indefinitely, but I will be witnessed and remembered. Not hidden. Not forgotten."
"If you take what’s due, then the burden of remembrance will fall onto you. If you become the reckoner, then you will forever be witness. Kill me, and my crimes will haunt you forevermore. Every waking and sleeping moment, you will remember me. If you step aside, I will be my own reckoner and my own witness. I will go North, to the furthest horizon. No pursuer will be desperate enough to follow me. I will carve marks of passage into my own flesh, mind and soul. Seven candles will light my way, seven saints will watch over my ship. I will burn my name, crime and contrition into the frozen gate, as did thousands of sinners before me. And then I will claim what’s due. I will take my own life in full knowledge that my sins are not forgotten."
Eli almost decides to shoot Passionario halfway through his monologue, until he starts to recognize some of the intrinsic symbols of the image. Candles. Waking and sleeping. North.
Eli decocks the gun and holsters it, stepping back. “You are the only one who is going to learn anything. The people you’ve hurt haven’t learned a god forsaken thing. They still cry out as to why.” Eli turns away and begins to walk towards the exit he entered from.
"We’ll see about that. And… Thank you for setting me free."
There is a flash and a smell of cinnabar behind Eli, followed by the sounds of a hand mirror shattering on the stone floor. Passionario is gone.
Eli stays for a long time, just thinking. Eventually, he stands and leaves, not knowing if he is scared of Passionario, or for him.
(( Scene ))
claps wildly Bravo, you two! Bravo!
Also, Passionario, were you born with those eyelashes or is that Maybelline? :P