KISSED BY AMNESIA

Before: 1 - 3 - 2 - Action

Cade stared. His eyes empty and cold, nearly showing the kind of heart he had. 

With quick hands, Cade had the mask off the man. All the ease he had gained seconds ago vanished, and terror filled his face again. He was a black male. In his mid twenties I guessed. His short to a buzz black hair had a wave to it, and his shoulders and arms were a strong worked out fit. Looking at him now fully revealed made me wonder why he hadn't at least tried to fight off Cade. He was strong. A gym visitor I'm sure. But he had still appeared in front of us as if he were no older than a ten year old that was mentally and physically, crippled.

Cade gave Nathan the rifle.

Then he stood up and backed away slowly. For a few seconds, he stayed silent, staring at the ground in-between them. Then with focused vision, he looked up at Nathan.

"Get up."

Nathan stumbled to stand up as quickly as he could. He put the rifle on the ground and stood to his feet, hands up in the air, showing he was no harm and was up to no tricks. "I'm so sorry.... I'm so sorry...." he kept on mumbling, looking down and shaking his head, looking as if he knew, knew that this was the last moment of his life. He was dead, his eyes said, he was gone and there was nothing he could do about it.

"I want you to keep the rifle in your hand."

Nathan froze in the middle of his apologizes. He stared at Cade startled.

"W-What?"

"I said keep it in your hand."

Hesitating this time, and completely puzzled, Nathan leaned down and pick up the rifle with his thumb and forefinger, then stood to his feet, hands and rifle up in surrender.

"He said just aim and shoot, didn't he?" Cade asked.

It was that moment that I asked myself the crucial question: Why the hell am I still standing here? And I realized, too late, that it was because of him. His mind.

"When I ask a question, I expect an answer." Cade asked evenly.

"Yes—yes, he said that." Nathan quickly replied, than started mumbling barley heard apologizes all over again.

"Good. Now hold the rifle with both hands and aim it at me."

Nathan paused. He just stared at Cade with eyes asking questions that had no answers. He wasn't understanding, and when he did, he seemed to see it as if his deathbed was asking him to have a visit.

Because all of the sudden, he started backing away and shaking his head, saying "No. No. No." over and over again.

Cade wasn't touched. He ignored his reaction. "He said it would be easy, didn't he? So just aim and shoot."

...?

Did he lose his mind?

"No, no, no. I can't do that. I'm sorry. I swear I ain't ever doin' it again. I'll never even think about doin' it again. Just let me go man. Please!" He begged. "You'll never see my face from this point on."

For a second, I felt bad for the guy. The man was only in attempt of shooting a person, and possibly killing them. But he hadn't fired the weapon. For all we know he could have changed his mind last second and backed off his intentions.

Still, Cade wasn't touched "Come on, on the count of three."

The man looked at me begging with terror in his eyes.