Free The After/Life (The After/Life Odyssey) by Vardan Partamyan

who were scheming against the harmony and security of our beloved home. I am pleased to announce that we have been able to discover and capture one of the main propagators of this destructive process. Thanks to the dedicated work of our Security Assistants, Senior Teacher Kendall was brought to justice. Her guilt was proven beyond any reasonable doubt and she shall bear the consequences for her vicious actions. This morning, at nine o’clock, she shall be fired. The entire School is to be present by the incinerator chamber for this noble act of retribution. Absence shall not be tolerated.”
    I took a deep breath and got up. So far, everything was going according to the plan. Viler wasn’t suspecting anything. I started getting ready. Most of my stuff was already in the duffle bag. I added the deadly spoils of the last night’s exploits. I put on the bulletproof vest, stuffed the pockets with clips of ammunition and strapped the gun on my right leg. I stored the electric weapon in the bag as I hoped I wouldn’t need to use it if everything went according to plan (did it ever?). I tried not to think about what was going to happen in the next two hours as my entire strategy was built on a number of presumptions that may or may not be accurate.
    I looked at the watch – eight fifteen, just another fifteen minutes till the first act of my insane undertaking. Somehow, the time had slowed down and the seconds were painfully crawling along. I lit a cigar…never smoked one at this time… the taste was unusually bitter. So I stood by the window and smoked and watched the smoke go up the elevator shaft, going up and disappearing, going up… My mind’s eye was somewhere else though. My mind’s eye was closely following a little man, a quiet Teacher, a hidden monster who had volunteered to take up the job of Viler’s Chief Executioner. Here he was, putting on his robe - always wrinkled and untidy, here he was wiping his small round glasses, carefully brushing his thinning hair, then making a disgruntled sound and pulling on the Executioner’s hood. Just before going out, he would remember and smile. He would remember that this morning he was going to be an Important Person. This morning he would no longer be the one whom both the Students and Teachers despised and jeered. This morning he would be feared, he would be revered. For this morning he was the Chief Executioner. My mind’s eye followed him as he walked down the corridors. People he met would utter a brief greeting and then look away swiftly, oh how he enjoyed seeing fear in their eyes – be afraid, you bastards for I am the death incarnate and one day your name will be on my list. Chief Executioner was very particular about his job. Everything had to be intact, there was no place for a mistake – the Principal would never forgive him one. More importantly, he would never forgive himself if the execution was not carried out ideally…
    A crowd would already be in place when the Chief Executioner arrived at the Incinerator at eight twenty. On the execution day, all the classes and other activities would be suspended and people would try to arrive as early as possible. Partly, it was the warning of the Principal, partly a wish of getting the best view on the upcoming spectacle of death. Something had gone rotten in our little kingdom… The people would make way as the Chief Executioner made his entrance into the incinerator chamber to perform all the diagnostics… He was probably whistling a happy tune. He was not a very good whistler and it would come down to a disfigured hissing sound with spittle flying from his thin lips.
    A look at the watch – eight twenty nine, one minute to go - now was the time, no, now IS the time … I am ready…
     

Chapter XIX
    I can hardly resist the temptation of going out into the corridor, out there to the incinerator chamber and seeing what will happen with my own eyes (twenty seconds to go). Maybe nothing will happen? Maybe we