Chapter3 (BÖÐÚLFUR’S P.O.V)

Chapter3 (BÖÐÚLFUR’S P.O.V)

It has been three hours since Orna told me I am not human. I've been lying in the one bed in our room staring at the ceiling trying to process everything that has happened. The results of the tests are supposed to be getting out today at midnight. Those who failed celebration for those who passed away the trucks to Reykjavik. I don't want that. I want to live but, I don't want to have to have a constant fear of being executed for being a Plesula. Ragnar bust through the door. I sit straight up. He rushes over to me.

“You’re… “He pants “You're coming… with me.”

“Okay,” I say surprised.

“Get up!” He commands. I do as instructed and get off the bed. I followed closely behind him it doesn't take long for us to be on the bottom floor. We're outside before anyone notices that we were there.

“It's okay,” I tell myself. Ragnar runs over across the street and I'm right behind him. He leads me to a tattoo parlor.

“What are we doing here?” I asked.

He stops and says “What do you think?”

We walk into the small dark building. It's very dark and gothic in the parlor. There a school there are schools with animals and humans alike with candles burning on top of them there is rock music playing in the background. This is the place where my innocence will be lost.

“So… you guys see anything you like?” Asks a woman who is covered in tattoos.

“Um… I don't know? Böðúlfur what do you want to get?” He asks.

“I don’t know,” I reply.

“Get something that is important to you.” Says the woman.

“What is important to me?” I ask myself. I think for a moment. There isn’t really anything that is important to me. I turn and look at the wall with many drawings on it. I can’t find anything I like.

“What do you want to get?” asks Ragnar.

I look at the drawings again. Something catches my eye. A Viking rune.

“I want that one,” I say pointing at it.

The woman walks over to me and says “Are you sure?”

“Já.” I nod.

“Okay. Are you really sure? I can do a lot of other tattoos. You don’t have to pick on from these walls.” says the woman.

“Can I get a spider with a rune on it?” I ask. She nods. I describe the spider to her as she draws it. She asks what rune I want.

“Can I get two tattoos?” I ask.

“Sure,” she says with a smile.

“I want a rune of protection on the spider and, I want it in between my shoulder blades,” I say motioning towards my back.

“And where do you want the other one?” She says not looking up from her drawing.

“I want it on my left wrist,” I say lifting my wrist up.

“What will that one be?” She asks.

“It will be two names in the runes,” I say as I write out the names. She takes the papers to the back and leaves Ragnar and, I in silence. We sit there not saying anything while she is gone. Within a couple of minutes, she returns with thin semi-transparent pieces of paper.

“Take off your shirt please.” She says calmly. I take off my shirt and throw it at Ragnar. He holds it as I walk over and sit in the chair.

The woman says. ”My name is Guðrún. Lay on your stomach please.” She flattens the chair out so I can lay on my stomach. She grabs some things and gets to work.

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My back hurts really bad so does my wrist but not as much as my back does. It has been an hour since I got the tattoos. Guðrún gave me some pills to take and told me to keep it from bleeding. There was a thing with the results. They moved it four hours from now.

“Böðúlfur?” Ragnar asks.

“Yes?” I respond quietly looking over at him.

“Are you okay?” He asks with a somber tone in his voice.

“Yes,” I say quietly. He looks back down at his tablet.

“Hey come look at this.” He says. I stand up and wince a little. I make my way over to him slowly. I look at his tablet. There is a news article that reads:

Daily News

(Icelandic News in English)

Iceland’s prime minister has moved the time of the Headders test results forward.

The Headders will still go to Reykjavík like normal but, this year they will be

Put in holding cells until the President and Prime minister can execute them.

They will then be transported to the outside of the Presidential/Parliament building.

They will still be executed in the same way as last year.

“Okay,” I said confused.

“Read the other part.” He says staring down. It reads:

Bára Mínervudóttir

The girl who manipulated a boy into running away is to be released back into the governed population of the hotel for Headder testing.

I can’t believe that they had Bára away from everyone. This is bad. She will do the same thing shealways does. It doesn’t take long for her to pressure someone. She will do it again, I just know it. She always does.

This is going to be weird.

“She is going to be out two hours.” Says Ragnar.

“Really?” I say leaning back. My back starts to ache. I wince because of the pain. Ragnar giggles. I throw a pillow at him. It hits his forehead and falls on his lap.

“Hey! What was that for?!” He yells.

I glare at him and say “You know exactly what that was for.”

“Yeah I do.” He says as he laughs and throws the pillow at me. I toss it back at him. This continues for a couple of minutes. He grabs a pillow and hits me in the back with it. I wince. My back stings. It was terrible.

“I’m so sorry.” He says quickly

“It’s okay. I know you didn’t mean to.” I tell him softly. I take one of the pills. I then lay on my stomach. It doesn’t take long for me to doze off.

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I wake to Ragnar shaking me.

“What?” I yell to him.

“You need to get up. It’s time.” He says.

I instantly know what he is talking about. It doesn’t take long for me to force myself out of bed. I grab the pills that Guðrún gave me. I stuff them in my pocket; we are out the door in a couple of seconds. The halls are crowded. Everyone is going the same way. I get swept into the stream of people quickly. I walk trying not to get trampled. I lose track of Ragnar in the crowd. We walk in pairs side by side down the stairs. We walk quickly down the stairs. Soon we are on the bottom floor. There is a stage with four people standing on it.

When everyone is gathered around the stage. Everyone is getting impatient around me. The people on stage quickly get off. There is only one person is still on the stage. She has long gray hair; she walks over to the microphone and asks “Is everyone ready to get the results?”

“Yes!” everyone yells in unison. The woman calls people's names. Those people walk on stage. Then I hear “Bára Mínervudóttir.” Bara walks up to the stage. She is a headder. I knew it. The woman continues to call out names. I stand there reflecting on every.

This is it. I think to myself.

“Böðúlfur Gunnarsson.” says the woman.

No, I’m a headder. I’m going to die. This is the very thing I didn’t want to happen. I slowly walk over to the stage. I can’t believe I’m going to die. I stand next to Bara. She turns and looks at me.

She gives me that “I told you so look.”

I have to stay quiet.

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When the woman is done calling names we are lead to trucks. They all have the P.C.M.I. logo on them. Bára and I are loaded into the truck. We look at each other and then I say “What are we going to do?”

“I don’t know Böðúlfur.” She says.

“What happened to you?” I ask.

“Nothing. They just questioned me and I kept away from everyone.” She says shaking her head. I look at her. She looks back at me. We sit there staring at each other. I think about the first time I got to the orphanage. Everyone was awful to me until Bára told them to stop. She treated me like a human. Then after a while, we started telling each other things we wouldn't tell anyone else. We sit in silence on the way to Reykjavík.

We arrived in Reykjavík at 7:02 p.m.. It was dark and cold. There was a little snow on the ground. We were taken to the new P.C.M.I. holding cells. They were cold and nothing was in them besides a bed. Bára was taken to the cell right across from mine. I have been lying on this bed for an eternity. It is hard and itchy. I can’t get comfortable. My back hurts so much. I try to ignore the throbbing. I roll over on my side to not bother my tattoo. I slowly drift away into the land of dreams.

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I wake to the sound of metal banging against metal. I dart out of bed. The air is cool. I shiver. My back is throbbing but not as bad as last night. I stretch for a moment. Valter walks over to my cell door and says “YOU DISGRACE!”

“Þú ert tík!” I yell at him.

“Yeah so?” He snaps.

“What do you want?” I growl at him.

“Nothing. I just wanted to see what you were up to.” He says mockingly.

I lay back in my bed and I ignore him. I don’t want to get up.

“Here’s breakfast.” He says handing me a plate. There is oatmeal and bacon. It is cold

but, I’m hungry. I get out of bed. I don’t care that it is cold. I start to shovel the food into my mouth. I finish eating within a couple of minutes. Valter is gone. He left me alone in the silence. I sit the plate on the floor. I jump back in bed.

“Böðúlfur?” Bára calls. I get up and walk over to the cell door. It is made of iron bars.

“Já?” I whisper.

“You should pray.” She says. I raise an eyebrow at her.

“They are still going to kill us,” I say she shakes her head.

“Yes but,” She sighs “What about your soul?”.

“Since when have you been so religious?” I ask.

“Never really.” She smirks.

I sit back on my bed and ignore her. I just want to be left alone. I’m ready for death. I welcome death. Nothing will be able to keep me from this. I don’t it to happen but, I can’t keep it from happening. I will die and I’m okay with it. There is this feeling inside of me. A feeling of regret and sorrow. I’ve never regretted so many things at once. I’ve never felt bad about so many things at once either. My mind is going through so many memories at once. It is very hard for me to concentrate on just one of them.

I think back to the night that my parents were killed. I should’ve died too. I didn’t though. I should’ve been killed by that… Headder. If I ever find him I'll beat him to death. I stopped thinking about anything. I clear my mind of everything. There is nothing that I want more than to forget. It should be easy for me to forget something that happened when I was five but, it isn't. Why?

I lay on my side. I stop thinking. I quit trying. I let myself go.

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The cell door opens. I stand up off the bed.

“Böðúlfur and Bára Come out of your cells and be part of the general population!” yells a guard. I walk over to the cell door. Bára is already out of her cell and at the end of the long hallway. I run to catch up with her. She smiles. We walk side by side down the hall. We come to stairs and we slowly walk down them. Bára starts to walk in front of me.

We reach a giant area full of people. All of them are headders. There is a giant screen in the front of the room. There are two people in front of the Icelandic flag. IT is the President and the Prime Minister. “Headder executions will be starting in a few minutes.” States the PM. P.C.M.I. guards enter the room with guns. They grab random people; at least I think they are random, from everywhere. I have to get out of here before they take me too. I turn on my heel and start towards the door. I make out just in time…right before the door closes. I walk back down the way we came. This place is so big.

I make back to my cell as the sun starts to set. It slowly gets darker and darker. I like this time of the day. I’ve never really known why I like but, I just do. The cell door slams shut behind me with a loud bang. I walk over to the bed and lay down. I close my eyes and let my mind drift away.

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The following day I sit at a table next to the window in the room with the giant screen. IT has been on the international news. Showing the execution of headders all around Robit’ Pokusy. In school, they taught us that Robit’ Pokusy was once called Europe in the old world. They treat this like it is a sport or the Eurovision. Whoever kills the headders in the most brutal way wins. It’s disgusting. Bára and I are the only ones left. Everyone else was sent to their ends.

There is loud screaming from the television. I look up and there is a guy on the screen with no arms, blood squirting out of where his arms use to be. The camera moves and you can see his arms on the ground. When the camera goes back to him he is already dead, with a bullet in his head. Sweden’s flag pops up and its national anthem begins. I haven’t paid much attention to the executions. The screen cuts to the PM. “Tomorrow will be the final executions for this month.” Says the prime minister. A woman, who seems very agitated, rushes onto the stage next to the prime minister. She puts her mouth next to his ear and whispers something. He asks her something very quietly. She nods and walks off the stage quickly disappearing behind the camera.

“The executions will be postponed until further notice.” Sighs the PM. Whispers from the everywhere start. “SILENCE!” yells the PM. The whole room gets silent instantly. “There is nothing else to say. Bless bless.” Sighs the PM. He turns and walks off the stage. I can’t believe I get more time. The MOC must have something to do with it. They always do. It doesn’t surprise me, though. They’ve been acting strange lately. They must have found out something that they saw as undesirable for Robit’ Pokusy. It doesn’t help with what is going on between Norway and Sweden. Then there is what has happened with Wallonia and Flanders a couple of months ago. A small piece of Flanders rejoining Wallonia which then became Belgium again. There is still some of Flanders though.

I stand up and turn towards the stairs. I look out the dark iron-barred windows. The clouds are dark. The darkness outside is beautiful. There is a giant full silver moon that lights the night sky up. This is the most beautiful thing I’ve seen. I stand there staring out the window for a moment. “HEY!” yells a guard. “Get back to your cell now!”

I walk quickly down the hall to my cell. I look over in Bára’s cell. She is already asleep. She looks so peaceful. I pull the cell door open and walk in. The door close quickly behind me. I lay on the bed and cover myself with the warm inviting blanket. I wait for a moment not doing a thing. The lights go out and, I’m left alone in the dark.

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I am standing outside next to the execution platform. There is a man standing on the platform. He is big with broad shoulders and quite tall. I can’t see his face because of the black veil covering his head. There is another man standing to the giant’s right. He is an average sized guy. Two guys walk up behind me and grab my, tightly bound, arms. They squeeze my arms tightly and, push me forward. I stumble forward and fall. Bárahas her head down on the chopping block. I am picked up and forced down on the chopping block.

The two men in black clothes are sharping axes. The axes are shiny. I close my eyes tightly. “It is going to okay.” Bára sobs. I know it’s not true but, for a moment, I almost believe her. The sound of metal being sharpened stops. I try to stop thinking about what’s coming but, I can’t. I’m about to die and, there isn’t anything I can do about it. My heart is pounding furiously in my chest. It is so quite that I can almost hear my heart beat. I swallow hard. I can feel a breeze that goes past my neck. I can’t believe that this is the end of everything. The ax comes down with great force.

I jump up screaming. My body is covered in cold sweat. My heart is racing. It was just a dream. I try to wipe the sweat from my face and arms with the thin blanket. I lay back down still covered in sweat. It is so cold and, it feels like the air is freezing my sweat. I try to force myself back into the dream world. It isn’t easy. I lay there, tossing and turning, trying to get comfortable. After awhile I stop trying to go back to sleep. My mind continuously wonders. It only gets weird when I remember the time I had a crush on Breki and, I told him. He never let it go. He just picked on me. I should’ve never told him. I am just there. Awake. Cold. Hungry.

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A guard named Hilmar opens my cell door. He walks in and rips the blanket off my body. “Get up!” He yells his deep voice booms. I roll over and look at him. He is tall and, looks muscular. His dark brown hair looks like there gel in it. I sit up on the edge of the bed. “WOW! This person must be here to make me hate my life… well, what’s left of it.” I think to myself. I stand up slowly and ask him harshly. “What do you want?” I stare at him waiting for an answer but, it doesn’t come. I stand there in an awkward pause. “Come with me.” He says. His voice as cold as stone. He walks out of the cell down the left side of the hallway. I start to follow him. He is about a meter ahead of me.

He moves quickly. He stops outside of this giant door made out of iron bars with wood behind it. There is a padlock on the doors. Hilmar pulls an old skinned key that has black spots on it out of his pocket. He carefully slides the key into the padlock and, turns it. He pushes the door open pulling the key out. Light instantly pours out of the room and, cold air does too. It sends chills down my spine. There are big barred windows on either side of the room. The outside world seems so far away now even though I know that it is just beyond these walls that imprison me.

There are people in the back of the room with the standard black uniforms the P.C.M.I. staff has to wear. They are tight and have a lot of area for ammo and many pockets. They are standing behind food serving stations. I can smell the food from here. Hilmar motions for me to go and get food. I walk slowly over to the rack where the plates are and grab one. I walk from the rack to the serving stations. A woman with bright red hair asks. “What do you want?” I look at her for a moment.

“A biscuit please,” I say quietly. She tosses me a biscuit and I turn around and walk over to Hilmar. He takes me back to my cell. He walks quickly, faster than the last time. We walk back in complete silence.

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I didn’t eat much of the biscuit. There was a big announcement not too long ago. The PM told Robit’ Pokusy that the executions would be carried out in two days time. It is a couple of hours before the executions will be carried out. I am terrified constantly shaking. I haven’t eaten at all today. I couldn’t have eaten knowing what was coming. What does it matter if I eat, I’m going to die anyway.

I sit on the side of the mattress my bare feet on the cold hard floor. I stare the window into the cold dark gray sky. The clouds are so gray that they are almost black. I hear the sound of a key being slide into the lock. I quickly turn my head to look and see who made the sound. The red haired woman is unlocking my cell. Why is she letting me out? Is it time for the execution already? No, it can’t be. I can see her name tag now. Her name is Alexandra. “Come on,” She sighs “We need to get you to the center of the city to Hallgrímskrikja.”

“Why?” I ask.

“Don’t ask questions. Just do what you’re told and nothing else.”

“Okay.”

She leads me to a big black metal door that looks like it is thick. There it is a big counter on the left side of the room. There is glass that separates us from the man that stands behind it. Erna looks at him and he presses a button that makes a buzzing sound. She pushes the door open with barely any force at all. The cool air from the outside sweeps into the room. The sky is dark. The clouds are gray. The red haired woman walks over to the glass panes and say.”I’m taking him to Reykjavík.” She then pulls out a card and shows it to the broad man behind the glass. He nods his head.

“Follow me Böðúlfur.” Says Alexandra.

She starts to walk out of the building into the cold dark outside world. I slowly start to follow her careful to not get far behind. There is a stone path that leads to the road. It is cracked in some areas. The standard beige P.C.M.I. truck is at the end of the stone path. Waiting for me. I hesitate for a moment, reluctant to take another step. Another step closer to my execution. Another step closer to dying. Why would anyone ever want to go to their death?

Alexandra soon realizes that I’ve fallen behind and she turns. She grabs my arm and pulls me closer to the truck. My body becomes stiff and, she pulls even harder on my arm. It hurts. Pain shoots through my arm. I try to not gasp and succeed. Soon I’m by the beige P.C.M.I. truck. The door is opened and I’m pushed into the seat. The cold brown leather seat greats my pale, warm skin.

Alexandra quickly gets in the front seat and slams the door shut. She sits on the passenger seat. There is a tall man with dark hair. He sits in the driver seat. They start talking to each other and soon they start trying to talk to me. I don’t want to talk to them. I want to be left alone. My death is coming and I thought I was ready but I’m not. Thirteen years isn’t enough time to call a life.

I sit in the seat staring out the window. We stop and, I look ahead at the intersecting road up ahead. There is a black car. It sits there not moving like us. When we start to move I notice that the black starts to move to. It moves quite quickly and hits us. My body is thrown around like clothes in the dryer.

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There is a sharp pain in my… everywhere. There is broken glass all around and, I’m bleeding. A lot. I quickly notice that the truck is upside down. I look into the front and see Alexandra and the driver hanging upside down held only by their seat belts. I try to roll over onto my stomach but, I can’t it hurts too much. Pain instantly shoots through me. I cry out for how much it hurts to move.

I look back at Alexandra and The driver. Both are unconscious. Even though they were taking me to my death I know that they were just doing their job. I shouldn’t feel that I should try to crawl out to help them but I do. I roll over slowly cursing under my breath. When I’m on my chest I push my body up with my arms. I clench my teeth tightly and fight back tears. I start to slowly crawl towards the window that is broken out.

There are shards of glass left in the window frame. I try to not cut myself on them but I can’t help it. I stick my head out of the window there are people standing all around. I can barely make out the red, white, and yellow truck with blue flashing lights. I can barely see the bright orange SJÚKRABÍLL, ambulance, on the side of it. Everything starts to become blurry and I start to lose my sight. Soon I’m surrounded by darkness.

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I can feel a cloth underneath me. It is warm and soft. There is a cover on me. “What happened?” I think to myself. The memories of the day before are starting to flood in. I slowly open my eyes and a bright light is right above me. I squint instantly. I start to observe the room. There are tubes coming out of my arm. The tubes are pale and it leads to a pole holding a bag. There is clear liquid in the bag that slowly drips down to the tube and makes its way to me. There is a machine that continuously beats. It shows some squiggly lines that I assume is my heart beat.

The room is completely white and, there are lights that are really bright scattered around the room. There are chairs around in the room. Each one looks different and more uncomfortable than the last. A small woman with black hair and pale white skin walks into the room. She turns to the clipboard by the door. She starts writing stuff and, I want to ask her something but I decide against it. She turns around and looks at me. She quickly notices that I’m awake and walks over to me.

“You’re awake.” She says. Her voice is very soothing and calm. It is like a warm blanket wrapping around me.

“What happened to me?” I ask.

“Well, what’s the last thing you remember?” She says calmly.

“I was on my way… to…” I say. Where was I going too? Who was with me? Come on think Böðúlfur. It all starts to flood in at once. The crash how I got here. Everything that happened. The only thing that I want now is for it to all go away. It should all just go away. I wish that I couldn’t remember anything. I wish I wasn’t here… in this world.

“Never mind… everything just came back to me.” I reply.

“Okay. If you need anything just press that button.” She says as she points to the big red button on a little with a box with some other buttons. She turns on her heel and walks out of the room. It looks uncomfortable. There is a TV in the corner of the room that I didn’t notice before. I grab the remote and turn the TV on. It is on some news channel. The president is on a stage in front of the Icelandic flag and saying something about the crash with THE HEADDER. I am The Headder. I do not even have a name in the eyes of the government. I hate the government. They are wrong. Why do we deserve to die? What did we do?

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I cannot really see anything. Everything is blurry and, there are people around me. I cannot make out their faces.

“Ssssshhhhhh…. He is waking up…. Shut up.” Says a familiar feminine voice.

My vision comes back to me and, I instantly squint. There is a bright light above me. It is painfully blinding. When I can see and notice that Alexandra is leaning over me. She has several bandages and a few stitches. The driver from the crash is also leaning over me.

“You’re going to your execution still,” Alexandra says.

“What?” I yell.

“You’re going to your execution. The crash didn’t do anything besides postpone the execution.”

“I hate those bastards,” I mutter under my breath.

“What?” asks Alexandra.

“Nothing.”

“The execution is in an hour.”

“Okay.”

I slowly sit up in the bed. Pain shoots through my back and I gasp. Alexandra raises an eyebrow at me.

“What?!” I growl. She shakes her head and says. “Nothing.”

I sit there for a moment realizing that I am not in my clothes I am in some hospital gown. My first thought is. Where are my clothes? I start to frantically look around the room. The nurse from before walks in almost on cue. She has a plastic bag in her hand. She walks over to me and, hands me the bag. I raise an eyebrow at her and she says it is my clothes. I thank her silently. She turns and walks out of the room without saying another word.

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I sit there in silence waiting for Alexandra to tell that I need to get ready to go but it does not come. It feels like an eternity waiting for the time to go by. I just want this to be over already. Alexandra looks at her watch and says. “It's time.”
I sit there for a moment. Unable to move. From what? I don’t know. I just do not want to be here anymore. It is too much of a burden to be here. There is no way that I will be able to escape this and, I know that. There is nothing that I can do to stop this and, there will not ever be anything to stop this. I once hoped for my death to have meaning but, now I know that it never will. It is useless to try and escape like Ívar did… well, at least now it is useless.

I start to stand up slowly. Pain shoots up from my feet to my legs. It is not as bad as before but it still hurts a lot. Alexandra grabs my arm and gently pulls me towards the door. I sigh. Why does she always have to pull me around? I’m not a little kid. I think to myself. She pulls me past many rooms and out the door before I get a chance to see anything. Once outside I see that the entire building is black glass. There is a truck at the end of the path again. I am thrown into the truck like the last time but, this time, I buckle up. I know where we are going… to the center of the city. That is where I will die. That is where everything ends. I don’t want everything to end but it has too.

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We rode in silence all the way to the center of the city. I was weird and awkward. It is foggy and windy. It is dark and cold. I can barely see the top of the church. There is a small makeshift wooden platform in front of the massive stone church. The church is only used by the parliament for important elections and gatherings. The Headders’ executions are very important and the parliament, Prime Minister and, President are present for them. The only time that people are not on the streets in Reykjavík is when the executions are about to happen. I can barely make out the outlines of thepeople on the platform. Four people are standing on the makeshift platform. Alexandra pushes me forward and, I stumble. I almost fall but I manage to catch my balance. Alexandra grabs me and apologizes quietly. I say. “Þetta er allt í lagi.”

She nudges me forward a little. I start to walk forward. A loud sound of a door slamming shut makes me jump a little. I turn to see who slammed the door. Bára stands outside the beige truck. She is still alive? I ask myself. She starts to walk towards me. I know we won’t be allowed to talk to each other. Alexandra nudges me forward some more and I start to walk. I reach the makeshift platform within a matter of minutes. I don’t want to take another step but, what choice do I have? I start up the steps and I can make out one of the people standing up. They are tall and have broad shoulders. They are big and, wearing all black. The person has a huge ax in his left hand. Another person comes into my view. He is short and scrawny. He also wears all black but, his face isn’t covered.

I make my way across the platform. I can see Prime Minister Amlóði Arisson and President Baldur Brigirsson. They are standing on the far side of the platform. Bára is right behind me now. She comes to my side. I look at her and she looks at me. We both know what the other is thinking goodbye. It is sad but, at least we’ll be next to each other in the end. She takes my hand and squeezes it. She is shaking badly. She tries to steady herself by holding onto my hand but, it doesn’t last long. “Böðúlfur Ylur Leiðólfursson and, Bára Mínervudóttir you two have been charged with the crime of violating the Declaration of Psychological Infirmity, it is considered to be high treason to your country and, to all of Robit’ Pokusy. Do you have anything to say for yourselves?” Says Amlóði.

What could we possibly say? There is nothing to say. Bára looks at me and I look at her. “Yes, I do have something to say!” Bára calls out. “Who gives a fuck about the Declaration of Psychological Infirmity?! Who the HELL cares about Headders?! FUCK You! Fuck Iceland! Fuck Robit’ Pokusy! Fuck Everything and everyone! You can all burn in Hell for all I care!” Bára screams.

“Are you done yet?” I ask her quietly.

“Fuck every single person who wrote the Declaration of Psychological Infirmity! Now I’m done.” She says calmly.

“Moving on then.” Amlóði cuts in. “Bára Mínervudóttir I condemn you to death by beheading. Böðúlfur Ylur Leiðólfursson I hereby condemn you to death by beheading.”

The figures in black pull Bára and I apart. They force our necks down on the wooden block. My neck hurts and I can barely breathe. I keep my eyes open. I want to see my last moments. I can feel the cold breeze as the ax is raised.

“STOP!” yells a feminine voice.