A Walk to Eternity

A decrepit prisoner sits on the floor with both hands above his head, shackled and bolted into the wall by chains that are cuffed to his limp yet ossified hands. His lanky pinky finger wears a gold ring. The prisoner rocks his head back and forth with eyes closed as he repetitively grinds the heel of his foot into the concrete ground. The blood from his heel’s open wound paints the dungeon with the words, “God Forgive Me.”

An officer enters the jail cell wearing a 19th century uniform. The prisoner lifts his head to look at the officer, and we see the prisoner's eyes open slowly. The officer removes a time piece from his left breast pocket and smiles without meaning at the defeated prisoner. The prisoner stares in terror at the long rifle that seems connected to the officer's left hand. The prisoner pants and we hear the sound of a heart beating faster and faster while his eyes are beading onto the rifle. The prisoner's eyes move from the rifle to the painted blood on the floor.  God Forgive Me comes into focus.

The rapid heartbeat accompanies the prisoner as his head and his eyes see a small hole in the brick wall that slowly and deliberately casts a beam onto the blood-painted floor.  God Forgive Me brings his heartbeat to stillness. 

A prison guard enters, wearing all black and a necklace.  He approaches the prisoner and takes out the key that can release his handcuffed wrists. As the guard leans over the prisoner, his necklace dangles in the prisoner's face, moving back and forth hypnotically before his eyes.  The prisoner looks away as his face becomes overwhelmed with terror.  The sound of his heartbeat speeds as the necklace becomes still, revealing a pentacle at its end.  The prisoner returns his gaze to the hole in the wall but there is no light.  His rapid heartbeat comes to focus.   

The guard leads the prisoner to the officer and his attached rifle as the open cell door becomes his path.  Ahead is a long narrow tunnel. As the officer leads the prisoner through the tunnel, a priest appears from behind the prisoner's right with bible in hand.  The officer, positioned in front of the prisoner, holds the wrist chains in his hands as he leads the prisoner through the tunnel.  The priest is by his right side as he holds the bible that mirrors the chains of the officer.  The prisoner shifts his gaze and looks at the guard at his left and stares at the pentacle swinging back and forth around the prison guard’s neck. The faster they walk, the faster it swings, the faster the prisoner breathes–all in synch with a rapid heartbeat.  The prisoner looks to the priest and the bible eases his terror.  His heartbeat approaches stillness.  The prisoner then looks forward and continues to walk, being escorted toward the light at the end of the tunnel.

As they exit the tunnel, they enter a square filled with people, hands in the air, consumed with hysteria. A firing squad appears with rifles at their sides, waiting for the command. The officer guides the prisoner to a wall that is splattered with old blood. He places the prisoner against the wall and turns him to face the firing squad.
An old man walks up to the prisoner, and the prisoner looks down in shame. The old man holds out his hand and the prisoner takes the ring off of his pinky finger and places it into the demanding hand in front him.  As the old man clasps the ring, he looks into the prisoner's and shakes his head in disappointment as he walks away. 

Flashback. The prisoner runs with a woman in her wedding dress. They are fleeing a group of officers.  They become cornered by the edge of a cliff and the woman slips.  The prisoner catches her by the hand. His arm is extended over the edge, holding his bride as she dangles from the cliff with nothing underneath her but the fall to her doom in the rocky sea.  She slips as the prisoner tries desperately to hold her hand.  Their eyes meet as he holds onto his new wife’s ringed finger, but the ring slides off and she silently shrieks to her doom. He looks and sees the ring in the palm of his hand.

Back to the present. The prisoner is against the bloody wall and faces the firing squad. He looks to the left side of the crowd and sees a man standing with a horned goat by his side. The goat's eyes are hypnotic and the prisoner cannot remove his stare from the goat's horns.  His heartbeat becomes faster and louder as he hyperventilates.  The sound of his heart shocks him away from the goat's horns and he shifts his gaze to the right.  He sees a lady wearing a blue head dress, holding a baby in her arms. The infant's eyes meet the prisoner's stare, and the infant then holds up his arms with three fingers pointing to the sky.  The prisoner’s face calms as if a tranquil wind had caressed his soul.  His breathing stabilizes and the sound of the heartbeat subsides to stillness as the man with the goat walk away. 

The prisoner calmly watches as the firing squad cock their rifles.  He takes one last glance at the baby with the three fingers pointing to the eternity above, and he smiles.  He welcomes the oncoming bullets.