A Catholic Author: Writing prompt day 4 and drawings.

Here is the new prompt.

You have just been sentenced to a lifetime of invisibility.

I'll probably add more to this and make it an actual short story. I plan that with most of my drabbles though. :D

The Punishment

You would think over the course of 5,000 years, someone would have come up with an efficient way to stop crime. But apparently the world is too full of dumb people. My bosses come to mind, for starters. In the past 2,000 years the intelligence rate of the lawmakers went from practically non-existent to extinct. What people that had any brains left had to suffer for it. Those that actually worked for these slugs in human bodies suffered the most. I was one of those unfortunates.

Every day I would roll out of bed, pick up my to do list that day, read it, then I would get out the list of laws, and find out what I had to do to keep my own self out of jail. I was in charge of hauling in the criminals. Believe me when I say it was difficult job. Mostly because I had to find prison space for them. My pay was crummy compared to the difficulty of the job. But believe it or not, I could not ask for a raise. That was against law 5,789 article 2.

One day the power flipped in my sleeping lot. I woke up only to discover that I would be half an hour late for work. I leaped out of bed, threw some clothes on grabbed my work list and plowed out of the building. Here is a good time to notice that I didn't read the law cheat sheet. Traffic was slightly better then usual. I made five miles in an hour. I reached the station 45 minutes late.

“Sam Ragan, what is the meaning of this?” Professor B growled as I scrambled into the room. I did not feel the need to explain myself to the Professor. He had the life and intelligence of a dinner bun. I am serious. He was soft, white and pudgy, with the perfect golden glint of a nicely cooked bun. His brain was more like uncooked bun, because it was so mushy. He believed everything anyone said. I think some obnoxious twit actually told him the world was a box, and the sky was the floor of the next room up.

I had to pick up an international prisoner from a gambling house. That would be a cinch. Unfortunately I had never raided that particular gambling house. I hope they didn't have any special rules. A lot of buildings.

“I hope you read your law chart thoroughly, Sam.” my partner Gabe commented as we suited up. I gave him my twisted, wolf slash shark slash spider look. When I looked at people like that, their hair usually stood up on end. Gabe was quaking in terror as he tightened his belt and spat a mouthful of tobacco on the floor, breaking a minor rule. Thou shalt not spit in public!

“You're going to get it Gabe.” I said cheerfully as I stuck my gun into my belt. He smirked.

“That's what you think, buster!” he said. I wondered why he was so obnoxiously cheerful.

We were about halfway to the gambling house when I noticed that Gabe hadn't brought his gun. In fact he hadn't brought anything. I snickered. He was going to get in such big trouble. Then I noticed that he was snickering too. Did he think I was going to get in trouble? For the first time I began to feel the shadow of doubt.

We burst into the gambling house, and found our criminal without much trouble. He was the one that was waving the gun in the air and shooting terrified people.

“Lets get out of here!” Gabe yelled heroically and dashed towards the door. I grabbed him by the collar.

“Get back here you sniveling coward.” I growled, “Let this be a lesson to you never to go anywhere without your gun.”

“But guns aren't allowed in here, it's against a major law!” Gabe howled. No wonder he had been snickering. I nearly brained him. But the punishment for hitting a co-worker was to pay his taxes for five years. Freeloaders always tried to get their co-workers to hit them. I was still paying Gabe's taxes from the last time I hit him.

I whipped out my gun and shot the criminal's gun out of his hand. He let out a yell. More screams filled the room. He just stared at me in shock. I suppose he thought he would be safe as the only one with a gun in the room.

“I am going to sue you officer.” the proprietor that miserable place bellowed as I handcuffed the criminal. Talk about the ingratitude of some people. That place was littered with dead and wounded. I had just saved the lives of a good three dozen people. I booted that man in the stomach.

“Why don't you complain about him, ye ingrate?” I snarled.

Guess who joined the criminal on trial? Yours truly! Apparently bringing a gun into a shady gambling house was a worse crime then murder. I saved the lives of most of those people and they repaid me by pressing charges. Does anyone wonder why I hate people?

The judge leered down at Wilson the criminal and I. I gave him my nastiest shark look. He hastily looked away.

“Samuel Ragan we are quite disappointed in your performance today.” the judge said. I steeled myself. What horrible punishment did the veggie brains think up today. “Both you and Wilson will have to take the punishment for braking a code one rule.” I winced. Don't Murder was only a code 2 rule.

“Well?” I growled, “Get on with it!” An angry murmur ran through the room. That was a code 5 rule. Never interrupt a judge.

“The punishment for bringing a gun into Maxie gambling establishment is a lifetime in invisibility.” the judge said coldly. I don't know who laughed louder. Me or Wilson. We were laughing so hard we were leaning on each other. The judge slammed his little hammer thing into his desk. “Take these clowns away!” he bellowed, “To the chamber.”

We were each put in a tiny cell. It was about the size and shape of a bathroom stall, except it was completely shut in. The walls and floor were made of metal. At least that's what it felt like. I couldn't see, it was pitch black in there. Some joker turned a shower head on and I was soaked. Then after nearly an hour of misery the water turned off and a heater turned on. I felt like I was on fire. I swear there was electrical sparks shooting off of me.

The dryer finally stopped and the door opened. I staggered out. Everything was blurry. I blinked a few times, then stumbled towards the group of soldiers. They didn't even look at me. I shrugged right past them. I was going home. If anyone tried to stop me, I fully intended to punch him, and NOT pay his taxes. No one stopped me.

As I stumbled into the building where I lived, I nearly ran into Lisa. She lives across the hall from me and can be a bit annoying. But she does have nice hair. Really thick dark curly hair. She's not pale like other girls either. I think she came from Jamaica. But it could be somewhere else, I seldom listen to the gossip at the boarding house.

“Out of my way, Lisa!” I barked, “I've had a red alert day today.” Lisa's hair very nearly literally stood up on end, and she let out a bloodcurdling scream. I clamped a hand over her mouth. She began to struggle wildly. I dragged her into the elevator and pressed the button for the tenth floor. I couldn't let a crazy girl run wild, then I let her go. She backed into the corner of the elevator and her head started twitching wildly.

“Wh-where- where-?” she stuttered over and over again.

“Cut that noise!” I growled, “One would think you never saw man who took a shower in his clothes then was blow dried.

“Sam?” Lisa said, her voice still quavering, “I hate your jokes.”

“Good, because I'm not in the mood to joke!” I growled.

“Then where in blazes are you?” Lisa screamed.

It would now be safe to say my hair stood up on end. Some people just use that as an expression, but I was serious. She couldn't see me.

“I'm right here in front of you!” I yelled wildly. Lisa shook her head nervously.

“Um- I can feel you.” she poked me, “But not see you. What happened?”

“UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!” I screamed, “I'm invisible!”

Do you know what the worst part of discovering that the judge hadn't been joking, was? Well, it was the horrible realization that there was a master murderer running invisible in the streets. I probably couldn't see him either. UGH! Everyone is going to die! I'm going to die! HELP! HELP! Someone save me!

“Sam, please.” Lisa cried, “There are people staring.” I realized that I may have actually been voicing my thoughts out loud. The elevator door had betrayed me and opened. Half a dozen of my fellow tenants were staring at us.

“It's just another one of Sam's jokes.” someone said. A murmur of agreement ran through the hallway, then everyone walked off. How dare they think this was a joke. Say, since I was invisible I could pretty much do as I wanted. Believe me, I fully intended to take the chance. It's not every day one can tell their bosses exactly what they think about them, without getting punished.

~*~

These drawings were done for my book "Justice Begins" by my sister Rosie. Thank you Rosie.