Consequences

Consequences

      I felt the barrel of the gun at the back of my head before I heard the familiar voice. 

“Kasey, glad to see you. I need you to come with us,” he said, snapping me out of the moment. 

I looked around me realizing I was surrounded.  I was  tricked here by a woman I trusted. 

She set this meeting up and now I must pay the consequences of my past actions and figure out a way to survive. 

I must also accept the responsibility for choosing to believe she actually liked me.

  I will try harder, I will figure it out. 

I will become grateful!

  I will manifest my great vision!

 A treasure awaits me! 

 I will pick three things, and take six steps towards them.

I will work harder each day, only to enjoy it more than I did yesterday. 

I will find 9 things to be grateful for, writing them down 3 times a day, six hours apart, dwelling on their substance.

What joy it is to imagine my future and know my higher power has given me this vision so he can experience it with me. 

 I imagined myself in my future beach front house, running through the sand, to catch the next sunset. 

Here the  sunsets were amazing, I saw my wife and she was beautiful. After all, I have never been married. I have suffered many break ups but that is part of growing.

A great man must endure these types of pains to grow and give the world his best. 

 I realized in that moment I had discovered my higher power and together we would take this journey. 

A person becomes what they think they will become so why not think of greatness. 

 I have learned there are two relationships that matter the most. The first is the relationship with myself and my thoughts. The second is with time.

Thoughts will flow as energy and there is a war for them.  I imagine a soldier, a  guard holding up a no trespassing sign. He lives in my mind deflecting negative thoughts. 

Another strategy in this fight against evil is to categorize all thoughts in two categories: my friend and my enemy. 

You get to decide which one gets your focus. 

Friendly  thoughts boost you up, push you forward and give you the opportunity to live  your greatest life. They  have the power to deliver you a life filled with wisdom, peace and joy.

The enemy lies, envies, blames, stresses, angers and is quick to blame and judge.

But  now I must focus on survival,

I only need one shot and I will make my escape.

 A cloud of darkness rose over me,  using my hand  I sprung myself off the green electrical box and ran quickly across the street hoping to get away.

 I made it to a parking lot with  a sign that read: $5 Parking. 

I could hear the footsteps behind me. Then came a loud boom, and I felt the bullet as it nicked my ear throwing me off of balance.

I fell between two cars. I was kicked in the face, then in the ribs. I tucked and rolled on the concrete hoping for more cover under one of the cars, as if that would somehow protect me from this immediate danger.

 Falling short of escape, they cuffed me before placing me face down in the back seat of an all-white Hummer. 

I thought of the woman who set me up. Her name was Jules, she was 27 years old, five foot three,  115 pounds, beautiful, smart and wow can she dance. 

I met her at the grocery store just three days ago. I saw her picking through some bananas. 

I approached her with confidence;

“Excuse me my lady you are very beautiful, I bet you hear that often, My name is Kevin and I would of felt like a coward had  I not told you.  Thank you kindly

Her smile was bright and beautiful  sparked across my heart. 

“I am Jules and also very single for a handsome gentleman like yourself.”replied 

In that moment I felt grateful to be a man and I felt stronger 

“ What do you enjoy doing with your free time?” I asked 

Interested in getting to know her

“Dancing”

“Perfect let's meet up Saturday night “

We exchanged numbers and she asked me to meet her at the Ritz in Ybor City   at 10:00 pm.

Everything was going great. She arrived in a sundress looking even more beautiful. She could dance as well. 

We  had a few drinks and boogied like pros on the dance floor.

 It was going so well, then she asked me to take her outside across the street to meet some friends she had promised she would check in with.

 I thought it would be a group of women but it ended up being some thugs who had a bounty on me for something I didn't even do.

While laying face down in the back seat of the Hummer in handcuffsI thought  the smell of the interior reminded me of a safari I never took. 

The sneaker pressing against my neck reminded me of how much I wanted to live.

After a short drive, we came to a stop, and several pairs of hands yanked me out and on to my feet. A night out dancing turned tragically wrong. 

They escorted me to an abandoned elementary school.  It was made of old red bricks and boarded up broken windows.

There were hollow spaces with long sharp shards still jammed in the corner of their frames. 

Old lighting made it all seem bright. Then the darkness was overwhelming as the five of us walked past the two-story building making our way to a recreation field filled with tall grass and weeds. 

I noticed a couple of shovels leaning up against a fence that surrounded the school and once upon a time protected the children. The grave was next to a soccer goal with no net. They walked me right up to it, then tripped and pushed me in. 

I looked up. “You don’t have to do this, “I pleaded. 

“I’m sorry but we do,” he replied before pointing his pistol at me and emptying his clip. 

I could feel the bullets ripping through me. 

The need to breathe was overwhelming. The cold dirt suddenly became my last comfort as I basked in its mud.

  My warm blood gave me the blanket I needed to close my eyes and pass over into darkness. The End 

“Copyright Kevin Charlton 2024”