What Happens in Vegas

Dana could feel the morning light shining through her closed eyelids and it made her eyes ache. What a night. She must have left the blackout curtains opened before going to bed. Her head felt heavy and fuzzy from the night before. She laid there trying to decide whether to get up and close the curtains to get a few more hours of sleep or just pull the blankets over her head and call it good.

As she scootched her body further down under the covers, flashes of the last couple of days ran through her mind. It was only a few days ago when Dana’s life took a turn she never expected. One of her co-workers was ill, so her boss at the newspaper gave her the assignment to cover the execution of a local man who had terrorized a young family before killing them all and fleeing with what was reported as being “a large sum of cash, jewelry, and guns”.

The killer said he never intended to hurt anyone and had gone there to rob them. He told the court he was having a drink at the local bar when he overheard the man of the house talking about coming into a large inheritance which he decided to keep in a shoe box under his bed. He didn’t trust banks he told his friend. The killer, down on his luck at the time, thought he would follow the guy home, maybe rush him at the door, knock him out, grab the cash and take off. Nighttime was a goodtime since most people would be inside and probably wouldn’t see him. If they did happen to catch a glimpse, the darkness would semi-shield his identity.

Even though he was slightly impaired by alcohol, he told the court, it seemed like fool-proof plan so he went through with it. Except, his plan didn’t quite go as he thought. He followed the guy and rushed him into the house; but the commotion woke his wife who had been sleeping upstairs and she came down to see what was going on. The killer hadn’t brought a weapon with him but saw a baseball bat near the entry way, grabbed it, and started swinging. Not to hurt anyone but to keep them at bay. The man was shouting and the woman was screaming hysterically so much, two small kids started to come down the stairs. The woman turned and yelled at the kids to go back up but they had already seen the killer waving the bat and started crying.

During this distraction, the man dove toward the killer and tried to knock him down starting a tussle between the two men. They smashed each other into the wall and hit each other with their fists until the killer got the upper hand with the bad. He swung as hard as he could at the man hitting him across the side of the head and the man fell to the floor and stayed down. He stood there for a second to catch his breath and make sure the guy was going to stay down when the woman grabbed a lamp off the little table near the staircase and hurled it at him. It hit him square in the back and as he turned toward her, she ran up the stairs screaming, “He’s dead! He’s dead!”

He knew at that moment, he was going to have to silence the wife before she had a chance to call the police or get a weapon or he didn’t know what she would do in that moment but he knew whatever it was going to be, it wasn’t going to be good. He quickly followed her up the stairs and found her half under the bed with her legs scrambling as if she was trying to get something out from under there. He grabbed her legs and pulled her out from under the bed and saw she had a gun in her hands which she was trying to load. He jumped on top of her and straddled her and they struggled for the gun. She kicked her legs into his back and tore at his face with her one free hand while he tried prying the gun from her. In the struggle, he pushed her hand with the gun down and it went off shooting the woman in her chest. The noise rocked the house and he could hear the kids scream in the next room. He remained straddled on the woman for a moment and listened for the kids. He let out a big sigh knowing he felt he had no choice. The kids had no parents now. The kids saw him and could be witnesses. He would have to take care of the kids.

Before this night, the killer never thought he would be capable of harming anyone to this degree and was shocked to find himself in this situation. He ran through every scenario in his mind but all of them involved getting caught and going to jail which he just couldn’t do. He knew he wouldn’t make it in there. Killing an adult is one thing, he remembered thinking, but a kid…two kids? That was something else. He glanced around the room looking for something to use on the kids like a cord or something but then thought strangulation can take longer than you think and he couldn’t bear to look them in the eyes while wringing their little necks. He was still holding the gun and realized if he did it right, he could shoot each of them once and they would die quickly and painlessly.

He got up from the woman, walked to the kid’s bedroom and didn’t see them at first. He stopped and listened for a moment and heard of one them let out a whimper. He went to the closet door and opened it. Both of the kids were huddled together with their heads down and crying. It was now or never he thought. If he shoots them now, they won’t even see it coming. Don’t think, don’t think, he thought to himself, just do it. He put the gun up the first kid’s head and pulled the trigger and then before the other one could move; he shot the second kid in the same way. The crying stopped and they stayed huddled together.

He left them in the closet, went back to the bedroom, and looked under the bed. There were quite a few shoe boxes under there, so he pulled them all out. Some of them had shoes while others had money, jewelry, and guns. He found a duffel bag of workout clothes in the closet, dumped the contents on the floor, and filled it with the cash, jewelry, and guns. He took one look around and made his way down the stairs and out of the house, speeding off in his car.

It was on the news the next morning as the most brutal home invasion the town had ever seen. He felt sick about what he had done and what he had to do. He could hardly sleep. He just kept seeing those two kids huddled in the closet. He never thought he could stoop so slow. It didn’t take long for the police to run the fingerprints left all over the house. On the bat, on the shoe boxes, and his DNA under the woman’s nails. The police had the killer’s prints on file due to a child abduction program where they fingerprint your kid in case they get kidnapped. He had taken his son there back when he still had visitation and let the police take his fingerprints too to show his son that it didn’t hurt.

It was only a matter of time before the police showed up and took him in once they found all of the loot sitting right there in the living room. He felt so bad for what he did he didn’t bother fighting. He plead guilty at the trial and the jury gave him the death penalty. It was going to be the first execution in the state since the 1970s.

Media and newspapers from all over the place were there to see him put to death and Dana was one of them. She lived in the town in which the crime took place and thought she would be happy to watch the guy get what he deserved. But what she realized as she sat there waiting for the execution to take place was murder was murder and her sitting here watching someone die and not doing anything to stop it was just as bad.

Then the curtain opened and showed him strapped down on the gurney. There was a doctor standing next to him and a guard near the door of the execution room. She sat in her chair frozen in horror wanting to get up and leave before anything happened and also strangely fascinated by the gruesome idea of watching an execution. She gazed in the direction of the act but her mind was somewhere else. Like she remembered seeing it unfold, the doctor inserting the IV, the killer saying his last words which she doesn’t recall hearing, and then the plungers of poison going in one at a time until the doctor looked up at the clock on the wall and pronounced him dead.

All Dana could think about was where she was in her life and why did she feel like a zombie walking through it instead of feeling more alive than the dead killer on the gurney. This mini existential crisis continued in Dana’s mind as she walked out of there on auto pilot, got into her car, and started driving away. Driving away from the reality that she will die someday but not knowing if it will be at the hands of some guy looking for some quick cash, at an old age with loved ones around crying, or just her soul from not realizing her dreams and left walking the earth as a bitter zombie who no longer cares about shaving her legs or armpits because who cares? She hadn’t been with a guy in so long it didn’t matter. No one was close enough to notice anyway.

Dana drove and drove until her eyes were so dry from not blinking, she could hardly close them without feeling like her eyelids were about to snap like old brittle plastic lids. As she focused her eyes on the road, she could see a sea of colorful blinking lights among the vast darkness of the desert. Las Vegas was hours away from where she lived and she had no recollection of driving that long. As she stared into the sea of lights, she realized she had never really “been” to Vegas and after learning about the tragic family and watching their killer be put to death, she thought, it’s now or never. She was going to live her life to the fullest!

She remembered feeling so lucky there was a cancellation at the desk and a suite had just become available so she booked it and it was the most gorgeous room she had ever seen. Beautiful mid-century furniture in classic gem tone colors, floor to ceiling windows with velvety flowing drapes, a wet bar with everything she could think of drink, and the softest bed she had ever laid her body on. She peeled everything off, took a long hot soak in the jacuzzi bathtub, and drank a glass of expensive wine from the bathroom minifridge. Then, she put on some pajamas she bought from the lobby store, climbed into the giant bed and fell asleep before her head hit the pillow. In the morning, she woke refreshed, ate a hearty breakfast of eggs, bacon, and hashbrowns. Not the usual fruit plate she kept herself to. No. She was going to live it up.

She put on the bikini, a cover up, and some sandals from the lobby store, grabbed a towel from the bathroom, and headed down towards the pool. This must be what it feels like to live a carefree life, she thought. The lights and sounds of the casino were intoxicating and she felt drawn to the roulette table. “Place your bets.” the roulette dealer said. Dana told him she hadn’t brought any money down with her nor had she ever played before. After a quick tutorial on the game and a whisper from the pit boss, Dana had chips in front of her and she was gambling. $5 on number 5 and another on number 22 as an homage to the classic comedy Lost in America where the wife loses their nest egg on the number 22 playing roulette. Four hours later, she wasn’t basking in the sun but she did have a lot more chips in front of her, her blood was more alcohol than platelets and a group of people had gathered around her to cheer her on.

It was like something out of movie! And then she heard a voice she hadn’t heard in years. “Dana?! Dana Thomas? It’s me, Ben from high school. Wow…that’s a lot of chips.”

“Ben! Oh my God! Can you believe it?! I keep winning and I’ve never played before!” She slurred out as she leaned into Ben far too close and hugged him.

“Oh, wow, Dana…have you eaten? Something tells me by the smell of your breath, you may need to eat something.”

“I can’t leave now, I’m up! Right Tony? I’m up.”

“She’s up.” Said the roulette dealer.

“Thanks, Tony, I think I’ll just take Dana here for a quick bite. Come on, Dana…off we go…here’s a little tray for your chips.”

“I’m up and I’ve never been up! Up, up, up, that’s me…”

The rest of that day was a blur in Dana’s mind. She seemed to recall finally making it to the pool, talking to Ben about old times, drinking more, flirting a lot with Ben…she may have stuck her fingers in his mouth to check how beautifully straight his teeth were…a big steak dinner at the casino restaurant with Ben…running into some young women from a bachelorette party and stealing her veil…standing in front of the Silver Bells Wedding Chapel with a giant coin they bought earlier from a magic shop and saying, “Heads we go back to the hotel and gamble, tails we get married!”

She remembered music, people congratulating her, a camera flash, and…. Oh God. All at once, Dana’s eyes shot open. She was under the covers, in her own bed she hoped, lifted her arms up a little to her right and left to check under the covers and found she was alone. Whew?! She must have been dreaming it she thought. She knew she was going through some sort of crisis after witnessing an execution but the thought of her going totally crazy and getting married in Vegas on a whim was so cliché she wanted to barf.

She sighed a huge sigh of relief, reached her arms straight up over her head, and pulled the covers off her face. The sun hit her like a ray of light almost blinding her but she didn’t care. She was alive, alone, and she was going to make the most of today. She knew she had to leave the casino today and check out time was probably coming up soon so she decided to get up and grab a hot shower before heading down to the restaurant for breakfast. As she sat on the edge of bed, she looked around and saw clothes strewn all over the floor. Geesh, she thought, I must have been in bad shape when I came up here. I don’t even remember going to bed. No alcohol for me today she told herself. She stretched her arms up over her head and arched her back and as her body relaxed back into sitting position, the door of the suite opened and in walked Ben carrying a cup of hot coffee.

“Ben?! What are you doing in here?!” Dana exclaimed while covering herself with the blanket.

“What do you mean? I thought you might need some coffee. We were pretty drunk when we came back here last night. I barely remember anything. Anyway, you were still sleeping when I woke up so I thought I would go down and get us some coffee to help wake us up. We can take a nice hot shower together…maybe pick up where we left off yesterday…then get some breakfast. I’m starving!”

Dana looked at the coffee cup in Ben’s hand. He had a thin gold band on his ring finger. Stunned and unsure what to say amidst the fog in her brain, she reached out to take the coffee cup from him and noticed she had a thin gold band on her ring finger as well. She screamed and jerked her hand back to her face to get a closer look.

“Ben! What happened last night. Tell me everything.”

“Okay, but you’re going to need this.” He said as he handed her the coffee. He filled her in on the parts he remembered and finished with, “And then they said ‘you may now kiss the bride’ and here we are! Honestly, I know it’s crazy but when I saw you at the roulette table, I remembered how much I really liked you back in high school and then the whole day was just so fun. You’re so fun! And then things got crazy and now…you’re my wife!

“I think I’m going to be sick…” Dana said as she made her way to the toilet.

“Probably all of those free shrimp cocktails you ate. I kept saying to slow down but they sure were good.”

Oh God, Dana thought to herself, I’m a Vegas cliché.