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To Be As Good As Dead
Tobias paces his sitting room counting down the seconds. Everything was going according to plan. He is surprised to find himself fighting back angry tears and takes another long mouthful of ancient whiskey to steady his nerves. Such spirits were forbidden under decree but then the rules didn’t apply to King Morgaine. His father had kept this illicit bottle under lock and key in his private collection, saving it no doubt for some occasion that Tobias couldn’t predict.
Tobias paces his sitting room counting down the seconds. Everything was going according to plan. He is surprised to find himself fighting back angry tears and takes another long mouthful of ancient whiskey to steady his nerves. Such spirits were forbidden under decree but then the rules didn’t apply to King Morgaine. His father had kept this illicit bottle under lock and key in his private collection, saving it no doubt for some occasion that Tobias couldn’t predict.
An occasion that would never come now, Tobias thinks, almost giddy with the possibility. Motivated to action.
He taps the small screen on his wrist casting music extra loudly to the speakers in the corners of the room. The scratchy electronic noise that was so popular in the underground nightclubs. Prince Tobias sets the bottle of whiskey down on the polished wood sidebar next to the equally gleaming pistol. He lifts the weapon and checks the clip and the trigger-lock.
Right on cue Morgaine's booming voice echoes down the hall. It makes the Prince's breathe catch for a moment; nausea almost overtakes him but he recovers quickly enough to grin as he turns toward the door.
He holds the pistol in his right hand behind his back and attempts a casual pose just as Morgaine storms into his chambers.
The king scans the sitting room as if searching for the source of the music. When his eyes land on Tobias still standing at the sidebar Morgaine's face darkens.
“What in the name of the One True God is going on in here?” Morgaine sputters.
“It’s a farewell party father,” Tobias says taking his the remote from his jacket pocket and makes a show of pressing the button to activate the bolts on all the doors.
His father looks smugly at him when Tobias raises the pistol.
“So it is. I’d say I was proud you were finally taking initiative but you’ve already failed.”
“In case you haven’t noticed father your guards have forsaken you, and for only a few pieces of coin.”
Morgaine laughs and it makes Tobias shudder. He pockets the remote and steadies the pistol with both hands.
“You were always such a poor excuse for a son. Blasphemer, thief. I should have ended you long ago. The people liked you though so I figured it wasn't worth the effort. At least now your tragic suicide will gain me favor in this so called election,” Morgaine spits out the word before making a gesture of dismissal, “So maybe I should thank you.”
His father steps forward and Tobias adjusts his hold on the pistol. Morgaine holds up his hands in a mockery of surrender before seating himself languidly on the brocade couch.
“Suicide? Perhaps I will become a martyr for assassinating you but it will be worth it I assure you. The people know the truth about you.”
The king sighs. “You won’t live long enough to hang for your treachery.”
For a moment it feels as if the world slips sideways and Tobias holds his head against a wave of dizziness.
Morgaine's eyes flick to the Prince's sidebar and just like that Tobias knows. The bottle. The whiskey.
“Poison,” he says softly.
“I knew you’d steal it eventually. Your predictability has become your fatal flaw my son.”
“No,” Tobias gasps now feeling as if he is trying to breathe underwater.
Aiming as best as he can manage Tobias squeezes the trigger as the world fades away.
