https://Voice.club - Elena looks up at the clock, its sparkling white face contrasting starkly with the three black hands, the second hand nudging its way tirelessly around the dial. The tick is audible, intruding on the almost impenetrable hush of the room.
Her eyes drop to Brad’s pallid face, dark shadows underlining both eyes. He lies still on the bed where tubes connect him to an array of drips and monitors.
The other side of the glass, Elena’s mind drifts. She has known Brad for only two years, their love still fresh and new, and yet she is about to lose him. This man she had thought so strong and powerful, so indestructible.
The clock ticks, and the second hand completes yet another revolution, the minute hand responding, moving forward almost grudgingly with a slight clunk.
Brad is thinking about Elena too. He had rejected her advances at first. He wasn’t sure she was his kind of girl, but he soon realised how determined she was to forge a relationship, and, before long, her perseverance and devotion had won him over. She had been good for him. He remembers her passionate love letters filled with hope and optimism and their precious moments spent together. Although he accepts his fate, he is sad that their time will soon be over. He has said his goodbyes, and, after telling Elena how much he loves her, there is nothing left to say. He is at peace.
For what seems like the hundredth time that morning, a young attendant in a white coat flits across the room. He checks on Brad and then studies the blinking monitors and records the readings on his clipboard. Brad observes him back, noticing the large mole on the side of his face. Better get that checked, he thinks; it might be cancerous.
The clock ticks, the second hand reaches its zenith, and simultaneously, the minute and hour hands all move, pointing vertically at the twelve.
With no last-minute reprieve, the governor nods, and the lethal injection is administered to Brad’s waiting veins.
Elena, eyes on Brad’s face, smiles her farewell.