Startled into action Michael leapt from the bed, and when the man's
face appeared above the level of the floor, kicked it squarely with
the flat of his foot.
He had not envisioned the consequences. Perhaps in fear he had struck
too hard; perhaps the man had thrown himself backward in sudden shock.
Whatever the reason, his body was sent hurtling back and down, and
crashed in a terrible angle against the joining of wall and floor
below. The man was killed instantly, his neck broken.
Stepping back from the opening, Michael pulled on his boots with a
trembling hand, trying to disbelieve what his eyes had just shown him.
But when he climbed down to examine his foe, all uncertainty left him.
No breath, no pulse. No life.
An anguish such as he had never known overcame him. By his own hand, a
human life was ended.
With hot tears stinging him, he gently lifted the body and carried it
to his mother's bed. His only thought, irrational as it may have been,
was to lay the man more comfortably, and block from his mind the
horrible contortion in which he had found him.
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