DOOMED SISTERS

Execution by gun

    Sara and Anna were twins, alike as two peas in a pod. Now they knelt side by side wearing only blindfolds. Doomed by their father’s attempt at overthrowing the dictator they knew the end was very near. Already Father was dead, hanged from a hook, gutted and left to die. Mother was also gone. She had managed to drink poison and had died in agony at the feet of the secret policemen sent to arrest her. The girls were away to school and knew nothing of the plot nor their parents’ deaths until they were arrested themselves. 
    Long and severe questioning failed to turn up any evidence of their involvement but still they were to be killed. The family of a traitor would pay the same price as the traitor himself. Kept naked and now having been led to the place where they would die the young twins waited. 
    The sound of the door opening and closing was followed by the sounds of heavy boots on the stone floor. A snap, the sound of steel on leather, a soft click. More steps that stopped in front of the twins. The killer raised the gun until it was aimed at the bridge of Anna’s nose and held it there as he looked over his victims. 
    Slender and short with small breasts and narrow hips they looked like they should be out chasing their ponies or flirting with the boys instead of kneeling before him and waiting for the impact of his slugs. His own daughter was about their age. For just a second he visualized her kneeling before a stranger waiting for a bullet. He was sorry for the girls but to back out now was to put his family in their place for no gain. 
    Sara held her breath as she waited. Even knowing what was to happen it was still a surprise when the sound of the shot rang in her ears. She had just enough time to realize the shot and the sound of a body falling backwards meant Anna was dead. As she drew in a breath to scream with her vision was filled with a bright flash and then nothing. 
    The killer’s first shot had blown a huge hole through Anna’s skull and had knocked her backwards. By the time the corpse had landed and bounced a little the gun had swung and the trigger was being pressed. Another report blended with the echoes of the first. Sara’s body tipped backward to join her sister’s 
    He stood over them and looked down at his work. The destroyed brains were still attempting to function but the signals being sent to the young bodies were scrambled. Both were twitching and shivering even as the signs of life fled to be replaced by those of death. Once more he saw his little girl laying there with vast amounts of blood pooling under her body. Sometimes life just sucked.