The Greatest Punishment (#homebeforedark)

The Greatest Punishment

"M-Murder!? You saw a murder? Like a killing murder?"

"Yep."

My roommate shakily combed his fingers across his head, undoing tufts of thick blonde hair clumped together by a nervous sweat. "Why aren't you taking this more seriously, man? Did he see you?"

"As a matter of fact, he did see me!"

"You--! Dammit, man! Aren't you going to call the police!?" He gesticulated erratically while mumbling incoherently to himself. The poor man glanced around the dorm as if he were afraid the killer may pop in at literally any moment even though our room was land-locked by the complex's other dorms and our scarce furnishings offered no hiding space for a sane person, let alone a psychopath. He finally returned his gaze to look at me like I was just such a psychopath who'd pulled my head clean off in front of him.

"Actually, I think that will take care of itself here soon enough. When I saw the crime, I just had to look away and keep walking. If the killer saw that, when I feigned ignorance as the man caught me there's no reason to doubt I was innocent of witnessing any crime."

"He... so he caught you! He had you in his hands! He just let you go after you saw him commit murder?" 

"Of course. Unless you're a serial murderer, if you have no reason to kill another person I don't think you exactly want a larger body count to be brought up against you in court."

"What if it wasn't... a personal matter or whatever? What if he was just out killing for the kicks?"

I pretended to mull it over for a moment with a pensive hum. "Hm... I'd probably be dead!"

"Way to put it lightly. Did you... did you know the killer?" My roommate shuffled uncomfortable. 

I smiled a knowing smile. "I can't really say. It was dark then, you know?"

"Why is this all important, though?"

I tapped my forehead confidently. "Because now that the killer has had time to mull it over, he'll be stuck wondering whether I really didn't see his gruesome crime!"

"So you think you can make a murderer feel bad?"

"No, not bad. Anxious. A killer with any sense of human survival instinct, who has any reason to doubt whether his crime was seen by another person, will be stuck wondering if at any point the crime may come to light." 

"Won't that make him double-back on his decision to not kill you?!"

"Not unless he wants a larger body count to deal with. Comes back to that issue. Like I said, the matter of the police will be dealt with in time if my theory that the killer doesn't want to kill again is true."

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It was all over the papers in just a week's time. "University Student Confesses To Murder Unprompted" or some variation of such became the popular headline for stories covering the case. After my Criminology class, I scheduled a visit to the penitentiary, where I would delight in sharing my success with my former roommate.