It’s nearly 12 pm, the weather is chill, and the grass is wet. The dark rain clouds has recently gone away, and been replaced by a warm, shiny sun. In Central Park, New York, amongst the many trees and bushes, a young couple stands talking to each other. “Will you marry me?” Michael waited intensely as second by second went by. After something that truly seemed like forever, Marie finally answered him. “Yes!” she screamed, and a broad smile appeared on her face. Michael removed the engagement ring from its container, and carefully put the ring on Marie’s finger. As he leant forward to kiss her, a deep voice interrupted. “Give me your wallets!” Marie tried to scream, but the mugger silenced her by grasping her mouth with his left hand. In his right, he held a pistol, pointing at Maries head. “If you attempt something,” the mugger said to Michael. “Your girlfriend’s dead!”

Michael flinched. He was terrified by the idea of losing Marie because of some filthy mugger. His hand shook as he withdrew the wallet from his back pocket. Marie looked directly at him with eyes wild of fear. “It’s okay, dear” Michael whispered, in a futile attempt to calm her down. “Okay…” Michael said to the mugger. “Here’s our money. Just take them, and leave us alone, all right?” Michael was truly relieved when the mugger began walking away from them. He drew a deep breath, and turned to Marie to solace her when he again heard the deep, rough voice of the mugger. “You!” he said to Marie. “Give me that ring on your finger!” When Marie refused, he walked over to her, and tried to force the ring off her finger. “Leave her alone!” Michael shouted at him, but it didn’t help. Marie screamed as she tried to prevent the mugger from stealing her ring. Michael felt anger and despair boiling up inside him. He took hold around the mugger’s waist and tried to drag him away from Marie. He did not notice that the mugger had withdrawn the pistol from his pocket until it was too late; Marie lay dead on the wet grass with a bullet hole in her chest, and a pistol with a smoking barrel lay besides her.

“Marie! Please, don’t die!” Michael screamed, but it was too late. At first, all he could feel was sorrow, but it didn’t take long before the sorrow had been replaced by a terrible wrath against Marie’s murderer. The lust to murder had obsessed him, and as he looked around to find the murderer, his eyes were in flames. Suddenly his eyes were fixed on the murder weapon which still lay on the ground. He picked it up and aimed carefully at the murderer who was trying to escape. “This is for Marie.” Michael whispered as he pulled the trigger, and heard the intense scream from the murderer as he fell forwards. A cruel smile spread over Michael’s face as he walked towards the murderer.

The bullet Michael had fired had pierced into the murderers left thigh. He was still alive, but in great pain. Michael raised his pistol, pointed it at the murderers chest and bended his finger around the trigger. “It was an accident!” the murderer screamed as a final attempt to save himself. “I didn’t mean to kill her; I never meant to do her any harm!” When Michael heard the words of the dying man, his enormous rage was partly replaced by pity for the man. He felt his hand holding the gun starting to tremble, and he knew that he couldn’t kill the man. Suddenly, he felt something take hold of his left leg, and before he realized what was going on, he fell onto ground and lost hold of the pistol.

He tried to get up, but the mugger forced him to the ground again. Michael struggled and fought to get away from the mugger, but he gave up when he saw the pistol’s barrel between his eyes. His heart beat faster and sweat ran down his forehead as he saw death coming. “Revenge is sweet…” the murderer whispered. Those were the last words Michael ever heard.