In the mind of a criminal by Daniel Hernandez-Otero (short story to read .TXT) 📖

Introduction

H

ave you ever wondered what it’s like to rob a bank for greed and take the lives of multiple innocent people? Or, perhaps what it feels like to kill somebody for fun, or to steal their property, stopping at nothing? What about the feel of a gun being held in your hand, index finger near the trigger, ready to stop at nothing to retrieve your goal?

For the majority of people committing these crimes, the above experiences, and many more, give them the thrill of a lifetime. Some people find it amusing to see the people’s reaction to a person with a gun in their hand, possibly one in both, and feel the fear in their victims’ eyes. It truly is a life-changing experience to commit some of these crimes; there is no going back to the way life used to be without being pursued by the police. People like me can never be able to live our normal lives again.

Most criminals must’ve had some sort of life-changing experience in their past in order to gain the guts to become one. My parents were killed in a bank robbery 20 years ago, when I was only 5-years-old. They were unfortunate enough to get caught in the middle of the heat between the robbers and the police. My dad got shot 2 times on the shoulder and got shot on the stomach. My mom got shot on her left lung, and was sent to the hospital a moment later, though, they were too late to arrive for my dad. They had tried to help my mom survive the shot, but it was only a matter of time until she passed away as well.

My sister, 16 at the time, was too devastated by the news to take care of me, so I had to learn how to survive on my own, despite her presence each day. Later on, a few years later, we had separated from each other. She moved deep into Las Vegas as a big gambler, hoping that some time, she would hit the jackpot and live near some place luxurious and calming, mostly Italy. I decided to move all the way to the other side of the country to New York, New York. As a child, and having visiting New York City plenty of times for the summer and Christmas, I have dreamed about living in the big city. There, I have made several of my closest friends in life, reunited with others, and lost a few of them along the way, let it be death or their families moved again.

On the way back home one night, walking with one of my friends, we’ve encountered a gang in the streets. We were cussed out, pushed, and they made a few failed attempts to attack us. Basically anything to get us into a fight, but when they saw how we evaded their attacks, we were invited, and blackmailed, to join their gang. My friend hesitated to join, and a few of the thugs dragged him into a dark alley nearby and beat him up severely. Being scared at the time, I gave in, and they had forced me to kill an innocent bystander to be successfully accepted in the gang.

Killing the poor man was an experience I wanted to forget right away and never re-visit. He had no home for about 3 years and was left roaming around the streets of New York and other cities in the state since then. His parents were killed by the same bank robbery as well, and he was left with no money to buy a home. Every now and then, he’d be able to afford some food, but being left with no job, getting food was usually a struggle for him. He had walked by us just a few minutes after he got a new job for $9 an hour, which was a big deal for him. Being all excited about starting his job the next day, the gang ordered me to shoot him to death.

Since then, I have worked my way up to the top of the gang and became the right hand of the leader of the entire gang. Because of this, I have been pulled along with most missions that involved the leader and those without him at all. Now, it is in the middle of July in 2010. 3 years ago, however, the entire gang was assigned a familiar mission: Rob the same bank that my parents had been killed at 20 years from now.

Publication Date: 08-14-2010

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