Retribution: Head in Cloud
"No, no please. please no.. you don't need to do this. Take what is in my purse no.."
She had never been so scared in her life, she had never known such fear nor, such excruciating pain as he brutalized her in the most horrible of ways. It lasted for hours, tied, beaten, raped until finally, the knife came out and she saw the sharpened blade glint in the dim lights of the basement to which she had been dragged.
He didn't kill her straight away, he took his time. Slice after slice followed by scream after scream and the more she begged for her life, the more he smiled. Until finally, as she looked at strips of herself detached from her body, she begged for death.
He awoke with a scream... tears streaming down his face as he looked about him. Looking for the flesh cut from his body...
She, like everyone had been fitted with a chip that reported the sights, sounds and most importantly, the emotions and the physical senses and held them securely in the cloud until necessary.
It was times like these that they were accessible. Violent crime, murder.
The police were disgusted by what had been recorded but, they identified him through what they found and hunted him down. He had stalked her for months and with the conclusive evidence they had, they were able to access his feed and see every moment he watched her, whether in reality, or in his imagination.
He had been sentenced to life in prison but with the retribution justice system, the victim gets to be part of the punishment process. She had chosen that in the advent of premeditated murder, the punishment would be to experience the event again as the victim.
The system was set up so that the perpetrator would experience it fully, feel that it was them in the position of victim. Every sight, sound, smell and slicing of the knife would be experienced. He would know exactly what it was he had done and he would feel every moment of the fear and agony she had held.
But it did not end there.
The reactions of the immediate family would be felt too, experiencing the shock, horror and trauma of seeing what no parent should see, no child should know. The incredible feeling of loss and the continued experiences months after the event as small details brought back a flood of grief once again.
By the end, he held multiple layers of memory that was not his, pains he had not experienced and a sense of loss of something he cared nothing for except to satisfy his own cruel intentions. He was shattered, broken and conflicted by what he had done and what that had caused others he knew nothing of earlier.
Her death became his, their grief his, their misery his.
A year passed by and the family gathered. He, the killer of the one they had loved stood in from of them. And as he apologized for his crimes and asked for their forgiveness, the cloud sent a signal, and his shame became theirs.
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]
Good night friend, interesting content, totally morbid and gloomy, a great fiction theme, I really liked it, thanks for sharing.
It was a pretty good publication, since it was a story of a murderous psychopathic criminal and the ugly memory that was captured. It must be very strong what happens a family in that time of event
That was scary. But could technology develop so much to have that form of punishment system in our society? It looks to me as a great way to make criminals feel the full weight and pains me what they've done. Most, criminals go to prison and come out worse because they found some way to detach themselves from the victim's experience and maybe even justify their action. I would love such a punishment system in our lifetime.
Great imagination Taraz
It is also necessary to survive in most prison systems as to not become hardened is to be victimized. The prison systems in most places make matters much worse.
I didn't know you wrote fiction @tarazkp. This is kind of a gory episode though, but I enjoyed it.
If we can advance technology to the stage where we're able to put perpetrators in the victims shoes, that would be awesome
I dabble in lots of things.
I wonder if we could actually ever feel what another feels with any kind of accuracy and if it would make us better people, or worse.
something chilling, worthy of a movie! regards
Cloudy so thick and black for some people is very scary. A sign of rain soon could even be a storm
Wow... impressive ending. The punishment you imagine is so terrifying to the point of becoming shameful - at least that's what I understood. I wonder if such a system would reduce crime, but, even so, I' d rather not live in a world where all this would be possible.
Is the shame the family felt his shame or the shame at what they had inflicted upon him?
I can't imagine it making the world better, even if used for violent crimes only.
I read it that, in the end, they came to be ashamed of the punishment inflicted.
A person who could do such things would never feel the pain or mental anguish that a victim would . hell he might even enjoy the experience on some sick level
Some come out never go back others will be back and some can't function without the structure (institutionalized )
It would be interesting (hypothetically) if a psychopath who was incapable themselves of feeling that emotional connection to another was able to have those feelings implanted. Is it that they are truly incapable (physical) or is it a psychological quirk.
psychological quirk most likely
What's amazing is the amount of woman who send proposals for marriage to these psychopath in prison . Have to keep the DNA string going I guess LOL
A person forced to download experiences of multiple others would become psychologically shattered. How would he know who he is, after such a download? Would he confuse himself as being the victim, the family, the killer? Can such a man function independently without a security officer guarding him to prevent suicide? Would he develop multiple personality disorder from the memories and his shattered psyche?
It seems that execution, even by hanging then drawn and quartered, would be more merciful. Even the Qin Five Pains or Death by a Thousand Cuts would be preferable to the mental madness inflicted for the duration of the dreg's miserable life. Also, if the cloud system can store the last moments of a crime, surely it could have prevented the crime from occuring by merely analyzing behavioral and psychological patterns. Pre-crime arrest would have been the state's preferred security measure.
Such a system as outlined above may be refashioned to erase memories and personalities from offenders. From an authoritarian state paradigm, it may be eminently preferable to memory wipe an individual and use the meat for more productive purposes. For political crimes, an individual can be forced to kill his own family, memory wiped (but not the act of killing his own family), tatooed as a political, and set loose upon the population as a warning. He will be forced to live his life with the memory of being forced to kill his own family without the specific knowledge of his crimes against the state.
Most likely I would say as there would be so many inconsistencies and conflicts that the mind probably can't build a consistent narrative that covers all adequately enough.
Yes.
Would have made the story too complex and brought in too many other questions. I decided that I would work under the assumption that the option was taken off the table for some unknown reason. But, yeah, that is right. If there was this kind of tech, it wouldn't only be used post fact.
I wonder if this was possible whether the victims would want to have the memory erased and if so, it then becomes a victimless crime as there is no held memory of the event.
It made me recall one of the movie plot -
In that the technology can surefire make predictions who is going to kill for 100 percent.
So the police the catch and punish the people before committing the crime.
Hence, crime never happens but they get punished for full crime.
Then one day, the machine predicts the inventor of the machine will kill someone.
Now, he tries to prove that machine is not 100 percent true - if he succeeds then what about the other people imprisoned.
It he doesn't then he goes to jail...
A big moral question....
Let me just try and wipe that first description from my mind before I have nightmares!
I've often considered this the perfect way of teaching consequences to those who seem to have no conscience. Even better would be the connection of minds via pain so that the perpetrator can feel it as it is inflicted. Would that cause them to stop at the realisation of the what they are causing? Who knows. Often those who lash out do so to pass on pain they themselves experienced.
Perhaps for some. Maybe for others it will compel them more.
Man..every steemer needs to read this article. The introduction grabbed my attention. Wow... This is pure mastery of writing. I always wonder why robbers choose to kill their victims after they get what they want. Is it a psychological problems or.. ? I really feel sorry for the victim's family, losing a beloved relative isn't easy. Making the murderer experience the same ordeal is somehow very harsh and just at the same time. I hope it serves as a deterrent to others.
Bloody psycho. Man you need some fresh air and an ice cream. Would I condone this method, yes. Would it satisfy punishment, I think so, sounds like hell. Why not then develop that system to forewarn that there is a spike in curtain hormone levels that may lead to a violent crime and pick the perpetrator up pre-crime?
Write more stuff away from maths, please man?
Hmm very puzzling ending (and excellent read, as always).
Do you really think that would change the way he saw things? I'm curious. I mean, there is the idea that it has a different impact if someone you know/care for gets hurt, as opposed to a total stranger (I'm talking about the family here), but it doesn't sit right in my head.
I mean, if he was willing to do such atrocious things and enjoyed pain so much, why wouldn't he enjoy the pain of the family as well?
I really like this, I think the character of the killer has great potential. He might be a very complex guy, if expanded :D
Hi Taraz. An interesting concept putting the perpetrator in the victims place. I don't know in reality if it would work. these people are so twisted that they may get a kick out of it. Maybe they have no feelings, who knows. Why waste the effort of prison when a rope or a bullet would just be easier. A prisoner has no rights when he has crossed the line as long as there is 100 percent proof.
Fabulous! wow. You can sure envision a cool story, with twists. Are you twisted?!
I used to be twisted perhaps. I am unsure if I will ever recapture it.
Yes, what I've read of yours is more linear than these pre-stroke stories, especially this one. Do you find that? There are turns in your posts now, but not so many twists, if that makes sense.
It does make sense. I think it is because even these stories are largely freewrites, so I map it out as I go, but could hold much more of the line in my head, as well as the direction. I am slower now.