Theo heard the woman's heels before he heard the small tap on his desk. He knew the moment he looked up everything he had been dreading for the last four years would become a stark and solid reality.
He shuffled papers, took a drink of water and smiled at the woman in front of him before his eyes finally landed on the small vial. It looked harmless; like a cure to a foreign disease that had long been eradicated from his home country. But still - like the idea that all presidents must die - the disease resurfaced once every while and made someone sick.
"Time already?" the man forced a laugh.
The woman pursed her lips together. She was much older than him. So old in fact that this would be her fourteenth job. She sat in one of the nearby chairs and nodded towards the office door while setting up her own station. Three men came in: one in a suit, another with a camera and tripod, and the last with lighting equipment.
The ex president watched as they assembled the expensive technology. "So it's true what they say. You record a last statement."
"In a hundred years we will know what every leader of our great country said before they lead us, and moments before they died. Truth will become the standard for history."
"Oh come on now" he smiled, "that can't be why we're forced to take this - this medicine."
Theo picked up the vial as he mentioned it, holding it as if showing it off for a crowd.
"A man who will die regardless of loyalty does not fear to being loyal to himself. You may make your statement and the drug will be administered after."
She took the vial and the IV she had been preparing and made them one before rolling up Theo's sleeve. He was sure to make eye contact only with the camera in front of him. The lens seemed backer than he'd recalled. Endless. Reality sharpened as the camera man coughed and threw a thumbs up new the blinking red light.
"My name is Theodore Thomas. I...became president..."
Another giggle.
"When I was first elected I didn't care about my end of term. I wanted to help. I remember telling my mother that I would stop the kids from spray painting her fence. And I did. After they killed her. I became president so that all moms everywhere...could have a fucking fence. And in all my time spend sitting at this shitty desk in this shitty office all I can say is that I've put a few bad people in prison and granted a few FUCKING STATES A LARGER BUDGET."
The workers in the room looked to the woman for any context clue as if they should keep recording but found her focus unwavering from Theo.
"Let me tell you something. You hold someones life over their head so they cannot be bribed or bought. But life on this shitty planet will not change until those fucking kids know that killing a woman is wrong! Or that beating that child is wrong, or raping that woman who fucking asked for it is wrong. This will do nothing until those people decide to go against what is wrong!"
Theo's heavy breathing and several minutes of silence were all the women needed to continue her job. She was met with no struggle. When his body stopped seizing she jotted down the time and date and names of the witnesses before exiting the room.