The Cost of Power
Katherine Rochholz
Copyright 2018 All Rights Reserved
Flash Fiction Story
I sat looking at the kitten still with the bow and ring around the collar. I took a deep drag of coffee from the mug she had gotten me when we first started dating. We had met at a tennis club when I started my first campaign. I swore to her the empire I had built would be used to change the world. The essence of that promise still there, but it had been buried as I moved up the political ladder.
Many don’t get the political machinations I had been playing. Politics is a dangerous game. And part of it is playing a convertor, to change people to your way of thinking, and I was good at that. A true silver tongue. Politics is as dangerous as poke to a sleeping bear, but I took the risks. And I moved up. And it seems, if her words are true, more distant to my humanity. But my risks paid off; at least I thought they had.
But now I am in a position of real power, a position that will allow all my machinations to come to their conclusions. And star the path to make the world a better place.
I just didn’t realize the cost of this latest appointment. Until now. The letter saying goodbye sits on our bed, where I now sit drinking coffee and staring at the kitten that had a ribbon and a ring around its neck. A ring that was supposed to symbolize the family I wanted with her. The love of my life.
Perhaps this pain in my chest is the wakeup call I need. For all my machinations, this recent appointment isn’t worth the cost. I look up at the knock on my door.
The secret service agent looks in. “Mister President, you are need.”
I look at him, time to make this machination worth the cost.
Kris Charles - Author 