Challenge #02074-E250: Mob's Rule
“You’re right. Anger can be useful, and your wrath is something to be feared. But if I am to burn in this fire, I WILL take you down with me.” -- Anon Guest
The corrupt ruler scoffed. "And how will the likes of you propose to defeat me? You're weak. Powerless. Unarmed. I can kill you with a gesture and most of the idiots out there will applaud me for it."
"You did just call everyone watching you 'idiots'," she pointed out. "They're watching and listening to your every word. Because you decreed it so. Your vainglory will be your downfall. They will watch you cause my death. Me. A weak, unarmed, powerless peon with nothing. Only some of your subjects will actually endorse your actions. To appear truly powerful, though, you must kill me yourself."
He had a weapon in his hands before she finished her final sentence. "I am powerful. More powerful than you, more powerful than any mud-grubbing moron who claims to love me. I control the truth! I control the money! I control everything! And I control when you die." He aimed it. "Any last words?"
"Just two more," she said, knowing they would end him, one way or another. "I'm pregnant."
They were her last words. He killed her without a thought, like he did so many things. He had no other wish than to appeal to his followers by appearing to be the most powerful man in the world. He didn't think about the consequences, because he never had to before.
The people who rigidly supported him also rigidly supported every pregnancy resulting in a birth. It didn't matter whether or not the woman he killed was actually pregnant, because belated facts had never interfered with any of their thought processes before, and they wouldn't now. They were angry at their ruler because he had, in their minds, murdered a baby.
It may have mattered that they thought she should have been incarcerated until she gave birth and then executed. It may also have mattered that they thought she should be forced into becoming pregnant if she was, in fact, lying about gestating. But to the tides of history, the announcement was all that ultimately mattered.
Because even the most vehement supporter, the most able enabler, rose up in anger about their ruler's latest act. Causing a great hue and cry. The revolution started with the ruler's own act, and the righteous anger that he had been feeding for the entirety of his reign.
He never expected it to turn against him.
A reign of terror followed as absolute morals condemned absolutely, and those who enforced them fell to them at the same time. Until the collective public finally realised that some morals weren't that moral after all. But that was centuries away. Long, hard, and bloody centuries.
One ruler, in a craving for fame, fear, and adoration, ruined a great country.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / erllre74]
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