He stood at the edge of the pool looking at his reflection in the water.
He was in over his head, he knew it. Deep inside he felt it. Yet he buried that feeling even deeper in his mind.
Not letting it show that he didn't know what he was doing, that he second guessed all his decisions, that he was scared of the responsibilities and faith placed on his shoulders, that the weight was too heavy.
He looked at the reflection, looked hard, trying to find the cracks in the facade he thought they could see. Looking for the part of him that didn't show the leader figure he was trying to emulate.
One thing that's true is that when you look hard enough, you'll find what you seek.
When he looked into his reflection, his reflection looked into him and he saw himself fully.
He saw the fool he was. Saw just how far down the rabbit hole he had dug himself. He had pretended to be who he wasn't and had in turn had killed who he was to become.
He looked back at the disaster he was about to leave behind. He saw the swirling red and blue lights, heard the sirens as the neighborhood stirred at 3am in the morning.
He knew his time was up. His time frivolously spent up in his computer, hacking into company files and selling their secrets online for money was up.
His time running an underground hacking ring was up.
It was up a long time ago actually, up since when he'd noticed that a node in Philadelphia had been caught 2 years ago.
He knew that it was up when his hackings were the morning headliners on the newspaper, yet he carried on.
Just one more night, just one more until there was none left.
It was a stupid idea, a crazy one, trying to hack into the white House was a sink or swim idea, yet the fact that he managed to do it was invigorating.
He copied bills and laws, he was blocked out in five minutes though. He sold what he could, yet the deed was done.
With life imprisonment confirmed it was already a sink or swim situation for him. Sadly, he couldn't swim.
Despite the outcome, the fact that he hacked the White House is a forever impressive feat, with that last thought, he plunged in.
- Story was written in response to the inkwell prompt: Sink or Swim.
- Header Image was made using Canva.
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