defenestrate
to throw (a person or thing) out of a window: A Portuguese bishop, accused of conspiring with the leaders of Castile, was defenestrated from the north tower of Lisbon's cathedral in 1383.
to suddenly remove (a person) from an important position or office: The chief executive was defenestrated after a corruption investigation.
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There were a lot of things Jack thought he would be doing with his life. Traveling, getting a job. Maybe start a family at some point. What he definitely did not see him doing was threatening to throw a man out the window of a very tall building.
He considered the course of events that led him to this situation. It seemed like something out a poorly written action movie. A normal guy gets involved with a spy or secret agent and normal guy has to step up and prove his worth to save the world. Well, Jack was not exactly saving the world, and he had yet to meet a spy, but the core of it was still there.
“Come on man, y-you don’t have to do this!” The other man shouted, glancing down at the far too distant ground.
“Yeah. I probably don’t.” Jack agreed. He held the rope that was the only thing keeping the other man from the plummet. “Then again, you didn’t have to try and stab me, did you.”
Jack had never thought he would be stabbed. Well, he still had not been, but the intent had been there, which was something Jack had never thought about happening in his life. Jack was not exactly a trained killing machine, but when another man was coming at you with a weapon, certain instincts tended to take over. Which brought them both to the current situation of Jack almost throwing said attacker out the window.
“Hey, I’m just here doing my job, you know?” The panicked man said. “My boss told me to come in here and kill the first guy I see. It wasn’t supposed to be you!”
“You know, that doesn’t make me feel much better?” Jack said. “I mean, you were still trying to kill someone. Seems like this hole dropping you thing would be justified by most courts.”
Jack wondered about that. I did seem like a fairly straight forward self-defense situation, what with the knife and all. But he was fairly sure that this was something of a grey area, what with the danger mostly having passed at this point. The attacker had dropped the knife when half his body exited the window. That did not mean he was harmless, but the danger was much reduced. Jack would have to look up the legal ruling later.
“L-Look, I…I can give you info. Don’t you want to know why someone was going to get killed? I bet my original target will pay for that. I’ll tell you everything. Employer, location. All that stuff!”
“You know, I’m not really sure I want any of that. See, someone who would hire an assassin once would probably have no problems hiring another one to keep whatever secrets you spill. And this one would probably have a gun instead of a knife.”
The attacker opened his mouth, most likely to protest, but paused. “Yeah, yeah he would absolutely do that.”
“Exactly. I figure I’m already in a bad spot just by being in this position, so why make it worse? Hm, if I pull you up and restrain you, would your employer consider negotiation?”
“Probably not. I already screwed up, you know?”
“Ah. Right. Shame. You know, most people at one point ask themselves if they would be capable of killing someone. I always thought the answer would be no. It’s weird though, but I think I might have to rethink that.”
And with that, Jack let go of the rope. The attacker screamed as he fell. The sound did not last long. Jack did not watch the man fall. He took a few deep breaths and looked at his hands. Then he collapsed into a sobbing, blubbering mess on the floor of the office.
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Every time I see this word, it amazes me that it exists. Such a wonderful, niche word that would wouldn't think needs to exist. And yet, here it is. Language is funny like that, isn't it.
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