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Author: Jessie Masoner
“There is something you’re not telling me Detective.” The host proclaimed as I headed up the stairs.
“There are things in this world that mean more to me than anything else; one of these things is finding those who killed my family.”
“What do you mean finding them?”
“Let’s have one last drink together.”
As I wake up in a pool of blood all I can remember is the screams of my son and my wife, they are calling for my help. I get up wearily I make my way around my home, I spot two men laying on the floor in a puddle of blood clutching their wounds, their weapons to their side. The pain begins to set in as I make my way up the stairs, I see a small trail of blood and the walls are pockmarked. Something intense went on here, two more bodies at the top of the stairs. I make my way to my wife’s room there is a hole in the floor leading directly to the living room, I must have fell through the floor I think to myself, my eyes move up to the bed where I finally realize that my wife’s body is there bloodied and cold, I quickly realize that I am no longer hearing the screams, as I run to my sons room I drop to my knees as I reach his crib. Everything goes dark. I hear voices around me, shouting for me to hold on I realize that it is my partner of ten years as a ten year veteran of the force she has saved my life more times than I can remember.
My eyes ease open as I slowly listen to the rhythmic beeping of the machines around me; I see my partner right next to me. Her head is resting on her arms as she is holding my hand, I try to speak but I find that I’m unable to do anything the only thing I can do is to squeeze her hand, the moment I do she jumps up shouting for a doctor, running back in the room she asks me to stay calm I’ve been out for at least one month, I try to ask what happened but she just holds my hand and asks that I wait and she’ll answer any questions later. My world begins to fade.
The doctor rushes in and quickly assess the situation as the beeping begins to slow, his face begins to harden as he races for the phone and pages the entire building asking for assistance, all I see is black now the beeps are coming on slower and slower now there is nothing I can do, I see my family they are beckoning me to join them.
We are in a field now the wind is touching my soothing my wounds as I walk through towards my family. I can see them clearly now something is wrong, the sky darkens as I begin to get closer their faces are missing as I see them a few feet away even without their faces I can see that they are disappointed with them walking away the pain begins to return, as a flash of light returns to me I open my eyes gasping for breath nearly leaping out of my bed, tubes attached to me I fight off two orderlies as they try to restrain me, my partner returns embracing me as she leans her head on my chest I move back towards my bed. “You’ve been dead for about ten minutes we need to check if there is any damage to your muscles.” The doctor states, as he begins to poke and prod me with his doctoral tools, this time my partner doesn’t leave my side as I can hear her breath begin to quicken as the doctor finishes up I slowly find the strength to speak. “How… How.” I say as my voice begins to crack “How long… Have I been out?”
“About a month” the doctor replies.
“And what… What about my family?”
At this moment my partner chimes in, “We can answer that later, for now we need to get you back to full strength.” “Avoiding my question I see… But I guess you are correct” I manage to cough out before my throat gets harsh. My sarcasm is met by her usual reply, “Aren’t I always? Please rest now, I’ll answer any of your questions when you wake up.”
“Yeah sure.”
“Promise me you’ll wake up soon?”
“You know I don’t make promises.”
“Yeah but…”
“No buts. This time I will make an
exception.”
“Thanks.”
As she begins to leave I grasp her hand one last time before I drift off to my inevitable nightmares. I’m back in my house; this time I can hear my son’s screams and my wife begging her murders not to kill them. As I walk around the walls begin to bleed and the floors begin to melt away as the screams intensify as I reach the stairs I hear the first shot and then no more screams from my wife. My son’s screams is still echoing in my head driving me to my knees. As I continue on towards my room, the blood increases as I reach my room I notice that everything is normal.
Walking further into the room the screams begin again, as I look to the walls I see that there is a message written on them, “You let me die!” I scream in horror grabbing my ears I drop to my knees wishing for this nightmare to end, the screams are unbearable now.
The blood from the walls is beginning to run down further than expected as I look down I am walking on a trail of blood.
Sitting up with a start, I look around to see that I am not in a dream anymore I force my breathing back to normal I see that my hand is bleeding. I must have bit into it while in asleep. I look to my right and see my partner right there as always. I shake her awake, within moments she sees my hand, “Are you ok? Do I need to call the doctor?”
“Fine, just a couple nightmares, perhaps a nurse just to bandage my hand. How long was I out this time?”
“You’ve been out for 5 hours I went into the office for a few, but it hasn’t been the same since you’ve been in here. I’ll be back with the doctor in a moment.” She said as she walked away.
“I only needed a nurse.” I say to her back as she walks away. She turns around with a wink, and with that normal skip in her step she was gone. Moments later she was back with the doctor.
“So how are you feeling today?” He asked looking at my hand, before I can answer he quickly states, “What happened here?“
"I’m doing fine, how long do you think it will be until I can leave?”
“That’s not answering my questions.” “Nothing happened.”
“Look I know I can’t force you to let me know what is wrong…”
“No it’s not that…it’s just I don’t remember doing it. Most likely it happened in my sleep.”
“Ok well then this is a small fix let me just get a bandage on this before you bleed all over your bed.”
“Thanks doc.” After the doctor finished his interrogation and his bandaging of my hand he left the room, no later than two minutes did my partner return looking glum.
“What the matter?”
“What nothing I was just thinking.” Was her response after a few moments.
“Lost in thought is not one of your strong arguments, and like you do to me I won’t let that rest with you. Let me know what’s wrong.”
“It’s just that… It’s just that I thought I lost you back there.”
“But you didn’t give up hope did you?”
“No but…”
“But nothing… Listen to me, I’m here right now and that isn’t going to change any time soon.” Gesturing to the tubes running through my body. As I lay back down I grab a hold of her hand and say, “Listen there is something I want you to tell me the next time I wake up, before you say that you’ll do whatever, it has to be an honest answer. What do you think?”
“I know what you might ask of me, and I have to say that whatever you need I’ll be help you with it.”
“When I wake up I need to know, why did they target my family? Why did I live? Will you help me?”
“I’ll help you. Whatever you need I’ll be by your side no matter what.”
“Good night I’ll see you in the morning.” And with that I was off to my nightmares again.
Footsteps can be heard, breaking the silence in the dark alleyway, late at night the clouds have cleared away from the previous day’s rain. The splashing of feet stomping through the puddles are all that can be heard, with two sets of feet following after the first. “Now now young man where are you going? If you would have answered my questions back at the bar we wouldn’t be out here in the cold, and you without a jacket what would your mother think, shall we check up on her later.”
“I think we will have to check up on her later.” A second voice joins the first. As the footsteps stop the man being chased slowly turns around and speaks up for the first time, “Please don’t do anything to my mother.”
“Well it would appear that your finally willing to speak with us.” I state calmly, “First of all, do you remember my question back at the bar?”
“What question…” with that my partner took a two by four to the junkie’s knee, snapping it almost immediately.
“Ouch that’s got to hurt. Now I know that you remember the question, otherwise you would not have been running from me.”
“No I swear I don’t remember the question, you’re a cop man you can be doing this kind of thing!” he states as his voice cracks with fear.
“Cops? Us? I don’t see any badges do you? I’m afraid you’re out of luck today. I’ll ask you the question one more time and if you even breathe funny when answering I’m going to cut your nose off and hand deliver it to your mom. After that we will have this same chat I’m having with you.”
“Ok please just don’t hurt her! I’ll answer whatever you want.”
“Now a year ago a cop’s family was murdered you were in on it, who was behind it?”
“I don’t know man we were paid to rob the place, kill everyone inside; I never knew the name of the man who hired us even if it was a man.”
“LIES!” with that the two by four came down on his arm snapping it in two.
“WHAT THE FUCK MAN I TOLD YOU WHAT HAPPENED?” the junkie cried out in pain.
“How much did they pay you? What were you looking for?”
“I was paid… five grand.”
“FIVE GRAND TO ROB MY HOUSE AND KILL MY FAMILY!” I shout in anger,
“Who else was involved?”
“Yeah man five grand, I don’t know man if I get you a list will you let me live?”
“It won’t hurt your chances.”
“Ok here is the phone that we were given, now please don’t kill me.” With that he sunk to his knees leaning on the wall.
“Thank you for your time.”
With that I raised my pistol to his head and before he could say anything his brains were splattered on the wall. “You know that wasn’t necessary, we have his phone.”
“We may have his phone but I’m going to search him a bit more.”
“I’d like to go; it’s late and looks like there is a storm coming.”
“Ok I’m done here he didn’t have anything important on him.” I comment as I throw his belongings on his body, I walk away rubbing my hands together just another night in our little city.
I wake up to the sound of alarm clock the light is shining through my window. I mutter a few choice words about the bed being rough before finally getting up to start my morning routine. As I lift myself out of the blankets, I look back and cover Elie, it’s starting to get cold I wouldn’t want her to get sick. As soon as my hand leaves the covers she starts to move. “Morning already?” she yawns as she rolls back over as she moves to a more comfortable position.
“Yeah its morning, I’m going to take a shower really quick then I’ll get started on breakfast.”
“Five more minutes.”
“We’ve got to get started we have a long day ahead of us.” I state as I rub her back as I cover her with the blankets, five more minutes of sleep won’ t hurt her. After the normal morning routine she walks in yawning asking “What’s for breakfast? And I thought that you said we had a busy day ahead of us, you’ re such a big softie.”
“Yeah yeah, don’t worry about it; just eat some food, bacon, eggs and pancakes, that real butter on the toast by the way.”
“Real butter? How much did that cost you?”
“Don’t worry about it, just eat as much as you want.” I say as I kiss her forehead and sit across from her at the table. After eating and cleaning up we head out to work for the day.
Good morning detective, same old greeting every day, no new case files. As I turn to my personal files on the case that was shut about my family. Nobody was even suspected, no investigation ever opened nothing. As I begin to daydream my monitor flashes with a new message, no subject, “The phone had one number called. I’ll come to you with the address.” Moments later a man in his early twenties entered the office, “Man they sure did hide you away after what happened didn’t they?”
“Yeah, what can you expect after nearly dying more than two times?”
“You figure they would put me on the front lines fighting the war?”
“Yeah man, some people call you cursed, some call you blessed.”
“And what do you call me?”
“A man on a mission; just remember my young friend, Even if one's head were to be suddenly cut off, he should be able to do one more action with certainty. With martial valor, if one becomes like a revengeful ghost and shows great determination, though his head is cut off, he should not die.”
“Your words of wisdom are always welcome here, thank you for the information.” Walking out of the office he raised his hand in the air waiving the thought off, like he was waiving away flies. Looking down after the door closed, I spot the envelope he left on my desk containing the information he found about the cell phone.
One step closer to those who are responsible. Picking up the phone, I dialed Elie’s extension, after a few rings she answered. “What can I do for you today Detective?”
“I have the address.”I say cutting to the point."
“Well that is not really answering my question, what can I do for you today Dante?”
“Do you enjoy pressing my button Elie?”
“Of course, why wouldn’t I?”
“I have no clue, but as I was saying I have the address, do you want to come with me on this one?”
“Like I said the day you woke up, I’ll stick with you through it all.”
“I believe what you said was I‘ll be by your side no matter what.”
“Smart ass.”
“I’ll pick you up at the end of your shift then we’ll head over there.”
“Dante I want you to be careful on this one.” Elie said with a worried look on her face.
“Listen Elie, we’ve been through the plan about fifty times right now. We go in kill everyone find any information and leave.”
“Yeah but what if something goes wrong?"
“If something goes wrong we adjust our plan, now put the body armor on, under your jacket.”
“And what about you?”
“We only have enough body armor for one of us, and if anything happened to you I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself.”
“But if we divide it…"
“I don’t want to hear it, I’ll be the first one in through the door and make sure you cover me, if we do everything correctly we should be in and out with the information we need in less than an hour.” As I walked up to the security door, I notice that there is a camera, I just hope that my fedora will cover enough of my face so that they won’t be able to tell it is me, if anything I’ll just erase all of their footage. Three locks that I can see on the door, high security Segal locks first produced by Medeco, one of the higher end models containing an anti key bumping feature I won’t be busting my way in here any time soon, unless I have a some high explosives laying around here, not likely, oh well, I’ll just have to wing it. I ring the door bell, a plate slides away revealing a man to the right “What do you want?” the man says while not taking his eyes off the video monitor.
“I’m looking for the man who paid me to rob that cop’s house last year.”
“One second.” He said after a moment, a gun was pointed at my head.
“Do you really think that I don’t know who you are? What do you want with my boss?”
“I’m going to kill him now let me in.” I say as if there was nothing wrong in this situation.
“I’m sorry but I’d die before I let you in here.” As he tightened his muscles in his arm, I grabbed his wrist and pulled it down breaking it at the elbow, letting the gun drop to the floor, I calmly ask, “Before I kill you will you let me in?”
“You… You can’t kill me, you’re a cop.” He manages to spit out before I manage to pull out my pistol and place two well shots in each of his eyes.
“Elie come on up, the door man is dead."
“I hope you didn’t make a mess.” She whispers into her microphone as she creeps into position. “I reach into the slot and unlock the door and we go from there.” I say as I reach into the slot.
“Just be careful.” Elie states with a worried look on her face.
“Ahhh.” I scream in terror.
“What, oh my god what’s wrong.” Elie shouts at me.
“I’m just kidding, and the door is unlocked.” I say with a wicked smile on my face as I slide the door open.
“Don’t do that, you scared me to death.
"Let’s be careful.” Sliding the door to the side we walk into the front room, stepping over the body of the door guard, Elie handing me the rifle so that I can take point, she stays two feet behind me and to the right.
Almost immediately after entering the hallway we came under fire from an unknown shooter. “I thought this was going to be easy?” Elie shouted
“Hell babe this is easy, just wait until later.” I shout back over the gunfire. After about thirty seconds of random firing at us, I moved out across the room to draw fire, but nobody fired another shot at us, “Must be out of ammo.” I shrugged, as the shots hit the wall around me,
“Shit!” I shout as I ducked to the floor, immediately Elie fired two-three round bursts at the shooter.
“You ok?” She shouted,
“Yeah.” I coughed as I got to my feet, “Let’s keep going.”
Getting up I wiped the dust away from my clothes and off my fedora, damn dirty floor got my hat dirty they will pay for that later I think to myself. Weapons drawn we continued down our set path. Opening the door to the next room revealed two men with their guns on the floor, with them chatting away, I gave the signal to Elie to aim for the head, on my signal we each fired a single shot into their heads. “It’s strange, either they hear a lot of gunfire around here or they were just too out of it to really notice that there is a firefight going on here.”
“I was thinking the same thing, but there is not enough time to discuss that lets just finish up here and get home.” As we continued down the hall we approached the main staircase leading into a grand room where a man who was at least eighty-nine years old.
“What the hell are you the one responsible for my family’s death?”
“Well Dante, they were not your family, and if I remember correctly you killed everyone at the house with the exception of your wife and son.”
“Why did you have them killed?”
“Are you telling me that you are not happy right now?”
“I’m happy yeah, but that’s not the point.”
“But it is the point you fool, happiness out of life that is the only thing that matters, when you are on your death bed what are you going to think of, did you make a lot of money… No you’re going to think whether or not you had a happy life. I have fixed this for you.”
“But you murdered my family.”
“Your supposed son was not yours, and your wife was not your, she was cheating on you. Please if you do not believe me then take a look at this note book it contains all of the evidence.”
“But this man, I’ve known for years he’s host at a bar I know.”
“Yes, and if anyone is responsible for your family’s death it would be him. Now you have your evidence, and please take care of my daughter."
“Daughter…” I said with a puzzled look on my face, as I left the building and went back into the car planning on what to do next.
“So there is my story, every last bit.” I said to the host.
“Wow so how does it end?”
“It ends like this…” I say as I pull a pistol on him.
“Wait you don’t think I am the one responsible for their death? Come on Dante you’ve known me for how long?” the host pleaded.
“I know you know the truth, the drugs between you and her the reason why your son had all of the medical problems, you lead me on let me think I was your friend, and now the only thing for you to do is to take your own life after writing out a suicide letter explaining that everything was your fault.”
“But aren’t you going to kill me?”
“I’m not going to kill you, because you don’t deserve it, it’s because of you that so many innocent people lost their lives at my hands.”
“Listen I’m sorry.”
“That won’t do, not now not anymore. Good bye old friend.” With that I left the pistol on the table, Elie was leaning on the edge of the car waiting for me to finish inside.
“So you’re not going to kill him after all?”
“I have enough blood on my hands as it is; I laid the facts out for him and gave him a choice.” Just as the shot rang out and people rushed out of shouting that he killed him. “He made the correct choice. I have a new life anyways. It’s time to leave.”
“Riding off into a sunset? How beautiful.”
“It's not as beautiful as you are.”
“There is something you’re not telling me Detective.” The host proclaimed as I headed up the stairs.
“There are things in this world that mean more to me than anything else; one of these things is finding those who killed my family.”
“What do you mean finding them?”
“Let’s have one last drink together.”
Two years ago
As I wake up in a pool of blood all I can remember is the screams of my son and my wife, they are calling for my help. I get up wearily I make my way around my home, I spot two men laying on the floor in a puddle of blood clutching their wounds, their weapons to their side. The pain begins to set in as I make my way up the stairs, I see a small trail of blood and the walls are pockmarked. Something intense went on here, two more bodies at the top of the stairs. I make my way to my wife’s room there is a hole in the floor leading directly to the living room, I must have fell through the floor I think to myself, my eyes move up to the bed where I finally realize that my wife’s body is there bloodied and cold, I quickly realize that I am no longer hearing the screams, as I run to my sons room I drop to my knees as I reach his crib. Everything goes dark. I hear voices around me, shouting for me to hold on I realize that it is my partner of ten years as a ten year veteran of the force she has saved my life more times than I can remember.
One Month Later
My eyes ease open as I slowly listen to the rhythmic beeping of the machines around me; I see my partner right next to me. Her head is resting on her arms as she is holding my hand, I try to speak but I find that I’m unable to do anything the only thing I can do is to squeeze her hand, the moment I do she jumps up shouting for a doctor, running back in the room she asks me to stay calm I’ve been out for at least one month, I try to ask what happened but she just holds my hand and asks that I wait and she’ll answer any questions later. My world begins to fade.
The doctor rushes in and quickly assess the situation as the beeping begins to slow, his face begins to harden as he races for the phone and pages the entire building asking for assistance, all I see is black now the beeps are coming on slower and slower now there is nothing I can do, I see my family they are beckoning me to join them.
We are in a field now the wind is touching my soothing my wounds as I walk through towards my family. I can see them clearly now something is wrong, the sky darkens as I begin to get closer their faces are missing as I see them a few feet away even without their faces I can see that they are disappointed with them walking away the pain begins to return, as a flash of light returns to me I open my eyes gasping for breath nearly leaping out of my bed, tubes attached to me I fight off two orderlies as they try to restrain me, my partner returns embracing me as she leans her head on my chest I move back towards my bed. “You’ve been dead for about ten minutes we need to check if there is any damage to your muscles.” The doctor states, as he begins to poke and prod me with his doctoral tools, this time my partner doesn’t leave my side as I can hear her breath begin to quicken as the doctor finishes up I slowly find the strength to speak. “How… How.” I say as my voice begins to crack “How long… Have I been out?”
“About a month” the doctor replies.
“And what… What about my family?”
At this moment my partner chimes in, “We can answer that later, for now we need to get you back to full strength.” “Avoiding my question I see… But I guess you are correct” I manage to cough out before my throat gets harsh. My sarcasm is met by her usual reply, “Aren’t I always? Please rest now, I’ll answer any of your questions when you wake up.”
“Yeah sure.”
“Promise me you’ll wake up soon?”
“You know I don’t make promises.”
“Yeah but…”
“No buts. This time I will make an
exception.”
“Thanks.”
As she begins to leave I grasp her hand one last time before I drift off to my inevitable nightmares. I’m back in my house; this time I can hear my son’s screams and my wife begging her murders not to kill them. As I walk around the walls begin to bleed and the floors begin to melt away as the screams intensify as I reach the stairs I hear the first shot and then no more screams from my wife. My son’s screams is still echoing in my head driving me to my knees. As I continue on towards my room, the blood increases as I reach my room I notice that everything is normal.
Walking further into the room the screams begin again, as I look to the walls I see that there is a message written on them, “You let me die!” I scream in horror grabbing my ears I drop to my knees wishing for this nightmare to end, the screams are unbearable now.
The blood from the walls is beginning to run down further than expected as I look down I am walking on a trail of blood.
Sitting up with a start, I look around to see that I am not in a dream anymore I force my breathing back to normal I see that my hand is bleeding. I must have bit into it while in asleep. I look to my right and see my partner right there as always. I shake her awake, within moments she sees my hand, “Are you ok? Do I need to call the doctor?”
“Fine, just a couple nightmares, perhaps a nurse just to bandage my hand. How long was I out this time?”
“You’ve been out for 5 hours I went into the office for a few, but it hasn’t been the same since you’ve been in here. I’ll be back with the doctor in a moment.” She said as she walked away.
“I only needed a nurse.” I say to her back as she walks away. She turns around with a wink, and with that normal skip in her step she was gone. Moments later she was back with the doctor.
“So how are you feeling today?” He asked looking at my hand, before I can answer he quickly states, “What happened here?“
"I’m doing fine, how long do you think it will be until I can leave?”
“That’s not answering my questions.” “Nothing happened.”
“Look I know I can’t force you to let me know what is wrong…”
“No it’s not that…it’s just I don’t remember doing it. Most likely it happened in my sleep.”
“Ok well then this is a small fix let me just get a bandage on this before you bleed all over your bed.”
“Thanks doc.” After the doctor finished his interrogation and his bandaging of my hand he left the room, no later than two minutes did my partner return looking glum.
“What the matter?”
“What nothing I was just thinking.” Was her response after a few moments.
“Lost in thought is not one of your strong arguments, and like you do to me I won’t let that rest with you. Let me know what’s wrong.”
“It’s just that… It’s just that I thought I lost you back there.”
“But you didn’t give up hope did you?”
“No but…”
“But nothing… Listen to me, I’m here right now and that isn’t going to change any time soon.” Gesturing to the tubes running through my body. As I lay back down I grab a hold of her hand and say, “Listen there is something I want you to tell me the next time I wake up, before you say that you’ll do whatever, it has to be an honest answer. What do you think?”
“I know what you might ask of me, and I have to say that whatever you need I’ll be help you with it.”
“When I wake up I need to know, why did they target my family? Why did I live? Will you help me?”
“I’ll help you. Whatever you need I’ll be by your side no matter what.”
“Good night I’ll see you in the morning.” And with that I was off to my nightmares again.
One year later
Footsteps can be heard, breaking the silence in the dark alleyway, late at night the clouds have cleared away from the previous day’s rain. The splashing of feet stomping through the puddles are all that can be heard, with two sets of feet following after the first. “Now now young man where are you going? If you would have answered my questions back at the bar we wouldn’t be out here in the cold, and you without a jacket what would your mother think, shall we check up on her later.”
“I think we will have to check up on her later.” A second voice joins the first. As the footsteps stop the man being chased slowly turns around and speaks up for the first time, “Please don’t do anything to my mother.”
“Well it would appear that your finally willing to speak with us.” I state calmly, “First of all, do you remember my question back at the bar?”
“What question…” with that my partner took a two by four to the junkie’s knee, snapping it almost immediately.
“Ouch that’s got to hurt. Now I know that you remember the question, otherwise you would not have been running from me.”
“No I swear I don’t remember the question, you’re a cop man you can be doing this kind of thing!” he states as his voice cracks with fear.
“Cops? Us? I don’t see any badges do you? I’m afraid you’re out of luck today. I’ll ask you the question one more time and if you even breathe funny when answering I’m going to cut your nose off and hand deliver it to your mom. After that we will have this same chat I’m having with you.”
“Ok please just don’t hurt her! I’ll answer whatever you want.”
“Now a year ago a cop’s family was murdered you were in on it, who was behind it?”
“I don’t know man we were paid to rob the place, kill everyone inside; I never knew the name of the man who hired us even if it was a man.”
“LIES!” with that the two by four came down on his arm snapping it in two.
“WHAT THE FUCK MAN I TOLD YOU WHAT HAPPENED?” the junkie cried out in pain.
“How much did they pay you? What were you looking for?”
“I was paid… five grand.”
“FIVE GRAND TO ROB MY HOUSE AND KILL MY FAMILY!” I shout in anger,
“Who else was involved?”
“Yeah man five grand, I don’t know man if I get you a list will you let me live?”
“It won’t hurt your chances.”
“Ok here is the phone that we were given, now please don’t kill me.” With that he sunk to his knees leaning on the wall.
“Thank you for your time.”
With that I raised my pistol to his head and before he could say anything his brains were splattered on the wall. “You know that wasn’t necessary, we have his phone.”
“We may have his phone but I’m going to search him a bit more.”
“I’d like to go; it’s late and looks like there is a storm coming.”
“Ok I’m done here he didn’t have anything important on him.” I comment as I throw his belongings on his body, I walk away rubbing my hands together just another night in our little city.
I wake up to the sound of alarm clock the light is shining through my window. I mutter a few choice words about the bed being rough before finally getting up to start my morning routine. As I lift myself out of the blankets, I look back and cover Elie, it’s starting to get cold I wouldn’t want her to get sick. As soon as my hand leaves the covers she starts to move. “Morning already?” she yawns as she rolls back over as she moves to a more comfortable position.
“Yeah its morning, I’m going to take a shower really quick then I’ll get started on breakfast.”
“Five more minutes.”
“We’ve got to get started we have a long day ahead of us.” I state as I rub her back as I cover her with the blankets, five more minutes of sleep won’ t hurt her. After the normal morning routine she walks in yawning asking “What’s for breakfast? And I thought that you said we had a busy day ahead of us, you’ re such a big softie.”
“Yeah yeah, don’t worry about it; just eat some food, bacon, eggs and pancakes, that real butter on the toast by the way.”
“Real butter? How much did that cost you?”
“Don’t worry about it, just eat as much as you want.” I say as I kiss her forehead and sit across from her at the table. After eating and cleaning up we head out to work for the day.
Good morning detective, same old greeting every day, no new case files. As I turn to my personal files on the case that was shut about my family. Nobody was even suspected, no investigation ever opened nothing. As I begin to daydream my monitor flashes with a new message, no subject, “The phone had one number called. I’ll come to you with the address.” Moments later a man in his early twenties entered the office, “Man they sure did hide you away after what happened didn’t they?”
“Yeah, what can you expect after nearly dying more than two times?”
“You figure they would put me on the front lines fighting the war?”
“Yeah man, some people call you cursed, some call you blessed.”
“And what do you call me?”
“A man on a mission; just remember my young friend, Even if one's head were to be suddenly cut off, he should be able to do one more action with certainty. With martial valor, if one becomes like a revengeful ghost and shows great determination, though his head is cut off, he should not die.”
“Your words of wisdom are always welcome here, thank you for the information.” Walking out of the office he raised his hand in the air waiving the thought off, like he was waiving away flies. Looking down after the door closed, I spot the envelope he left on my desk containing the information he found about the cell phone.
One step closer to those who are responsible. Picking up the phone, I dialed Elie’s extension, after a few rings she answered. “What can I do for you today Detective?”
“I have the address.”I say cutting to the point."
“Well that is not really answering my question, what can I do for you today Dante?”
“Do you enjoy pressing my button Elie?”
“Of course, why wouldn’t I?”
“I have no clue, but as I was saying I have the address, do you want to come with me on this one?”
“Like I said the day you woke up, I’ll stick with you through it all.”
“I believe what you said was I‘ll be by your side no matter what.”
“Smart ass.”
“I’ll pick you up at the end of your shift then we’ll head over there.”
Later that day
“Dante I want you to be careful on this one.” Elie said with a worried look on her face.
“Listen Elie, we’ve been through the plan about fifty times right now. We go in kill everyone find any information and leave.”
“Yeah but what if something goes wrong?"
“If something goes wrong we adjust our plan, now put the body armor on, under your jacket.”
“And what about you?”
“We only have enough body armor for one of us, and if anything happened to you I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself.”
“But if we divide it…"
“I don’t want to hear it, I’ll be the first one in through the door and make sure you cover me, if we do everything correctly we should be in and out with the information we need in less than an hour.” As I walked up to the security door, I notice that there is a camera, I just hope that my fedora will cover enough of my face so that they won’t be able to tell it is me, if anything I’ll just erase all of their footage. Three locks that I can see on the door, high security Segal locks first produced by Medeco, one of the higher end models containing an anti key bumping feature I won’t be busting my way in here any time soon, unless I have a some high explosives laying around here, not likely, oh well, I’ll just have to wing it. I ring the door bell, a plate slides away revealing a man to the right “What do you want?” the man says while not taking his eyes off the video monitor.
“I’m looking for the man who paid me to rob that cop’s house last year.”
“One second.” He said after a moment, a gun was pointed at my head.
“Do you really think that I don’t know who you are? What do you want with my boss?”
“I’m going to kill him now let me in.” I say as if there was nothing wrong in this situation.
“I’m sorry but I’d die before I let you in here.” As he tightened his muscles in his arm, I grabbed his wrist and pulled it down breaking it at the elbow, letting the gun drop to the floor, I calmly ask, “Before I kill you will you let me in?”
“You… You can’t kill me, you’re a cop.” He manages to spit out before I manage to pull out my pistol and place two well shots in each of his eyes.
“Elie come on up, the door man is dead."
“I hope you didn’t make a mess.” She whispers into her microphone as she creeps into position. “I reach into the slot and unlock the door and we go from there.” I say as I reach into the slot.
“Just be careful.” Elie states with a worried look on her face.
“Ahhh.” I scream in terror.
“What, oh my god what’s wrong.” Elie shouts at me.
“I’m just kidding, and the door is unlocked.” I say with a wicked smile on my face as I slide the door open.
“Don’t do that, you scared me to death.
"Let’s be careful.” Sliding the door to the side we walk into the front room, stepping over the body of the door guard, Elie handing me the rifle so that I can take point, she stays two feet behind me and to the right.
Almost immediately after entering the hallway we came under fire from an unknown shooter. “I thought this was going to be easy?” Elie shouted
“Hell babe this is easy, just wait until later.” I shout back over the gunfire. After about thirty seconds of random firing at us, I moved out across the room to draw fire, but nobody fired another shot at us, “Must be out of ammo.” I shrugged, as the shots hit the wall around me,
“Shit!” I shout as I ducked to the floor, immediately Elie fired two-three round bursts at the shooter.
“You ok?” She shouted,
“Yeah.” I coughed as I got to my feet, “Let’s keep going.”
Getting up I wiped the dust away from my clothes and off my fedora, damn dirty floor got my hat dirty they will pay for that later I think to myself. Weapons drawn we continued down our set path. Opening the door to the next room revealed two men with their guns on the floor, with them chatting away, I gave the signal to Elie to aim for the head, on my signal we each fired a single shot into their heads. “It’s strange, either they hear a lot of gunfire around here or they were just too out of it to really notice that there is a firefight going on here.”
“I was thinking the same thing, but there is not enough time to discuss that lets just finish up here and get home.” As we continued down the hall we approached the main staircase leading into a grand room where a man who was at least eighty-nine years old.
“What the hell are you the one responsible for my family’s death?”
“Well Dante, they were not your family, and if I remember correctly you killed everyone at the house with the exception of your wife and son.”
“Why did you have them killed?”
“Are you telling me that you are not happy right now?”
“I’m happy yeah, but that’s not the point.”
“But it is the point you fool, happiness out of life that is the only thing that matters, when you are on your death bed what are you going to think of, did you make a lot of money… No you’re going to think whether or not you had a happy life. I have fixed this for you.”
“But you murdered my family.”
“Your supposed son was not yours, and your wife was not your, she was cheating on you. Please if you do not believe me then take a look at this note book it contains all of the evidence.”
“But this man, I’ve known for years he’s host at a bar I know.”
“Yes, and if anyone is responsible for your family’s death it would be him. Now you have your evidence, and please take care of my daughter."
“Daughter…” I said with a puzzled look on my face, as I left the building and went back into the car planning on what to do next.
Present
“So there is my story, every last bit.” I said to the host.
“Wow so how does it end?”
“It ends like this…” I say as I pull a pistol on him.
“Wait you don’t think I am the one responsible for their death? Come on Dante you’ve known me for how long?” the host pleaded.
“I know you know the truth, the drugs between you and her the reason why your son had all of the medical problems, you lead me on let me think I was your friend, and now the only thing for you to do is to take your own life after writing out a suicide letter explaining that everything was your fault.”
“But aren’t you going to kill me?”
“I’m not going to kill you, because you don’t deserve it, it’s because of you that so many innocent people lost their lives at my hands.”
“Listen I’m sorry.”
“That won’t do, not now not anymore. Good bye old friend.” With that I left the pistol on the table, Elie was leaning on the edge of the car waiting for me to finish inside.
“So you’re not going to kill him after all?”
“I have enough blood on my hands as it is; I laid the facts out for him and gave him a choice.” Just as the shot rang out and people rushed out of shouting that he killed him. “He made the correct choice. I have a new life anyways. It’s time to leave.”
“Riding off into a sunset? How beautiful.”
“It's not as beautiful as you are.”
Last edited by behind_the_mask on Thu Mar 04, 2010 9:58 am; edited 1 time in total
