by Katianna Beaudoin
As he turned his broad back to me and started to walk away towards his desk, I knew I couldn’t just give up after all the work and effort I’d put into this, I owed it to myself to keep trying and I wouldn’t take no for an answer.
- “Please Sir, I need this position! I may not have as much experience in the field as the other applicants, but I’m a hard worker and I know I can get the job done!” I pleaded to the Chief.
- “It’s not just about hard work and good intentions Amy, I need someone who will catch this murderer once and for all, someone with experience and expertise in the detective field.” he answered back as we sat down in his office.
I give a long sigh. I felt defeated as I looked around the gloomy room for another good argument, but nothing comes. I get up to leave when Chief decided to asks me one last question.
- “I would like you to explain something to me, since I can’t quite comprehend. There’s no real benefit or reason for you to switch positions, so you must have a personal motive, right?” he inquired.
He was right as always, Chief was the best detective in New York city, but it still never ceased to amaze me. So as I sat back down in the big leather chair he kept in front of his desk, I decided I would tell him the whole story. The day that changed my life for good.
***
While me and Jonathan we’re looking for a bench to eat lunch on at school, we started talking about my dislike for humanity and what to do for my birthday next week.
- “Just because I’m older now doesn’t mean I can deal with people better. I don’t like people and they don’t like me, you should know we have this very unofficial but mutual agreement to stay away from each other.” I say sarcastically while sticking out my tongue.
- “HA ha ha…! I’m a person too you know and you’re always hanging out with me, what’s the difference between me and the others?”
- “Yes I do in fact know you are a person like everyone else, but you’re different from them, you understand me and my weirdness and you don’t tease me all the time like they do..” I comment sadly.
- “Ya I guess you can get pretty weird, but that’s the way I like you. Why not go see a movie together, just us besties?”
I smile wider than the moon and that’s all he needs to know. I’m on board with his idea and as the first bell rings telling us to get back to class, we start planning one night we will sadly never forget, well, at least I wouldn’t.
***
We decided to walk there that night, we didn’t live that far from the city and why bother our parents for so little. It was dark and chilly in the autumn. Yet, I remember admiring all the colorful leaves fall from the trees. Jonathan made me a bouquet of the fallen ones as a gift. The movie was funny and we both wore big smiles on the way back home through the sleeping city, but something felt off. The air was eerie and crisp as if trying to warn us of what was to come.
While we chatted away, I noticed a stranger following us just a little ways behind. At first, I told myself it must be nothing, just a man walking back home from work. Even so, the bad feeling in my stomach wouldn’t leave. My heart beat quicker as he got closer to us. At that moment Jonathan now seemed to notice my worry and grabbed my hand to reassure me.
- “I’m scared.” I admitted shaking harder every step.
- “Don’t worry it’s probably nothing.” he reassured while holding me closer.
We started walking faster, taking sharp turns at random corners we didn’t really know, however, the man kept following. My heart was in a frenzy, but when I looked over my shoulder a couple turns later, the stranger had vanished.
- “Haha, guess we freaked out over nothing’’ Jonathan said.
Reassuring as that was, I knew that he had spoken too soon. Not even a minute later, I felt something come up behind me and just as I turned around, something hit me hard on the head. All I remember, was a screeching pain, Jonathan screaming and hands grabbing my body, pulling me further into the darkness.
***
What had happened was the first thought that came to mind when I woke up in a daze, but the questions faded away when the smell of blood brought me back to the present. The cold air around me bit my skin as I realized I was tied to a fence in somebodies yard. Panic, it was the only thing I felt when I realized the blood was coming from my head, but something more urgent came to mind: where’s Jonathan? As I try to scream, the tape on my mouth muffled all sound, and as I turn my head I saw something that fills me with regret. Jonathan was tied to a poll a little way away, bleeding, trashing, as our kidnapper started taking off his pants. I screamed and trashed as hard I could, I had to do something, anything at all!
It all felt like a bad dream, like something I would wake up from to find myself asleep in Jonathan’s arms, but reality kicked its way back in when he started screaming.
- “Don’t look at me Amy, don’t look at this!”
But I couldn’t turn away, I was terrified. Hot tears ran down my face as I watched my only friend get treated in the worst of ways. It felt like it lasted forever, nothing could compare to the haunting screams that echoed in the night and through my mind, but the man soon pulled up his pants as Jonathan’s body lay weak on the ground. He seemed to turn his attention on me as I struggle with the tie wraps around my wrists. He was tall and proper looking, but his eyes did the real talking. As he got close enough to breath on me, I could read them like a book, he was insane.
- “Well it’s your turn little girl, I’m kinda tired after dealing with your friend over there so what should I do to you?” He said looming over me. “Oh I know! Let’s have fun sculpting that cute little body you have there.”
While I weighed his words, trying to understand what he meant, he took out a swiss-army knife from his back pocket. With every cut I screamed, the cuts burned my skin all over my torso. He started little, but as he started to become impatient they got bigger. With every cut a new feeling grew inside me, pure white rage. It grew in me until my body could take no more and I passed out.
I woke up in the hospital three days later, with gauze bandages all over my body, I could hardly move even with the morphine diminishing the pain. The police were there that day to question me on what had happened, but when I asked where Jonathan was, the answer changed me forever.
***
I wipe a stray tear from my face as my story comes to an end, but I’m not quite done yet.
- “Sir before you say that my story has no real connection to the job we’re discussing now, I need to inform you of one last thing. The man you are trying to catch right now, the murderer who you wish to assign this new detective to, he is the man who killed Jonathan. I want to do everything I can to stop him from hurting more people like he hurt us.” I explain while all the pain I held back these past twelve years sinks into each word
- “I’m sorry for your loss and I believe your motive is a very convincing one, but I have one last question. Who are you doing this for?”
- “I’m doing this to protect innocent lives, I’m doing this to avenge the best friend I ever had, but most of all, I’m doing this for me. I’ll never be able to sleep at night knowing I could do something about it, but don’t try. I want to overcome my greatest fear.”
In a moment that seemed to last a lifetime, Chief finally came to a conclusion.
- “Well Miss Amy, I believe I’ve just found myself a new detective.”
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