Gunshot - [Trapped in sub-conscious mind construct of a dark hallway]
Leaning against a wall an eerie voice speaks out "You've been shot and you're bleeding internally and your rib cage has been shattered and the blood is pouring out and your losing consciousness and it won't be long before you either pass out or die… You've got a choice of either staying slumped against the wall or do you get up and fight. I can hear noises from the outside world along with muffled voices both male and female that seemed to blur and distort into each other but you see doors with numbers on either side of the walls and with every ounce of energy and breathe I pull myself up from the ground all the time groaning in agonising pain, and start to make for one of the many doors and soon you find one and grab hold of the handle but hesitates for a few moments and turns to look down the hallway towards a white light and a figure standing there looming in the dark, and as you look into the distance you can hear the distant beeping of the life support machines in a hospital bed. I return my attention to the door handle, and to the number that's on the door a date that had happened in my life and took a leap of faith and turned the handle and pushed the door open and crossed the threshold to another place in another time and there was someone that I knew was waiting or could it be a place that was either a nightmare or dream or a real memory.
[Undisclosed date – Final college year before leaving for Police Academy]
Walks from the door threshold to summer's afternoon and I could feel the wind, and a short distance from where I was standing I could see the outline of a person that I used to know then she began to walk towards him. Then stood a few footsteps from me and brushed my hair from in front of his eyes and said "Well I never thought we would meet like this..." and paused for a few moments before smiling, he smiled back then I felt the pain of the gunshot wound and the scene around them slowly began to change and the sky turned red, then she returns to look at me at eye level and says "Isn't it time that you just let go, haven't you done enough yet? – what more is there for you to do?!" she looked puzzled at me then I fell as the searing pain from the bullet wound and felt the blood trickling down and a white light obliterated the scene.
[Fifteen Years Later]
My mind clears and I find myself standing in a cemetery, and it was raining I could feel the raindrops and splashing against my face and on my uniform and I feel the black band on my badge. I then turned to look and I hear in the short distance "Dearly beloved, we are gathered he today… to bury … A beloved wife and partner … A trusted and close friend to her colleagues of NYPD … A woman who gave her time to those whom needed it …
I take a small walk away from the congregation of people as they tossed dirt on top of the coffin as it lay in the ground before I walked away I dropped a red rose onto the coffin and felt the pain as she was lowered into the ground as the rain poured down. As I walked away I found myself standing on the edge of a hill with the photo of my wife and rain spattered on it and the tears rolled down my face and I felt my heart shred in two and my world turned upside down and ripped apart. I felt a hand on my shoulder of my close friend and police partner, James Grey Taylor who was with me the day that I learned the news of my wife's murder those six months ago. He said in my ear "I'm sorry for your loss, don't forget I'm here for you if you need me" and then turned away and left me to grieve in private and in the moments that he left me in sombre silence I replied to him "Thank you" with a slight smile. In the months that followed I fell into a continuous spiral of depressive behaviour and drunk out of my mind to blot out the loss so I couldn't feel, I became so mindlessly drunk I began skipping work and faking being ill even not turning up to work and doing my best to hide what I had become even from my partner James who had been there for me and our friendship had become so close and forged in fire.
[Six Months Previous]
I was sitting in my squad car with James who had been out to get hot dogs for both of us as we had been on patrol for some of the day, when no sooner had he got back into the squad car that a fast speeding Hyundai came flying past with three patrol cars in tow and a call came through on the radio for back-up and James called in that we available were and gonna join the chase and I peeled out of the parking space with sirens blaring and the wheels squealing as we tore down the street following the other two pursuit cars.
We co-ordinated a plan to sling out two stingers on route and then to quickly box the car in so to prevent the driver to make a get-away. But suddenly following the car rolling through the stingers that things took a turn for the worst before the pursuit cars could box him in when he hit the brakes hard and then swerved out of control and mounted pavement and then rolled over onto the roof and in those moments time seemed to slow down and then within moments of the car hitting the roof the car erupted in flames but it was too late for the driver of the car as he had died the moment the car turned so all the squad cars come to a screeching halt and immediately the lead in the chase was on the radio to get an fire engine. This took half an hour to arrive as they were coming from another job, that was when my phone rang and I looked at the display and saw that it was my beautiful darling wife H.J. and answered the phone "Hi H.J…." I slinked off when I realised that it wasn't her but an armed assailant. I returned to the call "What do you want and what the hell have you done with my wife!" I was stopped in my tracks when he cut in across my end of the conversation and took control of where the situation and replied "Should of backed-off Frobisher Family Business!" and then hung up.
Benton-Wayne Family home
An unarmed stood with a smoking shot gun in his arms and behind him on the floor pooling in her own blood was my wife H.J. with her arms stretched out in resistance to her attacker but to no avail. He dropped the phone on the floor and as it fell and hit the floor in broke into my pieces then with a crunch of his heavy boot it was completely destroyed. And then walked out of the room, whilst she breathed her last breath with her eyes wide open staring into space.
I could tell where he was and what happened through the tone of his voice, I dashed back to the car and sped off with James in tow as he chased after me in another and I sharply pulled up outside of my home. I found the door kicked in and off its own hinges and the glasses smashed in