A one shot and just a few thoughts.
On 10-26, I witnessed a really awful event. A woman was murder, and I stayed waiting for the police. Didn't see as much as some, but the image is stuck in my mind. This story is about that event. Not sure about the story, but I needed an outlet, something to help my jumbled feelings.
I drive past that spot every day, but at least I don't live there. It's one thing to see a TV show or news story, it is something else to see it first hand. It is amazing how our human spirit keeps bouncing back after horrible stuff, but we do. I know it will take time to get past this and this story was a way for me to heal.
But I must say my respect for those that deal with this on a daily basis, has really gone up. I know I couldn't do it, just like I couldn't be a doctor or nurse. I'll take being a teacher any day over that. I need to see life...I'm too sensitive to it and I know that it bothers me more than some. But it is who I am. Thanks for your comments and reviews. I hope you found something worth while in the reading.
P.S. I am happy to report, they did find out who she is, so that does help. Summary: How would Don deal with seeing his first victim? A one shot. Disclaimer: Not my characters and I haven't made a dime of them.
Don inhaled a deep cleansing breath. Blood covered the asphalt spreading all around the woman lying on her side in an awkward arrangement with her leg bent in an unnatural position. Her face badly battered from the bullet and hitting the payment. Her death had been anything but peaceful. Her hands curved and almost clinched as if she had tried to get in a fetal position but gravity hadn't allowed it to occur.
Funny the emotions and questions that popped into your brain as you try to process the scene. Your first death…your first victim, and you find yourself observing the scene. A young girl crying hysterically as she tried to answer the 911 operator. The people on the road, trying to wave the drivers around the incident and the stubborn drivers demanding to go in a direction that could hit the body again. As though they can't comprehend there's a death, a murder victim on the road. The people that do stop and try to render aid but realizing that there is nothing to be done at least until the police arrive.
Questions flood your mind as you wait, questions you wish you didn't imagine but they demand to be answered. Yet there wouldn't be answers for a while. Who is she? How had she gotten into this terrible situation in the first place? Was it a lover's spat that had gone wrong? Had she been kidnapped? How scared was she? Could they find out who she was? What did she think about that split second before death? How could people be so cruel? How could the man throw her out like garage and then run over her while trying to escape? Yet, left to die like some type of animal and not even bothering to stop the car as those that witnessed the events were forced to react to this atrocious ordeal.
Then once again watching society's reactions to this awful event. Watching the same actions taking place over and over. Some stopping and trying to render aid, even though it is too late. Others not paying attention and almost hitting the woman with their car. Some crying, some frozen unable to move. Waiting for the police and the ambulance to arrive to clean up the mess.
Don's mind wandered and he tired to regain his focus. After all he was being trained for this. The only shock about tonight was that he hadn't planned on it. He was just driving back to his apartment to get a bite to eat. He was tired and just wanted to relax, but instead he had found himself briefly involved in murder.
Then the first police car screeched to a halt trying to block the road to protect the body. Finally three more police cars followed and Don knew being a FBI agent was an important career. He would be part of the solution. Trying to solve the crime and for now it was his slot in life. Some day soon, he would be asking the question and trying to help the witnesses sort through their feelings and get the much needed answers.
Stepping up the police officer, he became the witness and tried to give as much information as possible to help the officers to do their job. For he had found his life work, and he knew he could deal with it. Some couldn't, and that would be alright, for the world needed the innocent. To protect and serve wouldn't be easy and it would come with a price. But, if it allowed peace to fix what was once broken, then it would be worth it in the end.