So, this turned out WAY different than I thought, and is VERY different than how I planned it. This is from a request by Molly (mozzi-girl), hope you like it :)
"Hurry!" yelled Natara, running into the elementary school. Mal ran closely on her heels, his gun drawn. They had gotten a report of someone breaking into a local elementary school, and later a call from a frantic teacher who had her third grade class taken hostage. She was forced out of the room, while her students were trapped inside.
"You take the left, I'll go right!" Mal said in a tense whisper. Natara nodded slowly, drawing her gun and searching for the classroom. A shriek, the high one of a young girls pierced through the halls. Mal sprinted down the halls, finding a small hole through the glass on the other side of the door. Knowing this hole was used to unlock the door, Mal stuck his hand in it and reaches around to the lock. Broken glass dug into his wrist, causing blood to stream down his arm. Ignoring the sharp pain, Mal felt around until he heard the sharp click of the door being unlocked, then ran in, his gun raised. A man, one who looked in his mid-twenties, was standing over a small bunch of frightened children. His face was somewhat familiar to Mal, and he knew that he had seen him before. The man grabbed one in particular, a small olive skinned girl in a pink shirt, holding her out in front of him. Her bright dark eyes shone with frightened tears as the man crouched slightly to be shielded behind the girl, his gun pressed into her back.
"Let her go" Mal said "She's done nothing".
"She's alive" he hissed "That's what she's done".
Then it hit him. Seeing this man two years ago, after his eight year old daughter went missing. Seeing this man two months ago, after his still-eight year old daughter was found at the bottom of a river. Seeing him, after being called into the station, pound the wall in anger. Seeing his wife scream and cry in anguish. Watching as he punched the wall when he found out they couldn't even catch the man who did this. That mark is still there, and Mal didn't know how he could forget.
"And you want another parent to suffer like you did? Go through what you did after you lost…" Mal paused for a second, trying to remember the girls name "…Susie?".
The man froze for a second, clearly conflicted. Then he dug his hand in to the girls arm, squeezing tighter and causing the girl to cry out in pain. "Don't you dare pretend to know what it's like to lose your only child" he snarled "You don't even know! You don't even…". He stopped abruptly when he noticed the girl was crying. Her tiny sniffles were slowly growing louder, and she seemed unable to control herself.
"Shut up!" he yelled, squeezing the girls arm tighter. The girl gave a quick squeak of pain, and only began to cry harder.
"Would Susie want you to hurt that little girl?" challenged Mal "What if that girl was her friend? Would she want you to hurt her?".
The man peered briefly at Mal over the girls shoulder. "I don't know, and because of the son of a bitch that killed my little girl I never will!".
Mal directed his attention to the girl, hoping if the man heard more from the girl he would be more compassionate to her. "What's your name?" he asked her.
"Kyra" she barely choked out.
"And how old are you?" Mal continued to ask. It was working, the man was watching for Kyra's answer.
"Ten" she said tearfully.
"Look at her" Mal said "She's Susie's age". The man turned away, hiding his eyes from looking at his captive.
"Look at her!" Mal yelled at him.
And he did. The man looked up once at Kyra. Kyra turned her head ever so slightly, managing to smile weakly at him. Mal was impressed on how well the girl was doing, and slowly took a few tentative steps closer. The man's vice-like grip lessened, and Mal slowly inched closer. Then, for the first time, the man's eyes lock on Mal's gun.
"You're a cop" he said. His eyes were cold.
Very slowly, Mal nodded, seeing no reason to lie.
The man's lips barely moved as he hissed "you could have saved her…". There was a deafening bang, screams of the children behind them, a deafening screech. When Mal looked up, Kyra's little pink shirt was stained crimson.
This was based on a real school shooting very close to me. Innocent lives were taken, I was young. It changed my town forever. And I think it changed me too, for at that age I didn't think children could die. I always thought children were almost immortal, and it destroyed the trust in people I had as a child. After that schools were sent into a state of panic, and we were all taught how to hide. Parents didn't allow their children to play outside anymore, and it took away some of our freedom. But the thing was, we didn't care that our freedom was taken away. We were taught to be afraid and not trust people, that everyone was out to get us and we were lucky to be alive. I do not mean this to strike a nerve with anyone who was in or near the recent school shootings, and I apologize if it struck a little close to home for anyone.
