Chapter 3 Emotional eyes…
"Okay, everyone just take it easy." Lucy announces, while the officers and her partner and herself hold up guns to face the young man in front of them. Something wild is in his eyes, but his hands are shaking.
"Put down the gun!" Nathan screams at him. They try to advance on the man, but he just points the gun higher towards them. He doesn't make a sound, but the way he stands in front of the door is enough evidence. Something is behind that door and he will do anything possible to stop them from finding out.
"Just put the gun down and nothing bad will happen." Lucy says, trying to sound as calm as possible. She starts to step closer, but stops when he points the gun at her. "Okay, you know what? I am going to put down my gun. See?" She slowly lowers her gun to the floor when her partner looks at her in confusion.
"No one is going to hurt you. We're from the police, we just want to find out what happened here." She calmly says, ignoring the questioning look from the other officers. She can see the scared look in the brown eyes in front of her. Other emotions are present, but he covers them as she tries to figure them out.
She gives a nod to her partner, signaling him to follow her lead. He gives her a look that says he doesn't agree.
"Now all of us will put down our guns, so you can see we are not here to hurt you. We just want to ask a few questions. I'm going to walk closer now and you're going to give me your gun, alright?" She says in a tone as if speaking to a child.
The man seems to hesitate even more and backs up into the bolted door behind him as Lucy walks closer. The other officers slowly put down their guns as well when Nathan signals them to do so.
"My name is Lucy Crimson, I'm a detective for the LAPD and this is my partner Nathan Parker. See, this is my badge."
Nathan looks on in the background, still confused. Did Lucy not see the four dead guys sprawled out on the floor? This guy is the only one left standing and he holds a gun. Yeah, he looks young, but he could be a vicious killer. She always was to naïve for her own good, too trusting. Very dangerous for this job, but their boss saw something in her. And truthfully, she did get the job done.
"What is your name?" The young man doesn't answer. He just keeps the gun held high. He looks ready to shoot anyone who comes closer to that door behind him. What could possibly be in there? More bodies?
"Okay, you don't have to tell me. But you will have to give me that gun now. I know you don't want to shoot anyone. You're just doing the job given to you, right? You're just guarding that door. But you know what? You don't have to do that anymore. Just give me the gun and step away from the door and nothing bad will happen. Don't do anything you'll regret." She warns him as she inches closer. He keeps glancing at the door behind him in a slight panic.
"I promise whatever is behind that door, nothing bad will happen. You don't seem like a bad person. Now just give me the gun and this will all be over soon." She says in a near whisper as she is close enough to touch him. He looks ready to break down. She holds out her hand for the gun, when suddenly he lashes out and goes to pull the trigger. She grabs his arm and struggles to point the gun to an empty part in the building, when BANG. She quickly grabs the gun from his trembling hands and goes to stand up. Two officers run up and tackle the young man to the ground. He doesn't make a sound, but tears fall down his face and he struggles to get free from their grasp.
"Well, that was stupid." Nathan whispers to Lucy as she empties out the gun, preventing anyone from using it again.
"Hey, we have access to the door, don't we?" Nathan just rolls his eyes.
"yeah and now how do open the lock?"
"Didn't you ever learn how to pick locks?"
"Uhm, I trained to become a cop, not a criminal." This time Lucy rolls her eyes. She gets down on one knee in front of the lock, picks a bobby pin from her hair and starts to mess around with the lock.
In the background, four officers are now trying to restrain the young man on the floor as he struggles to get to the door.
After a few seconds, the long awaited CLICK is heard as the lock opens up.
"Alright, are you ready?" Lucy asks her partner as she puts her hands on the door. He nods and puts his hands on it as well. Together they put in all their strength and pry the heavy door open.
Behind the door is a sight none of the officers present will ever forget. A large lighted up room is revealed. It looks dirty, but that it not the sight that makes them all gasp. It's more the group of children and young teens covered in bruises and tattered clothes staring at them that leaves them all in shock.
All the young eyes show panic at the strangers in front of them. Nobody moves as they try to figure out what is going on.
"oh my god.." Lucy whispers in shock. "Nathan, get some paramedics over here." She yells at her partner, who quickly snaps out of his shocked daze and rushes outside to yell into his radio.
"Uhm, my name is Lucy Crimson, I'm a detective with the LAPD. We're here to help you." Still nobody moves. "What are your names?" Soon, a small girl with blind curls steps forward hesitantly. An older male teen tries to stop her, but she keeps walking towards Lucy.
"I'm Melissa.."
"Hi Melissa. How old are you?"
"I'm 11. We're all different ages."
"And where are your parents? How did you get here?"
"I don't know where my parents are. The bad guys took all of us. Some have been here for years."
"And how long have you been here?" The girl shrugs.
"I'm not sure anymore."
"Who did this to you, sweetie? Was it him?" She says, pointing at the struggling young man on the floor. The girl's eyes go wide.
"No, don't hurt him!" She suddenly yells out, before starting to run up to the officers. Lucy grabs a hold of her. "No, let me go, you can't hurt him. He didn't do anything!"
Slowly the other children hesitantly walk through the door and their eyes go wide as well, seeing the struggle going on.
"Hey, let go of him!" One of the male young teens yells out. Other officers come up to help prevent the children from attacking the officers restraining the young male on the floor.
"But isn't he one of the bad guys?" Lucy asks Melissa, who is now crying while still struggling in Lucy's arms.
"No, he's one of us!" Lucy turns her stare to the young man on the ground. One of them?
"What do you mean he's one of you?"
"He's normally on our side of the door. But he didn't want them to hurt us anymore, so he snuck out to stop them. Please don't hurt him!" She screams out in terror.
"Jenkins, Grace, let him go." Lucy orders the main officers holding him down.
"He tried to shoot you."
"I said, let him go!" They reluctantly let him go. Lucy lets go of Melissa, who runs for the young man, who now slowly sits up with tears streaming down his face. His body is trembling as Melissa grabs on to him, hugging him close. He hugs her back and Lucy is surprised to see him glaring directly at her.
She steps closer, but the man hastily stands up and holds Melissa tight. Again, there is fear in his eyes, but a direct warning as well. She watches the girl silently say something to him, wishing she were closer to hear exactly what. Then suddenly, the young man seems frustrated. The young girl seems to argue with him and with a lot of reluctance he puts her down onto the floor.
He glares at Lucy, a look of mistrust is heavy as well. Melissa actually walks up to Lucy and surprisingly grabs her hand. Lucy looks down at the little girl, who gives her a warm smile. She does her best to smile back, but it fades when she sees the look into the man's eyes.
"Don't worry about him. He's just trying to protect all of us. He has from the beginning. He's like our big brother. He's really funny too." She says with a big smile, but it quickly fades into a sad frown. "Well, he used to be. And he used to sing songs too. But he stopped talking." She says in a quiet voice. Lucy frowns while giving the young man another look. She watches as other officers are trying to persuade him to come with them. He backs up, fights them, and tries everything to stay away from them.
"What's his name?" She quietly asks, while keeping an eye on the scene in front of her.
"His name's Carlos. He got hurt a lot…"
Hi! Yeah, I'm thinking you already saw this coming. But I still wanted to try to keep in the suspense. Were you at least a little bit surprised?
So he is still alive! But what happened? Read and review to find out soon!
Thank you for the great comments already, I just love writing
Love, Baxxie