*I Didn't Kill Him

TW: themes and mentions of violence, blood, gore, self harm 

Life in the city is challenging. But being a police officer in the city… Well that is just a living nightmare. But someone has to do it, or the city wouldn't even exist, not when the criminals are done with it…

I have been in the PDP for ten years now, and I have seen many things. But in the last few weeks, things have gotten even stranger. In the last week we have found three people dead. Each killed in a different way. It was disturbing. We all knew there was a killer in the loss. But no one had any leads to go off of.

I walked alone on an old sidewalk. The two sibling moons were shining brightly above, both perfectly split in half. That was never a good sign, and the rain on top of that, well it was clear the world was telling me something was wrong. At night is when all the freaks and psycho people come out. Which meant I had to be on guard, anything could happen. I turned the corner and froze at what I saw.

Two men were on the ground, one on top of the other, blood drenching their clothes. They both had their hands on a knife, which was firmly held in between them. The knife’s tip hovered above one of the man’s heart, and it was slowly drawing closer to its target. The man's arms shook rapidly as he used all his strength to stop the blade. Before I had time to react the man’s strength failed him and the knife cut cleanly into his chest. A definite fatal wound.

No! I thought, pulling out my pistol. I knew I couldn’t have saved him if I had tried. But I knew I might have just found the killer. But there was one issue, I was alone in the middle of the night, on a deserted sidewalk. No one knew I was here. No one could help me if the killer decides to attack. I had to be ready for anything. I might even have to kill him…

“Police, freeze!” I yelled, over the crackling thunder above. The killer stiffened as he got to his feet, leaving the knife in his victims chest.

“I said freeze!” My finger wrapped around the trigger. He eyed the gun, then drifted to my face. Our eyes met and locked on to each other. 

“I - I didn’t do it.” He whispered, backing away from the body. His blue eyes jumped from me to the body before scanning for an escape route. As I stared at him I realized how lean and skinny he was. His legs were built well, my guess is that he played some kind of sport.

If he runs, there's no way I could catch him… I realized.

“What do you mean you didn’t do it?” I growled, “I watched you kill him!”

He staggered away from me. “I didn’t do it!”

“Then how do you explain this?” I asked, waving a hand to the dead body. “You're covered in his blood!”

He flinched, looking down at his clothes. You could barely tell that his hoodie was gray due to the blood that covered him. His clothes had tons of rips along them in different places along with a deep wound along the edge of his right eye that started at the very corner and led to his ear.

“He attacked me first.” He said, I knew it was a lie. I could see it in his face, past all of the blood. 

“Look, lying to a police officer isn’t gonna help ya anytime soon.” I said, sternly. “I watched you kill him. You’re also covered in his blood and you have guilt all over your face.” 

He took another step away from me, his eyes darting around. I reached for my walkie talkie.

“I need backup as soon as possible. I found our killer!” I said, urgently into it. 

“Backup is being sent to your location immediately. Try to keep an eye on him and stay safe until then.” Someone replied.

Stay safe? Too late for that. 

“I told ya, I didn’t do it, officer!” He cried. “For heaven sakes please believe me! I would never kill a man!”

“Then why’d ya do it?” I asked, roughly.

“I didn’t!” 

A bolt of lightning struck nearby lighting up the scene, including the killer's face. My blood ran cold as I saw who it was.

“You’re Arin’s brother, aren’t ya?” I growled, gripping the gun even tighter. A week ago, we found out that Arin had committed mass homicide. (For those of you who don’t know what homicide is, it’s the special word for killing someone, or in other words murder.) We believe that after his crime, he didn’t want to deal with the price, so he killed himself with a bullet to the head. 

The killer didn’t reply.

“Is the whole family just a bunch of killers?” I hissed.

“He wasn’t himself! Okay? Why can’t anyone just accept that?” He snapped. 

He’s just going to pile lie after lie, isn’t he? I couldn’t tell who he was trying to convince with these lies. Me or himself…

I heard the sound of sirens, breaking the stillness of the night. I let out a sigh of relief, help was on the way. The killer, who has been nicknamed Dash for years, backed away even more. His nervous demeanor increased, making it harder to keep him there.

“Look, Dash, if you cooperate, your life will go a lot smoother, than it will if you run.” 

“If I cooperate?” He growled, “Do you know how many bloody times somebody told me if I cooperate bad things won’t happen? And yet they still torture me till I can no longer handle it anymore!” He yanked up one of his sleeves, uncovering tons of scars across his arm. “Last time I cooperated with someone they did this to me! I was stuck living in inhumane conditions that a rat couldn’t even survive in! I nearly died many times there, if my friend hadn’t come to rescue me I’d be dead in another day or two!”

I could no longer tell if he was lying or not. The scars looked legitimate and his story was so bizarre that it couldn’t be a full lie.

Don’t feel bad for him! He just killed a man in front of you!

“And who is this friend of yours?” I asked.

“That is none of your business, officer!” 

“How do I not know that this friend of yours isn’t another killer or a partner in crime?”

“I’m not a killer!” He yelled over the raging storm.

“Stop lying Dash! I saw you kill him!”

“Please, officer, why can't you just understand! I didn’t mean to kill him, he attacked me and I was just defending myself! I'm already traumatized with other things, why in the bloody world would I want to add the guilt of killing someone on top of that? Even if they deserved it.”

“Even if they deserved it? You knew that man?” I asked, shocked.

“You can say we knew each other… His friend killed my friend and kidnapped me for someone of a higher power…”

“Wait what?” 

“Look officer, there is so much more happening than what you realize. What you have been seeing in this city is a battle where the stakes have been raised so much that they no longer care to hide it. Hundreds have died already, all under your noses. You never knew what was happening, and now my friend it's too late.”

I stared at him in silence. Is that what has really been happening? 

“And how do you know this?” I asked.

“I researched my brother's death. Nothing made any sense, and then I was kidnaped and I began to do some guess work. Let me leave and once I figure it out I'll tell you what's happening.” 

“How do I not know that you're just saying that to get away?” I asked.

“If you trust me or not I'm not staying here and you'll never be able to catch me on foot.” He replied, eyeing the roads. My backup was nearby and we both knew that once they came it was game over. He looked at me then before I could do anything, he bolted.

He was incredibly fast and I knew I couldn’t have caught him if my life depended on it.

Moments later police cars surrounded me. One of the doors opened and a girl walked out. She looked over at the bloody body.

“Did they escape?” She asked me. 

“Yeah, he escaped.” 

“Did you get a look at his face?”

Yes, I know who it is… 

I looked at her for a long moment. 

“No it was too dark and he had a hood covering his face.”

Okay Dash, I did my part. Now keep your end of the bargain…