Innocent Witness

 It is the coldest night in October. The moonlight glazing on the ocean and the waves' sound echoed as they crashed into the rocks along the coastline. Some people find this sound calming, but I find the sound irritating as it is a continuous cycle of noise. I walked the shoreline with more disgusted as the sand deepen in between my toes. I felt the feeling of the cold water with each step. It was a quiet but eerie night as I walked alone on the beach. I looked up at the sky to see if I could see the stars, but the fog's thickness covered anything in sight. As I kept walking the shore, a rush of wind blew through my hair. I heard a voice in the far distance. The voice sounded of a woman in danger. I followed the sound to see what was going on.

  The closer I got, the more familiar the voice sounded. Mom? I thought to myself. The feeling in my stomach turned uneasy. Something is not right as I noticed the two sets of footprints in the sand leading to her voice. I called out for her with fear in my voice. I then catch the eye of two dark figures not too far from me. My walk then turned into a run. When I got closer to them, I noticed my mom was lying with her dark black hair tangled in the sand. The bit of moonlight shined on her, and I could see the tears rushing down her pale face. Drained of all the color, lips purple, and eyes bruised. I watched as she looked up at me and mouthed the words "I love you." I felt frozen at this moment as I looked at the man standing over her. I could not see his face, but his presence seemed familiar. He held a gun over her, and then the moment went into slow motion as his fingers went to pull the trigger. At this point, the bullet left the gun. I fell to my knees, crying uncontrollably. The last bit of strength I had was to scream "No." everything was still in slow motion as the bullet enter her chest. She was looking at me with the last few seconds she had, and then just like that, and she was gone.

 In this second, I felt I was out of my body, watching this from another perspective. I could not move or even speak because why? Why would this happen to her? What did she do to deserve this? Why could it have been me instead of her? All these uncontrollable thoughts rushed in. I looked up to the man standing above her dead body as he just looked at her with no emotion. He slowly turned his head towards me, and there was that familiar feeling I had felt. Dad? He put his finger to his mouth and whispered, "Shhh." I closed my eyes in disbelief as the gut-wrenching tears tore through my chest. By the time I looked back up, he was gone. I could not even see his footprints in the sand. He just disappeared into the darkness of the night. How could he do this? I remember the nights when I was younger, and I would hear screaming from downstairs, and the next morning she would be late taking me to school as she would spend an extra hour covering up her bruises. He was abusive, but I never thought of him being a killer. I grabbed my phone out of my bag and call for help because hopefully, someone can help her and find my dad before he gets away. 

"One Thomas Twelve, Dispatch," I heard over the radio. I quickly responded, "Go ahead." I waited a moment for an answer, and then the dispatcher replied, "Women down, Beach access 12. Caller reports her mother was shot and is not breathing. EMS is in route." I answered with "In route" Since I am not at all far from the scene. I turned on the sirens and headed that way. As I pulled up to the beach access, I sat there in the car for a second to take a moment to relax since I never know what I am going to see. I looked back and saw the EMS truck pulled up behind me. I got out of my car and sauntered out to the scene. The beach was dark, so I called out into the distance, "Ma'am, are you okay? It is officer Thomas," I could hear crying out but no response. I turned on my flashlight as I came closer to the women. "Ma'am, are you okay?" I called out again.

"Yes, I'm okay, but my mother isn't- He killed her." She responded with her voice shaky, so I asked her to move away from the body so I can look and let the EMT help her. The woman had her back turned away from me, but I did not notice any blood around the area. As the women slowly moved out of the way, I flashed my light in the direction, but I felt concerned as I could not see anyone there. "Ma'am, where is your mom?" I spoke out with confusion. "She is right there; he shot her and left- ". I was still unsure, but then my first thought was she could have schizophrenia, and I needed to be careful with approaching this. "Hold EMT, and I need back up," I whispered into the radio. As I got closer, I asked the women to stand up and move away from the body so we could help her. I have never been in a new situation before, so I needed to take every moment into deep thought before I act. She got up and wiped the runny tears off her face. She was wearing a long white hospital-like dress so, I then in that second knew she was from a mental hospital and needed help. While we headed to the car, she kept looking back and saying how sorry she was. 

I calmed her down so I could as her some questions. "What's your name?" I asked as we sat in my car on the way to the police station to figure out what hospital she is omitted too. She quietly answered, "April." She then began to talk to herself under her breath. "I tried to save her, but it was too late." We finally approached the station, and we entered together. The station was quiet; not many people were in since most are on call or at home asleep. I asked April to take a seat while I sat at my desk to look into this situation. "Hey, April, I need to know your last night?" She seemed so tired as she looked up to me. Her lips were dry, and she looked like she hasn't slept in a few days. She slowly opened her mouth and said, " Bennett." I thanked her and counited to search. 

There it was, all the answers; she was twelve when her father shot her mother in their own home. In the report, it states that April was there and did see what happened to her mother. April's father got away and was on the run for a while until later found. April was omitted to the hospital when she was eight-teen as she was diagnosed with schizophrenia.