Victim

The beep of the scanning till wakes me from my daydream. After scanning the last item: a pot noodle, the woman says “£10.50” in a halfhearted voice before turning her attention back to her vibrating phone and slowly blowing a large bubble with her bubble gum. I thank her and grab my shopping which is almost falling out of the crappy plastic bag. After managing to grab the bag with one hand I hand her the money made up of pound coins and pennies. she gives me a almost disgusted look. I sigh and explain “I’m a little short on cash at the minute” I thank her again and turn around. As I leave the shop entrance I try to find my receipt “Damnit i can’t have lost it again” as I remember what my grandmother used to always say about how it was bad luck to lose your receipt and was as bad as walking underneath a ladder, she always said a lot of silly Pointless stuff like that when I was a kid. As I fumble around in my pockets sighing and swearing under my breath, I bump into a tall skinny man, dropping my shopping everywhere. The man snarls at me in an animalistic way, slowly gets up and walks away. Maintaining eye contact with me until he leaves my sight. I sigh again and look at the mess surrounding me. As I’m collecting my shopping I'm suddenly dragged up by two burly men in suits quickly approached me and pulled me up kicking my shopping even further away then it already was. the larger man said in a deep, thick, Scouse accent “Come with us” whilst the other handcuffs me and adds “you know what you did” in an ominous tone as I’m lead away in the other direction I fully realise whats happening and shout “hey what do you think your doing” I try to struggle but quickly realise that it’s pointless as they are twice my size and at least ten times stronger then me. The men frequently exchange quick, concerned looks with each other until we reach a shiny black car. I’m shoved into the backseat before I can identify what type it is but I can tell it’s expensive. The seats are leather and it reeks of cigarettes, fast food and aftershave. there are subway wrappers littering the floor beneath me and creak as I step on them. The men get into the front, the smaller one turns around from the passenger seat and nods at me but I can’t tell what he means as large sunglasses hide his eyes and his face remains expressionless. His action makes the other man laugh very loudly and say “like bloody superman” we drive in silence for almost two hours. I watch as the digital clock on the dashboard slowly winds up. The windows are tinted which means it quickly gets very hot. I try to twist my hands around to get my jacket off of me but it just makes my wrists hurt even more so I give up and try to move into the shade. The heat only makes the rancid smell more unbearable. I occasionally ask them questions: “Who are you?”, “where are you taking me?”, “ what have I done wrong ?” But I don’t get any answers only blank stares. When the excruciatingly slow clock reaches 16:03 we stop in front of a very old house. The roof is sagging in at the middle and all of the bleak, stained windows are broken or smashed in. I’m taken out of the car and lead into the house. The front garden is large but dried up and barren of all life. I look to the garage and realise six cars are parked outside but I’m pressed forwards towards the rotting door. The second we enter the house I’m met with a even larger man who looks me up and down with a confused look on his face. The older man says “easy“ to him and pats him on the shoulder before suddenly taking the handcuffs off me. the smaller man walks In front of me, takes his sunglasses off and reveals his police badge, he then says “sorry about that mate but he was hot on your trail, you were gonna be his next victim” I rub my sore wrists and reply with “what?!” it’s more of a statement then a question. I start to get restless ”I demand to be taken home right now!” I yell. The house seems to sink down even more with a loud groan as I said this, almost like it’s sighing at my tone of voice. As I try to understand what he meant. The larger man stands next to him and says “the guy following you, the weird looking fella, we believe he is responsible for the death of twenty four innocent people” I gasp as I try to comprehend what he was saying. After what seems like an eternity I reply with “I-I was standing near a-a murderer” I remember back to earlier today when the skinny man who snarled at me walked behind me. ”I bumped into him-by accident of course!- but I was-I was face to face with him” the smaller man nods ”yeah most likely why he was following ya, psychopaths don’t need much to get angry” the other man then walkes up to me and says “I think it’s best if you stay in a protected environment from now on until we catch the bugger.” I nod slowly and start to shake as I think about what could’ve happened. The smaller man parts me on the back and says ”it’ll be right mate, don’t worry about it” the other man laughs the same loud laugh he did in the car ”yeah dont worry we‘ll catch the son of a bitch“ I’m lead further into the house and see a large board containing scribbles and pictures of intimidating men with arrows pointing between them. the men pat me on the shoulder again and say “right, now which one of these men did you bump into”