Akasha

Gone

Splash, splash, splash;
Was all you heard along with your heavy breathing as you ran home. Your footsteps consumed by the sound of water splashing as you ran in the rain,

"Home, home, gotta ge-get home. Mom." You repeated quietly to yourself, running through the cold rain unfazed. You were at work when your neighbor ran through the bakery doors, red and short of breath, when he told you what had happened. Your mother, your sweet and beautiful mother, had been murdered in cold blood.

As you neared your familiar home, the group of police cars standing in the road came nearer. You jumped over the police tape, not caring as officers yelled at you to stop. How could you stop? Your mother was in there, dead, bloody, cold. You thought about if you had even kissed her goodbye this morning before you rushed to work, did you even thank her for the breakfast she made you?

As you ran through the open front door you stopped at the end of the hallway, afraid to turn the corner purely out of fear and worry. If you turned that corner, everything that your neighbor had told you, every scene that played out in your head as you ran home to your mother, would become reality. You stood at the end of the hallway, frozen, your tears running freely from your eyes before descending and splashing onto the floor.

"I can't, I can't." You whispered to yourself, stuck in the same position unable to move. You felt that if you turned that corner your world would fall apart, the beautiful memories that you had with your mother would wither away when you saw her, replaced with pain and anger. You can't. You can't turn that corner because right now you would rather lose your sight and have your eyes ripped out than turn that corner and have that gruesome scene imprinted in your mind forever.

"Hey kid, you can't be here this is a crime scene." A strong voice rips you away from your thoughts as you turn around. A woman with beautiful gray hair and two scars above her right cheek stares you down from the other end of the hallway. A hand on her hip but confidence in her stature as she stares at you with glowing green orbs. There's a fire within them that contrasts with her serious and stoic face. Your orbs are fixated on her now narrowed eyes as she walks towards you, unable to speak you stay silent. She stops in front of you, tall and intimidating,

"Can you hear me? I said you can't be here." She speaks with slight irritation, she has a commanding raspiness in her voice that sent you chills. You open your mouth to speak, but instead of words only small whimpers come out.

"Can you speak or not kid?" She questions. You attempt once more at communication but nothing happens, not even a whimper. She groans and pinches the bridge of her nose in frustration,
"Look kid, I'm not gonna ask yo-"
"My house." You state finally, cutting her off.
"What?"
"This is my house, my mom is over there." You look down as the woman's lips slightly part and her eyes widen. A tear slips down your cheek and you let out a sniffle, wiping your face with your sleeve.

The silver-haired policewoman's lips press together as she blinks slowly, her eyes softening. She looks to the side and sighs deeply,

"I don't get paid enough for this," she huffs, "but listen up kid. I can't sugarcoat it, your mother is gone. I know your scared and alone right now so how about you come back to the station with me and we'll figure out what to do?" She crosses her arms against her chest and raises her eyebrow questioningly, waiting for your reply. But you can't, your frozen at her words.

"Gone. She's gone, she's never coming back," you repeat to yourself. As if the weight of the world came crashing down on your shoulders, you collapse in front of her. Tears flowing freely from your eyes, your loud sobs echo throughout the hallway, attracting attention. The policewoman shouts at her colleagues to go back to work as she watches you fall apart.

You're still there, in that same hallway. The hallway that you used to run down when you had just gotten home from school to greet your mom. The hallway where your mom used to chase you down to take a bath as a child. The hallway where a police officer had informed you that your father had finally been captured and sent to prison. And now? Now that hallway is the one where you found out that the only being in this entire world that loved you more than she has ever loved anyone, the only being that would ever give her heart to save you, is gone. She's gone and she's never going to come back.

The policewoman lifts you gently up by your shoulders and escorts you outside to a police vehicle, where she instructs one of her colleagues to take you down to the station. The rain falls without mercy as you ride in silence inside of that small metal box.

Now what will happen to you?