Hey, Jude

How.

Jude woke up with a feeling of anxiousness. It took her a couple of seconds to realize, but she had to go to court today. Her brother, only seven years old, was killed by a police officer. She had been waiting for this trial for a few months now, but she had been dreading it. I need this day to happen, but I cannot bear to see the man that killed my brother. Because, what kind of person would kill a seven year old? That's the main thing that Jude wants out of this trial. Because one night her brother was there and should have stayed there.

✧

Jude and her brother sit on the couch, laughing at the TV in front of them.

" Hey, Gus, can you go grab us some food? I'm starving," Jude asked her little brother. He nodded in response, and as he walked to the kitchen, Jude heard a knock on the door. She looked at the clock, and it read 9:15. Who would be coming to our house this late on a Thursday? Even with her questioning, she got up and made her way to the door. Opening the door, she was surprised to see a cop standing at the front door.

"Um, hi," Jude says with hesitation. "Can I help you?"

"Yes, I'm looking for Richard Davis." the cop says sternly. Richard is Jude's moms boyfriend. He sleeps in their house and eats their food, but doesn't help pay rent. In fact, he doesn't have a job. I don't know what my mom sees in that guy. Jude thinks every time she sees him. He always looks dirty, and he always smells like a home for the elderly. He also says that he struggles from racism and oppression, even though he white, just because he's dating my mom.

"Yeah, I'll go get him." She turns around and heads for the basement, where she knows that he will be, asleep on the couch, probably watching CNN and covered in cheeto dust and the smell of scotch. He's always drunk, even when he has to go somewhere important, although that's very rare. This guy needs to get a job before he hits 400 pounds. Or a gym membership. He looks like a hippo with boobs. She pokes the sleeping giant, and he chokes on absolutely nothing, and slowly opens his eyes. He looks up at Jude, and rolls his eyes.

"The cops are for you dude. Probably to take you in for all of the little girls you stare at all the time." She wasn't joking. He had served five years for trying to have sex with a fifteen year old when he was 40, and is now a registered sex offender. It wouldn't surprise Jude if he had done it again. Richard groans, and slowly gets up, but not without wobbling all over the place, clearly still drunk. It should be expected by now. Richard follows Jude up to the stairs, and the second that the cops see him, they come in and start yelling at him to get on the ground, guns drawn.

"Guys, relax, what's going on? Stop yelling, I have a headache," Richard calmly says to the cops, who still have their guns pointed on him. He moves over by the kitchen, and Jude right away runs to get her brother, but the cops stop her.

"Hey, don't move! And stay quiet!" The cops yell at her.

"Get on the ground, now!" The officer continues to yell at him, getting closer. This causes Richard to get visibly annoyed. Jude starts to get worried, because she knows that Richard always has a gun on him. He reaches his hand behind his back, causing the cops to yell again. "Put your hands where I can see them! Now!" Richard of course doesn't listen, and grabs his gun, and the second that the police officer sees it, he pulls the trigger, and the loudest noise that Jude has ever heard causes her ears to ring, and she lets out a blood curdling scream.

She looks down at Richard and he is bleeding on the side the side of his chest. He falls back, but when he hits the ground, everyone in the room hears a groan coming from someone else.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no," Jude says over again, which eventually turns into screams. Gus lay on the floor, no longer breathing, blood pouring out of his chest. "You killed him! You killed him!" She runs over to his body, looks and him and without even thinking goes into the kitchen and grabs as many towels she can. She runs back over to her brother's still body, tears streaming down her face, and tries to put as many towels she can over the bullet hole, trying to stop the bleeding. Jude's heart rate is going so fast that she can't slow down.

"Why are you just standing there? Help him, please! Someone call help, he's bleeding! No, he has to live, he has to live, he's my brother." Jude yells as loud as possible. She starts sobbing even harder, and the tears are in such a steady stream that they could be compared to a waterfall. "They killed my brother," she squeaks out in between cries. Jude then hugs her brothers lifeless, pale body. She rocks back and forth, continuing to hold the body that was once her brother.  

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Hey y'all. I know, that was depressing. I tried not to make it too detailed, because  I know that some of you could have gone through something as horrific as this.

I hope that this book is gonna shed some light on what is a major issue, especially in my area.  I don't live that far from Detroit, and it is an extremely violent city. Even in my city there are shootings, and they aren't as uncommon as I would want to be. It seems like every time I turn on the news another person has been shot, or killed. Please keep in mind that this book is fiction.

Stay safe.

- Emma