The face

loss

Loss is something we all go through; we never expect it to happen so soon. At this job, you must be prepared for things like this. People die every day; we catch the bad guys and some we kill. What are you supposed to do? I have always had faith, but I question it. Why do people harm others? I never understood. How does God watch people's lives fall apart? I was soon to learn it was to teach others. It was a rainy day on March 29, 2019 and physical draining. It was my only day off in a while and when it cleared up outside, I decided to go on a walk. My feet took me all around the small little town I lived in, Tintill, had enough room to hold 20 people at most after you get past all the stores. I walked past No frills, the town coffee shop, and the TownCenter that had held a couple good stores. I went to the coffee shop and bought a small coffee, helped the employees bring some bring boxes in, talked to Steve, the owner of" Steves Coffee shop" then sat down, picked up the paper and read. That's all I did for hours. It started to get gloomy again, I thought the morning storm had passed, but apparently not. As soon as I saw little drops of spit from the clouds, I headed on my way home, not expecting the sight I saw, the look of unknown helplessness, which almost gave the clouds a brighter expression. I could not ignore that face. I went up to her and asked for her name. Five minutes passed by, and still no answer, in that five minutes all she did was shake uncontrollably. I asked, "Can I do anything to help?", no answer. I decided the only thing I could do is call my friend at the agency and see if he could do anything to help, if not I will just call the police office. My friend answered and ten minutes later he came with the psychologist that works at my agency. We all got in the car to bring her to the office area where we interview victims and or their families. She was quiet for almost a week, mute. I was worried there would be no way to save her from whatever was taking her independence away.

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I woke up to a phone call at five o'clock in the morning. "She is talking come down to the office right know." I ran towards the door, threw on a t-shirt and a pair of khakis.  I speeded towards my work, with high hopes that she is talking, so we can help her, help her get over whatever is burdening her. I get there and open the door from a far all I heard was mumbling, but I as I am approaching I could hear the cries for help, "Help my family please, he has them, please!" It was terrifying. "Who is the man?" we asked. "I don't know he wears a mask, never shows his face." We all look at each other not sure what to do. "Please! Help them before he kills them!" she cries even more, we ask for her name, but she can't answer without sobbing more. I felt this uselessness in my heart, I was so hurt for her. The Agents all went into a room without her and talked about the things we could do to catch this guy with the little information we had to go on. 

Two weeks had gone by and we found no one. I took Blake on a ride, Blake is her name, finally caught her breathe enough to tell us. I took her around our small town to see if she would remember anything. We drove for an hour, I started to lose hope. A couple hours later still nothing, for a small town there was so many places to go by. I stopped at the coffee shop, Blake stayed in the car. I walked up to the door and went to pull it open, only to realize it was locked. I thought it was odd as it was the middle of the day but, wasn't overly concerned. I started to walk away and suddenly remembered Steve had given me a spare key because he knew how much I loved his coffee. I started back to door and let myself in. I went to the back and put a pot on to brew. As I'm waiting for it to finish I hear a muffled sound coming from downstairs. I knew I shouldn't go down and snoop, it was against the law, but I kept on walking, to my surprise it was the cry of a child. So many thoughts came to my head, too many to really realize. I knew I shouldn't have gone any farther, but I did. Curiosity killed the cat. It was the law telling me to leave, but that wasn't enough for me, because finally I connected the dots. The store was closed. Steve wasn't here, I knew that thanks to the parking lot.  Did I press the lock button on my keys? I did. A feeling of relief went through my bones. Blake is safe. As for the kid... I am not sure.  I felt like i was breaking in but, I could not tolerate the amount of suffering I was hearing. I continued down the stairs, until I reach a door. I open it as the crying gets louder. I hear someone saying, "Shhh it's going to be okay." But besides that, it's very quiet. It was a woman about 20 years of age, holding a toddler. In the corner of my eye I see a man he appears to be dead, but you can see him faintly breathing. The first thing I do is pull out my phone and call my boss, I tell him to come to the Steves coffee shop with back up immediately! He said he would text me from outside when they arrive. "Everything will be okay." I assured the woman, kid, and man who I'm still not sure is alive. I am pretty sure he was close to death. I calmed down the kid, and assured the woman, then I headed over to the man in the corner. I saw a gunshot wound on his leg that looked serious. I got up from bending down and was about to look for something to cover it, but as I turned around I saw Steve, pointing a gun to my head. "You shouldn't have come down here." he said. "Now I am going to have to do something I didn't want to do." 

"Wait!" I yelled. "why are you doing this?"

He looked at me, with no expression, stone cold eyes, like he had no soul. "Because, they betrayed me, tried stealing everything from me, after stealing my wife." he paused. "They deserve what is coming to them. Stop pretending like you're a super hero and can save the day, the only thing you are doing is making things worse for yourself." 

I shook my head, I am going to die, I thought, what will happen to all these people when he is done with me? I looked up after feeling my phone vibrate, I was filled with relief.

"What made you think you could help them?" he asked.

I was silent. I looked when I saw a shadow pass. Then I saw Blake behind Steve holding a knife.

Steve lift up his gun and had his finger on the trigger, "It Is your time, I really didn't want to do this to you."

When he was about to pull the trigger, Blake came up from behind him.

Once, twice, then three times, and like that he dropped his gun, and fell to the ground.

The team came in just seconds after Blake killed the man who held her Sister, Brother and father hostage. The paramedics came in and went directly to the father and what was left of Steve.  I could not believe everything that happened in a just a couple weeks. God lets people fall apart, and go down dark roads, to show you how to treat others, how to help other when in need. Blake needed help, then she asked for it, I knew it was again it's the law to go into someone else's home, but who knows what would have happened if I didn't have a part in me that needed to help those in pain. I am so glad to know how to love one another it has been a couple months but the people I helped are in my life today, and we have become good friends with one another.