The Town Cop

Confrontation

I reached the hollowed out tree just as the sun was sitting. In the distance I could see Rollie, he hadn't changed much. His hair was shorter, cropped almost as if he had a buzzcut recently. His clothes clung tight to his noticeably bigger body. But other than that he was just as he was all those years ago. I ran to him and his smile grew wide across his unshaven face. He tried to say hello, but I muffled him with a kiss. 

"I miss you too" he said as he pulled his face from mine. 

"Rollie I... I don't know what to say, I'm sorry I didn't go looking for you" 

"It's okay, my parents shipped me off to the military, they made sure no one could find me even if they tried." He slowly started to move his hands down my waist. "I've really missed you, I did a lot to get back to you". The way he said this worried me, it made me think back to Raymond's warning. Could he be right?

"Rollie, I have to ask you something... It's about something Raymond said.." His face turns from mine and grows angry. "Why are you talking to that homophobe, don't you remember what he did to us? He is the reason I was taken away Ren. Whatever he told you is a lie so that he can get rid of me again." His defensiveness scared me, because his voice wasn't fearful, it was vengeful. 

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you Rollie. He just stopped by my house to warn me about you but didn't say why." 

"Oh he probably needed time to think up a good lie." 

Right as Rollie spit out the last word of that sentence I saw out of the corner of my eye, a small black police car pull up. 

"FUCK" Rollie shouts as he pulls a small black pistol from his waist. Oh my god he has a gun. "I won't let him get in the way this time Bren, I promise." The look in his eye was feral, and cruel. He intended to kill his brother. "Rollie please no put the gun down" I reached for it but he pushed me to the ground. 

"Don't get in my way Brennan, he has to pay for separating us." His eyes were locked on the cop car as the door swung open. Raymond began walking up to us with his hands in the air. "I am unarmed Rollie, I just want to talk" he shouts as he inches closer to the hollowed tree where we were standing. The air was growing colder, I wasn't sure if it was just my imagination or if mother nature was reflecting the tension. 

"Bullshit don't come any closer!" Rollie has the gun pointed directly at Raymond's head. 

"PLEASE don't shoot him!" I shout as tears begin to well up in my eyes. I grab Rollie's leg and squeeze as tight as I can. I feel the brunt of the gun whack me in the back of the head. I hear screaming and shouting as my head buzzes from the impact. A blurred vision of Raymond comes closer to me and my ears are further deafened by a gun shot. Blood dances across my vision as Raymond falls in a pile on the street. I try to scream, but my mouth is grabbed by Rollie's trembling hand. He pulls me to his face and slowly my hearing comes back as he's talking to me. 

"I had to, I had to, It... It couldn't be helped, you don't understand, he hurt me, I had to hurt him." He sounds hysterical. Raymond was right, I didn't listen, and Raymond was shot. I grabbed both of Rollie's hands and looked him dead in the eye. "Rollie, I love you, now give me the gun before you hurt me or yourself." His eyes danced around looking behind my head at what I would assume was his brother bleeding out on the ground. "Rollie...please". I felt the gun slip from his palm and into mine. I didn't think, but all in one instant I pulled the gun to his chest and fired until the gun stopped firing. Even after that i kept pulling the trigger, tears pouring down my face as I watch my high school love fall to the ground surrounded in a pool of his own blood. His ashy blond hair was now stained a crimson red. His shirt was a sponge for the gaping holes in his chest. It wouldn't hit me for a few minutes, I killed Rollie. 

I turn to see Raymond with a blood puddle the size of Rollie's pouring out from him. From where I am standing I can see the back of his head, and although it's covered in blood there is no wound. As my eyes trace down his body I see the culprit, a small hole in his back, oozing thick red blood. Raymond wasn't wearing armor, if he knew his brother was so dangerous why wasn't he wearing armor. The tears continued to race down my face as I reached for my cell phone in my pocket. My bloody fingers dialed 911 frantically. I tried my best to describe what happened. But mid way through I lost my composure and fell to the ground sobbing. 

I laid by Raymond on the street, holding my now torn shirt to his wounds. I kept saying "everything is going to be okay". I rocked back and forth holding his body to mine. 

The ambulance showed up and removed me from him. They put me in handcuffs and I screamed "LET ME GO WITH HIM, ITS ALL MY FAULT IM SORRY!!!" as they shoved me into the back of a cop car. Thinking back to it now this was a bad choice of words for me. Because I would spend the next couple of hours being questioned about everything that happened. I kept asking if anyone knew if Raymond was okay, but no one would tell me.   

Rollie shot Raymond, and I killed Rollie. I killed someone, no not just someone, my number one. Would I have done it if I hadn't had the connection with Raymond? And what caused Rollie to go psycho? I needed answers, and I could only get them from Raymond. 

Please live