The Witness

How it Ends

So yeah, that's what happens when you witness a murder. How does it all end? Well, life is a work in progress. I won't know how it ends until it ends. But I can tell you what happened after that.

Within the first week of her time in jail, Dakota tried to kill herself. She failed, thankfully. But they moved her to solitary confinement after that. For a long time, she wasn't doing so well in jail. She took a downward spiral and became very depressed and often hurt herself.

It took me a while to go see her. The prison she is in is several hours away from where I live. I didn't go see her for a whole two years. But I did give her my number and sent her letters. She never called or replied.

I went back to college, graduated, and all that. BB and I eventually got back together. After lots of therapy and self-reflection of course. And I do mean lots and lots of therapy. It took me a long while to work through some things. It was two years before BB and I got back together. But she stayed by my side the whole way through and what can I say, we fell in love all over again.

I even introduced her to my family, properly, and they accepted us. I guess dating BB was better than dating a murderer.

Lesly and I are still best friends. The girl watches over me like a hawk. Part of me thinks she blames herself for what happened to me. She's very protective over me and always calls and checks on me every few hours. Though she won't say it, I think she has some PTSD from me being kidnapped.

When I got back with BB is when I deiced to tell my story to the media. Tell them everything that happened to me and how Dakota really treated me back then. Of course, I wasn't about to do all that until I saw Dakota first.

So even though BB protested, I went to see Dakota for the first time in two whole years.

This is how it went.

"Hands to yourself at all times, no touching." The officer said.

I nodded.

They led Dakota inside and let her sit in front of me at this metal table.

They took her out of her cuffs and then stood to watch over us.

She couldn't even look me in the eyes.

"Dakota," I called her name.

She stayed looking down.

Her hair was short like someone had shaved it all off. She was very thin and pale. She had lots of cuts all over her arms.

"Dakota, look at me," I said.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"You never replied to my letters, and never called me," I said.

"Go home Melony."

"No."

She took a deep breath before looking me in the eyes.

I gulped, feeling my heart skip a beat for her.

"What do you want?" she asked.

"I want to talk to you, I want to know how you're doing."

She looked down again.

"Dakota talk to me," I beg.

"How have you been?" she asked.

I sighed.

"Look," I set a photo on the table, they said I could bring it in here and give it to her.

She did.

"That's Cali now, she's so big right?"

She smiled and grabbed the photo, her eyes watering up.