Short stories

My life

"You weren't supposed to see that"
"But i did"
The crack of a skull and the laugh that came after the screaming was the last thing I heard before moving back behind the side of the door way. The killer did not see me. For a moment I was relieved, but then I remembered the life that was taken in place of it not being me who was seen. The sound of that girl
pleading for her life will never leave me to be at peace.

________

My name is Colette and I was born with vocal cord paralysis. It is a rare condition that disables a person's ability to speak. For some people this may seem like the best thing in the world and it was at first, but when I turned 18 it wasn't as fun as you would think anymore. I decided to go on a camping trip with my parents and my two best friends Riley and Denver and it was truly an amazing day. It was only until then did I realized how important it was to speak. I moved to New York after my parents died. Well actually I moved here after my parents were murdered. When I came to New York I applied for a detective position in the FBI and got in. Now I am 20 years old trying to catch the person who could do something so vile to people who were nothing but loving, and generous.

"Colette why are you still here"
I wrote on a piece of paper: I'm waiting for Denver to pick me up.
"Oh I see okay don't hang around here too late you need a break. Good job today on handling the case by the way."
I nod my head in reply with a thumbs up. Nicole has been apart of the FBI program with me for the past 2 years. She is the only one out of the rest of the group who knows why I actually came here. Since I am so young everyone would expect me to go to an "easier" job whatever that means. Due to their mentality I decided not to tell anyone, but Nicole before they judge or try to stop me.
I waited 15 minutes now so I decided to text Denver to see why he is taking so long.
"Hey did you forget about me or what?"
"Huh who are you?"
"Ugh stop kidding around and come pick me up"
"Yea yea whatever princess I will be there in 5 mins"
"Yay!"
He finally arrived but not in 5 minutes so of course for the whole ride I gave him the "silent treatment". "Ugh Col I said I'm sorry. I didn't forget my brain just put it aside for a couple of seconds."
I rolled my eyes and tapped the dashboard, a couple of seconds sure. Denver and I had been very close since high school and to me he was the easiest person to talk to. He didn't mind that I couldn't talk like the others and I knew he was going to be my best friend since the day he learned Morse code and taught it to me so it would be easier for me to communicate to him. I believe he did it so we could pretend we are in some spy fantasy.
"I swear I will make it up to you I promise."
"Anyways, how is the case going?"
"It's going well I finally got a lead that I will check out tomorrow."
"Oh that's good"
I finally got home and I sit at my desk looking over the paper. There is an abandoned house that got weird noise complaints, but nothing found. I decided to check it out on my day off tomorrow hopefully I find something that would lead me to my parents death. The only thing that I have so far is that the killer seems to take out the throat of the people he kills I wonder why.

~Time Skip~

"Colette I need you to breathe and write down everything you saw tonight." Nicole said while handing me a pen and paper. I couldn't use it though my hand was shaking and I could bear to remember what I just saw. Even if I tried to the face of the killer was being blocked. My brain was trying to protect me but why. I couldn't help it I dropped the pen as a bunch of tears fell onto the paper. I could've saved that girl, she didn't have to die. I was too scared though and because of me she died and to make matters even worse the killer got away.
"Colette I'm sorry we have to do this but if you don't want to you can opt out."
I shook my head furiously and wrote down whatever I could remember. That's when Nicole decided to a cognitive interview so we can get more information to help me out. It took a while but i finally got it. I finally know who killed my parents and all those other innocent people. I didn't tell Nicole though. I told her I couldn't do it and that I wanted to go home and that's what I did. I went home and when the cops left I went to the person who killed my parents to find out why.

———————-
It was cold in the house, but it wasn't the same one I found the killer in. It was a little more wrecked and filled with trash. The killer was there though. They stared at me while I wrote out all my questions waiting for an answer. I was angry, but all I could do was cry as I felt my heart being squeezed. I couldn't stand to look them in the eye. When I did they said "I did it for you." Just like that I did it for you, what a disgusting way to justify killing innocent people. Sadly I was no better than the person standing in front of me because I didn't call the cops, instead I just walked away. I quit my job and moved to another country in hopes of getting away from my past self. I started a new life even if the guilt of letting that person free because I couldn't handle handing them in and standing a trial. I knew that if I did that I would have to live with the fact that someone I knew killed innocent people including the people that raised me.