From Hate Flourishes Love

Stay With Me

🅩🅐🅝🅓🅔🅡

Red and blue lights wash the lawn in alternating flashes, casting long, jittery shadows against brick walls and trampled flower beds. Uniformed officers march about the bedroom, dusting the door handles, furniture, and windows.

"How could they do this?" my mom cries noisily. "They took my baby."

She almost trips over the forensics team trying to lift a footprint from the carpet.

"What kind of a man are you?" She berates me in front of the entire police force. "How could you just let them take my son?"

She hits me a dozen times over, but I don't flinch at her bowls or insults.

"I'm going to find him," I promise her, tears streaming down my face. "I'll find Kai. I promise you. I'll find my Kai."

A man in a long bomber jacket ducks under the yellow police tape.

"Where's the victim's family?" the rugged-looking man asks.

Victim. The word deals me a hard bowl in the gut. The victim. Like he's just another faceless person in their endless files, another case to close and forget. But he isn't some other victim. He's my partner. He's Kai. My Kai. He laughs at my bad jokes. He never allows me to be unhappy for a second.

"Kai," I speak up. "His name is Kai."

I won't let them reduce Kai to a statistic.

"Yes, Kai, I apologize," the detective changes his tune.

I don't understand any of this.

How could I be this useless of a man? Of a husband? I couldn't protect him. I promised him. I promised Kai that couldn't let anything happen to him. How could I let them take Kai from me? Right out my arms.

I keep replaying the last time I saw him. "We're okay," that's what he said. He believed it because I promised he was. How could I fail at such a simple promise? Kai had the worst luck to end up with a husband like me. He deserves so much better than me.

I hide the tears. I can't break down.

"Mr. Storm," the detective calls for my attention. "Tell me, what do you remember from last night?"

"I remember," I think back,"I remember having my husband in my arms. Saying goodbye to him. And, I can't seem to remember anything after that."

"You should let the EMTs outside take a look at you," Detective Singh advises. "Our forensic team suspects that the kidnappers released some type of anesthetic gas into your bedroom. It explains why you didn't wake from your sleep when your husband was being taken."

"Who could have done something like that?" My mom starts crying again.

"We suspect the same person that's responsible for his accident in New York," the detective tells her. "And the threats being made against your family."

"What happens now?" I choke with fear. "How do I get my husband back?"

"The kidnappers will likely make contact in 24 to 48 hours," the detective answers. "Our department will hand over the case to the FBI since parts of the investigation are outside our jurisdiction."