The Road to Darkness

Case 5: From Past to Present

The day went by slow, I just thought about how happy the kids were and how much they had fun playing with their new ball and eating ice cream. When work ended I kept my promise and took them out for another treat.

"Did you see the game last night, Mr. Ushio?!" Michael asked.

"Yeah! We were dominating the Rockfeld Racoons last night! Intercepts! Sacks! They did it all!" Jordan shouted, super excited.

"I heard the Brendon Dogs lost? They got really full of themselves" Molly added.

"We have such an embarrassing team sometimes. I'm sure you two would fit right in" Hannah teased.

"That's for sure," Marco agreed.

"Guys!" both brothers took the bait.

Everyone started laughing. It didn't hit me until a few seconds later, but even I was chuckling a bit.

"Mr. Ushio will you go see us when we're in high school ?" Jordan asked.

"Yeah, you can come see me cheerleading!" Hannah commented.

"I want to be the manager, I don't really like sports but with y'all it'll be fun" Molly pointed out.

"What about me?" Marco asked.

"Waterboy of course" Michel stated as everyone laughed.

Marco began blushing, hiding his face.

"Hey Marco, think about it this way, without you there's no way the team could even win" I twisted the situation.

"Really?"

"Yeah, without you they would all die of dehydration" I smiled.

As soon as I heard my words I looked to everyone to see my joke was a little too morbid for kids their age. I kept taking them out for ice cream for about a week getting to know them better and better. Berry hadn't talked to me again but Nakamura noticed I was a bit happier than usual.

"So you're a pedophile now?" Nakamura randomly asked, walking up to me when I was walking to the park to see the kids.

"So you knew? For how long?" I asked.

"I saw you two days with them and you were actually smiling and not that bullshit smile you give me, an actual smile of real happiness!"

"I get it! I'm not Mr. Smiley but those kids really make me feel good, I don't really know how to explain it."

"It's called being a pedophile" Nakamura teased. I gave him a stern look.

"Look, man, if they make you happy then keep seeing them, as long as you can smile with them that's more than enough reason to stay around."

"Well, I better be going, the kids wanted to show me something today" I dodged responding, walking off.

I could feel Nakamura was giving me an uncomfortable smile as I walked off and it made me want to get away from him even faster than usual. I got to the park but the kids weren't there. I walked further in, looking around and found the ball in the corner.

"They wouldn't leave their ball would they?" I thought to myself finding this whole situation very fishy. "They are children, after all, they must have forgotten it".

After looking around I decided to just head home and go to bed. That night I had a dream. It was an event that happened back on the first day of my second year with the police department. Back then Barry just started taking off on his journey to the top and I had a different partner. It was us three looking at the ocean from a mountaintop with smiles on our faces until Berry began grabbing his chest and falling to the ground.

"Berry!" I yelled, running up to him.

I got on my knees to help but that's when my vision got hazy and I felt like I was hit on the head. I fell to the ground next to Barry and looked up at my partner who was just standing there. I reached out to him but before I couldn't grab him he leaned over the edge and fell like a doll.

As soon as he fell, I felt the haziness and pain go away and got up, looking over the edge. I saw nothing. I heard laughing and all these people saying, "your fault, your fault" and then they began shouting insults at me. I found myself back at the office with cops surrounding me, holding all these people back and them telling me to run. I ran as fast as I could to the back door to see a man with a gun pointed at me. He said one word and then a bang went off.

I woke up sweating like a pig in my bed. I looked at the clock and saw it was only 5:32 AM. I laid there for a minute before I saw I had a voicemail. I checked my phone and saw it was from an unknown number. I opened it and when I heard the voice my heart sank.

"Hello, Yato, you've been doing good for yourself ever since I left and well I've been doing just as well" the voice crept into my eardrum as I heard some muffled voices in the back.

"You must excuse all the racket, you know how kids can be" he fakely sighed.

My eyes widened and my heart began pounding so loud I feared the neighbors could hear it.

"I really do miss you but don't worry... I'll see you again soon enough..." he whispered as the muffled voices got louder and the voicemail cut.

I laid there in my bed with the same dumb expression as my brain processed what happened and what I should do. I quickly got up, changed and dashed to the station. It was around 5:50 when I got there and the chief was just setting everything up.

"Yato? I know you're eager to work but this is-!"

"We have a problem!"

I explained to him what happened and he called in Berry. As he and I waited in his office, the door opened and we expected Berry, but it was Nakamura.

"What are you guys doing here so early?" Nakamura asked.

"We could ask you the same thing!" the chief yelled.

"Well I wanted to fix some files and be ready when Yato got here, he's always in such a hurry."

"I see," the chief approved, clearing his throat.

"What's wrong, is something the matter? Even for you Yato, it's too early to be here" Nakamura wondered.

The chief and I looked each other in the eyes and I nodded to him. With a raspy voice, the chief told Nakamura to sit down.

"Let me tell you a story...about Yato's original partner."