The skies never looked more dimmer as if it was the times that he spent living was the saddest days of his life. Everyday living, in such failure. Rey wondered if he could ever get the chance to save himself. "Was it worth it?" He asked himself with the promise of hope yet clouded with darkness. He did everything he could but still it wasn't enough. Devotion and inspiration kept him breathing. But for how long? One simple change of perspective, that's all it took to change that. To lose hope, to lose his sanity and to lose everything that he worked so dearly for. For a man to truly achieve his goals, he must first serve himself. As the winds whisper in his ear, he began to think deeper to whatever the reason was it that made him fail. He was suppose to get it right. Success. That was it, and nothing more. No mistakes, no adjustment, no interventions, no nothing. "What was it?" He told himself this. He searched for positives but all he could think was his mistakes. He looked at his hands. They shook with fear, covered in blood. There was nothing more that he could do but run. "Keep running, leave everything, family, promises and all of that." These were his thoughts at the scene where he killed the man.
The man was stabbed with a knife that cut through his ribs. With blood surging, it gushed for almost two minutes with large amounts of going out of his body. The man only had a couple blinks left before he could die. He looked at Rey, and asked him what was the reason for him to do such a thing, Rey replied. "Simple, you killed my daughter." It was never his choice to take this man's life. But Rey, he believed in equality. An eye for an eye, a heart for a heart and a soul for a soul. This was his philosophy, since he taught Philosophy for twenty-two years of his life he searched high and low for his life philosophy. One night it struck him. His daughter, named Sarah, came up to him. With such curiosity at the age of eight, she asked, "Daddy, is it wrong to have revenge on someone?" He answered, "Yes sweetheart, why?" The two conversed but Rey maintained his simplicity because the girl wasn't mature yet to handle such strong words and the truth. It seemed that his daughter had some trouble with her classmates bullying her and made a choice to get back at them for treating her wrongly. But her father noted otherwise.
A couple nights after their discussion, they went to the local convenience store to buy a couple of chips and sodas. For a lone father, Rey wasn't that good in terms of nutrition and caring for her daughter correctly. But one thing was sure though, he loved his daughter more than his own life. He bought his favorite chips which were Doritos and a couple of caffeine drinks. A Pepsi-cola for his sweet princess and a pack of gummy bears. It was already nine in the evening and yet the place around the store was quiet like a ghost town. God knows why. The cold winds of winter was the only thing that could break down the silence that took the store in its grasp. "How much?", Rey asked. "That'll be twenty four dollars." was the man's reply. The silence even grew worse. As they bid goodnight to the the sales clerk of the store they suddenly heard gunshots. Shocked with terror by the recoil blast vibration of the gun, Rey and her daughter Sarah immediately crouched for safety. As their thoughts slowly recovered they began to notice a man that barged in inside the store. Asking for all the money in the safe from the clerk and ordering Rey to stay crouched on the floor with his daughter. "Where's the money?!" He shouted. But with each question the clerk decided to uphold his oath to never betray the company. It was this struggle that made this robbery turn into a hostage situation. The man looked at Rey's daughter, Sarah. With intent of making her his hostage he quickly pulled her fragile eight year old hands to his side. Threatening Rey that if he moves even just a ruler apart from his position he would shoot his daughter. It was a time of weakness. It was a time of critical thinking.
You can hear the cries of a young girl being kept hostage by a man who was engulfed with large amounts of greed. Minutes gone by with silence. "Damn it! What should I do?!" Rey thought to himself. What was the choice he would grab if it was to come? It could only mean three things. First, he kills the man who keeps his daughter as hostage in front of him. But with what? Snacks? Gum? Candy? "Punches would never do, he's got a gun." Second, he tries to ask the man to let them go. "Would that be possible? I don't think that he'll give us up that easily." Or third, he fails to do both options and gets himself and his daughter killed. It was going to be either two, the third one wasn't going to be an option. No, he was going to make sure it would never be the third. "Think! Damn you Rey! Think! He's got a gun, now what? You can't just go out straight for him, he'll shoot you!" He needed a distraction. Also a weapon, but what? He was losing time, he was losing hope and he was losing the chance to get out of there with his daughter at his side. Safe and sound. "Please, God. No. Let her get out, let me be the one to be shot at or be kept hostage. She doesn't deserve this." His thoughts were crawling out of his head, transforming into tears. The man looked at him, blinded by his actions he began to ask what was the reason he was crying. Rey told him that he loves his daughter more than anything. The man stopped for a second. Driven mad, he directed the gun on Rey's daughter. Rey begged him not to shoot. He was already drowning in tears at this point, it was like his world, his heart and his soul was going to be crushed and pierced without his daughter by his side. The man was laughing maniacally, shouting words in Spanish. Then he spoke in English, "If my daughter was taken away by God without any reason, my joy and my life ruined and I had nothing to do but to watch her die in the palm of my hands... Why should you be the one to deserve happiness?!" The child begged him for mercy. Then without a moment's notice, there was a recoil.
"No!" Rey shouted with grief. The daughter he cared for so much was shot in front of his eyes. Clouded with a barrage of emotions he could hardly portray the image of his young girl. Sarah, lied unconsciously on the floor. With blood going out her forehead. The scene of the death was never the kind of picture you would have. The man asked the clerk where the safe was and demanded again all the money that the store has gained. Given the time of the shot to Sarah's head the clerk managed to get a utility knife to his head, planning to slash out the man's neck in revenge to the little girl who was plainly murdered in front of his eyes. He stepped out of the cash register to point out the location of the safe to the man. He walked at Rey's place trying to give him a kind of intuition that he should hold the man's legs down for him to get a clear way to slit the man's throat. As soon as Rey got the signal he immediately went for the man's legs, and the clerk was given a clear view. The man struggled with his knees and yet another gun shot was fired. A quiet silence took the store for five seconds. There was blood gushing out of his ribs. He moaned in pain. The clerk dropped the utility knife he got to the floor next to Rey. As the man and Rey watch the clerk fall the floor, Rey began to act fast. This was his chance. His chance to kill this man for murdering his daughter. He grabbed the utility knife from the floor and stabbed the man in his ribs. Having the gun in his hands he tried to shoot Rey in the head but he ran out of bullets. As the knife was still in the man's ribs, Rey out of anger twisted the knife to a hundred and eighty degrees. Causing pain to the man who caused him great sadness.
His daughter was the only thing that kept him sane. From everything in the world. She was his reason to be alive. She gave him new meaning. A child to protect. A child to raise. It was their bond. A bond between a father and a daughter, that can never be copied and replaced. But now, it seems he lost it all in just one bullet. The man he stabbed was losing blood in large amounts. Slowly killing him. The man grabbed pieces of paper that contained his information from his pocket and gave it to Rey. The man's name was Robert A. Williams, a psychologist and a philosopher. His daughter was named Denise. As Rey looked and read more he found a folded paper inside the pieces of paper. It stated that Denise had heart failure when she was only six years old. The bill to her hospital care was fifty thousand dollars. The lost of his child made Robert deranged, at some point he didn't even took in the fact that his daughter passed away months ago. The tragic lost took a great depth at his thoughts. Corrupting him. Rey slowly began to understand why he wanted money, Robert never wanted crime, he only wanted to save his child. His passion for his daughter took great instances that he, a professional psychologist and philosopher would go down to a lower level of intelligence and steal money instead of earning it. It was this passion that took him, to a reality of lies and deception. Rey walked out of the store with blood all over his clothes and face. Step by step he began to understand more clearly what Robert said before he killed his daughter. Denise dying in his hands, asking for medicine to take the pain away... being helpless. The feeling was shared when Robert took Sarah's life. At that moment a flash back occur ed. "Dad, promise me one thing before you go to work." Sarah told his father. "What?" He replied. "Promise me that we're gonna live our lives to the fullest even one of us is gone!" And so, Rey's face was filled with tears and a grin appeared on his face as he walked away from the store with police sirens wailing from all directions.
