25 Nights Of 2009

Chapter 3

Feb. 7, 2009. 8:49am

I was stuck going through more footage of security cameras... again! Worse, this was the second Saturday in a row they had called me into work, so no Tony, which meant no cocoa or scones to look forward to. I sighed. I should really start making my own breakfast. I looked back to the screen and saw nothing, and I had around... oh, 489 hours left of footage to go through, but since it was speeded up on 2x, it would take... about 10.4 days to review all of the footage left, assuming I wouldn't see something until then. Isn't there someone in the department whose job was to look through footage, or did my boss just hate me? I was going with the latter. I was going to be here for a while. If Tony was here, we could divide up the work. Ugh, I miss that kid.

Feb. 14, 2009. 11:45am

For once in my life, I was thankful to be single. No offense to anyone, but I needed to put all my focus on my job right now, I didn't have time for a girlfriend, or boyfriend, or whatever. At the expense of my friends, I couldn't take that luxury today. However, I was happy Tony could. He had taken the day off, his girlfriend had taken the night off. I was happy for them. They were good together.

Anyways, I went back to the screen and ate my sandwich. It was homemade now. I had learned my lesson after the last two Saturdays of starvation. I looked at the screen, watching that stupid road that was now engraved into my mind. I had never been so sick of looking at a single place before in my life. I had memorized every lamp, every crack in the sidewalk, every hedge, every tree. Add to the fact that by my math, I still had seven more days of footage to go through, the only reason I hadn't lost my mind was because the people changed. There were new people walking down the street every day, every hour, every minute. It was interesting, because I would sometimes recognize some people walking down the streets. It gave me sonder.

Feb. 14, 2009. 3:10 pm

I was positive if I looked away from this screen, my eyes would be burned out of their retinas. I blinked a couple times and they started watering. I closed my eyes and rubbed them and blinked furiously. When I looked back at the screen, I nearly fell out of my seat.

I paused the screen and rewinded it. In the video, it was the dead night. Few people were walking, few people were driving, so that's why this one car stood out. It was the limo from the airport. It stopped right at the edge of the hill. The door opened and five people got out. One was the limo driver. I paused the video, zoomed in, and took a picture of the man. I zoomed out and played it. Then, the next two people got out. They were the Johansson siblings, followed by people in dark clothing and masks that covered their faces. Christine had her wrists handcuffed behind her head. Jasper had his hands raised. The limo driver pulled out a gun and pointed it at Christine.

There was no audio, but it was all clear as Jasper took a pair of gloves given to him by the limo driver and started pushing the car down the cliff with the two men.

My guess was that the limo driver had taken away Christine's hearing aids and was threatening Jasper that he would shoot Christine if he didn't do what he wanted. I sighed. Jasper would never let his sister get shot if she wasn't at full potential to kick the gun holder's in the jugular. The car rolled down the hill and what I knew would be to crash into the water below. As the three men were looking down at the sinking car, the limo driver turned the gun over in his hand and walked over to Christine. I definitely knew she was missing her hearing aids when she didn't turn around. Suddenly, it seemed to go in slow motion. He raised the gun and hit her in the back of the head with the hilt. She crumbled to the ground. I looked over at Jasper, who rushed over to her and skidded on his knees to her side, but before he could touch her, one man in black lifted him up off his feet and restrained him. He touched a point in Jasper's neck and the boy fell as limp as a rag doll. The man threw Jasper over his shoulder as the other man did the same with Christine. Then, they started walking until they were out of the camera view.