Shot In The Dark

An Unusual Day

It was eleven o'clock at night when the phone rang. John picked it up.

It was his partner, Matt from the police station. One of the strictly guarded criminals escaped while the guard was changing. He is very dangerous even to the public so they really need to catch him.

He went to the station to talk with the captain. On his way to the captain's office, he realized that the workers finally fixed the broken mirrors on the wall, after a prisoner had broken them weeks before. As he walked by them, he noticed, that he couldn't see himself in them.
'What's wrong with these clumsy bastards, who cannot distinguish the two sides of a two way mirror?' he thought. Then he saw Matt, sitting at his desk, so he changed direction to talk with him instead of the captain. When he moved closer, to his surprise, he saw that his best friend's eyes were red, just like he was crying before and was also shaking a bit.

'Hey, what happened?' John asked but Matt didn't react at all.

'We will find him and kill him. He won't get away without revenge!' I heard the captain's voice so I turned to him. He walked near Matt and looked at him with some kind of strange and sad shining in his eyes.

'Someone saw him at the corner of Whitmore and Oak Street! We need to hurry and stop him!' said one of the policemen loudly.

'Then we better be prepared...' said Matt with a determined killer look on his face as he took his gun from the desk and left the room quickly.

I can't remember how I got to the scene, but when I arrived there were no familiar faces in sight. Then my phone rang so I took it out from my pocket and touched the little green circle on it, in hope that it was Matt. But when the caller started speaking the blood froze in my veins for a second. It wasn't Matt's voice.

'Hey, detective! It's a real pleasure to talk with you again! I guess you don't even know who I am, but don't worry! I think you will understand everything very soon...'he said in his deep asperity voice, then I heard a woman screaming from the background. My heart stopped for a minute in pain, the voice was too familiar...

'John, please help!' screamed the woman in a shaking and scared voice. It was my wife who cried for help.

'As you heard Elizabeth is here with me just like the beautiful little Jane...How old is she? Ten maybe as I guess...' he said.

'If you hurt them, if you just touch them even with only one finger, I swear I'm gonna kill you!' I told him angrily.

'Then come here and save them Prince Charming! We've got lots of things to talk about...But don't you dare bring anybody with you or I will re-paint your living room with the blood of your daughter!' he said deadly seriously, then hung up. I stared at the black screen for a minute in shock, then I hurried home as fast as I could. I almost reached our house when my phone rang again. I answered it while I was running towards the house.

'You're just in time but it's too late!' said the same man as before. In the moment I slid the phone to my pocket and reached the door, I heard a shot from inside. I ran into the house, shaking and scared to death of what is waiting for me on the inside...

But to my biggest surprise, the house was empty... Almost empty... I found a big dark red puddle of blood in the kitchen...There was lots of blood, but there were no people, nor living, nor dead... I had never been that scared in my whole life...And I'd never wanted to kill someone that much, as this psychopath...

Then somehow, I can't remember how, I was at the police station again, but it was empty... So I sat down at my desk what was empty as well, so I moved to Matt's desk and pushed the button which turns on the screen of the computer, but what I found left me in shock. My phone rang and I picked it up.

'I told you it's too late...' he said.

'That changes nothing...' I replied.

'So, do you know now who I am?' he asked.

'Yes, I know...' I said.

Never have I ever felt that empty and that broken as now, that I know the truth...

The caller was the man I arrested about a month before, but escaped yesterday evening...And that's where the things turned deadly interesting...

In Matt's computer I found two things: a report about the crime in my house and a necrology...Which was mine...

My memories about the night I died started coming back...I ran into the house to save my family when the man shot me...Now I can remember that my heart stopped for a second in shock, or maybe that was the time I realised, it wasn't even beating anymore, when I faced my own dead body, bleeding on the kitchen floor.

And I also found out why the station was empty: it was the day of my funeral.