Lights Will Guide You Home

Raelynn

I abandoned everything I had been doing and rushed to the police station. What on earth had Claire gotten herself into? I fervently hoped it wasn’t the Jerry issue again.

I stepped into the police station to find Claire engaged in deep conversation with a man who looked vaguely familiar. Claire was a mess – her blond hair dishevelled, she looked distraught. I went up to them, “Eclaire?”

She turned to me. “Rae!” she said, sounding relieved to see me.

“What’s going on?”

“Oh, I just explained it to Joseph,” she said, referring to the man she had been talking to. It hit me then – he was Detective Swann, the guy who came for the Jerry issue.

She went on to tell me about her morning, how she had found a kid beaten up and left lying in an alley. “And I found these by him,” she added, pointing to a couple of things lying on a table beside us. A knife, a note and a small packet of… “drugs?” I asked, surprised.

Claire nodded while Swann said gravely, “yes ma’am.”

I moved closer to the table, as he and Claire continued where they had left off before my arrival. “We can’t be sure that these belong to the child, right? I mean, it’s equally likely that they belonged to one of the teenagers too,” Claire said.

“Yes, but the handwriting on the note seems to suggest otherwise, Miss Watson. It’s too immature – “

“But you can’t deny for sure that it isn’t the handwriting of one of the older boys,” Claire argued.

Swann smiled, realizing Claire wouldn’t give up defending the kid. “We’ll look into it, ma’am. Don’t worry.”

I turned to the table and surveyed the articles. The knife really appealed to me. It wasn’t a big one but I could tell it was lethal. Thepolished blade shone bright in the light. The hilt was made of dark wood and had the letter ‘J’ in fancy calligraphy engraved on it.

I leaned over to get a closer look at it. The blade caught my reflection and my mind was suddenly flooded with memories of the night I wished had never happened.

It was a night in Barrington, eight years ago. I was seventeen and I had been going out with Marcus for about three months. I thought he was everything I wanted. I considered myself very lucky to have got the attention of an older guy.

That night we went for a late night movie. We had just come out of the cinema and were walking home. He put his arms around me and gently kissed me. Then just when we were going to pass an alley, he pulled me into it. He started kissing me and trying to take off my clothes. I tried to push him away saying “Get off, Marcus! What are you doing?”

But he didn’t stop. So I kicked his stomach attempting to get him off of me. He let out an angry scream. “Why you little bitch!” he shouted and pulled out a knife. I immediately tried to run out of the alley.

Before I could he caught hold of my hair and pulled me back. He held on tight to my arms. I struggled a lot trying to break free. “You want to play games?” he yelled in a very scary tone. He flung the knife at me but I ducked.

I stepped really hard on his right foot. He yelled in pain and his hold on my hands loosened. I pulled back my right hand and swung it at Marcus. I landed a pretty hard punch that threw him on the ground. The knife dropped from his hand and fell a bit out of reach.

I tried to get to it but before I could, Marcus grabbed me again and this time his grip was even tighter. He pushed me against the wall and held me by the neck so hard he was choking me. I couldn’t breathe.

 I had to do something. I couldn’t think of anything so I started clawing at his face violently.  But this only angered him.

 With all his strength he threw me on the ground. I hit my head so hard it began to bleed. I was terrified and shaking. I looked at Marcus. His eyes were red with rage.

I saw the knife nearby. Its blade caught my reflection. Marcus charged and was about to pounce on me. I grabbed the knife and in self-defence stabbed him in his chest.

It had been more fatal than expected because when I stabbed him, he jumped on me and hence driving the knife deeper into him.

He fell flat beside me. I got up still shaking. I stared at in horror as the body slowly got drenched in blood. I couldn’t believe what I had just done. I actually killed him.

My first kill.

“Rae,” I heard Claire call out to me.

“Rae!” she repeated.

“Huh? What?” I said snapping out of my reverie.

“Come on, let’s go home.” She said picking up her bag and coat, then turning to Agent Swann she said, “You’ll update me if you find anything, won’t you?”

He nodded, “don’t worry, ma’am.”