The Suicide Helpline | ✔ #Wattys2018

33

X A V I E R

We were losing it. Like, losing our mind. Me and my men had nearly searched every single house in sight, and she was nowhere to be found.

Something inside me was telling me that Shawn was going to find her. That, he had found her actually. And maybe, they were in trouble.

But, if he had found her, I had clearly explained him to press the button on the tracking device I had given him. For safety reasons.

There wasn't a single beep on my phone, which meant he hadn't found her yet. But, out of curiosity, I took out my phone and tried to check his location.

He was inside a building, on the opposite side of the road. But, the weird part was, he wasn't moving. As far as I knew, obviously, he wasn't hanging around with his friends in a flat inside that building.

An intuition inside me was screaming of something being amiss.

I alerted all my men and ordered them to come along with me towards the building where Shawn's current location was being displayed.

"He is standing at that point since ten minutes!", I told them, as they looked at me in confusion. They nodded in response and ran along with me.

The security guard was trying to be a problem but, Adam arrived at the right time. I don't know what he told the guard, but the next second itself we were granted entry inside the society.

Good decision, guard.

We all marched towards the elevator and went towards the sixth floor, according to the location on the tracker. The doors of the elevator opened and we stepped out.

The tracker pointed towards flat no. '1603'. The door to that flat was open. We stepped inside quietly and looked around. Broken vases, broken glasses, disturbed furniture. All these were getting my mind to only one conclusion. This was the place. She was here.

"Don't move, Xavier.", I heard the once familiar voice behind me. Norman. I nodded and turned around slowly.

He had held her with one hand and a gun in the other. Shawn was lying down, in a room beside him, with some blood seeping out through his hair.

"Norman, you know this won't lead you to anything.", I tried to reason with him. He smirked at that. He knew he had the lead right now.

"She looks like her mother, doesn't she?", he smiled wickedly and pulled her by the hair. She let out a muffled, tired scream, from behind her gagged mouth.

"Leave her, alone.", I warned him, though I knew this was going to go in vain.

"I'm going to kill her, Xavier. Maybe, that way, you'll understand what I must have felt.", he looked at me with hatred, while preparing to shoot.

"Please don't.", I tried again.

And he pulled the trigger.

*****