Fire bursts from the room. A man in a long dark coat, emerges from it, his face was covered by his long white hair, his mouth was the only thing visible. His mouth curved giving a wide grin, even though she couldn’t see his face, she knew he was looking right at her. She looked around the room, and saw no one there except for him and her, even though just a few seconds earlier there was a room full of people. He took long slow steps, creeping towards her, she had nowhere to run. She heard a voice to her left, but didn’t see anything. It continued calling out to her, trying to wake her back to reality, but it didn’t help. The man was the only thing in the room with her. His heels would hit the floor every step he took closer to her, and it was the only sound that was heard through the whole room, It echoed throughout the room.
As he drew nearer to her, the voice calling out to her faded, it faded at every step the man took. She was speechless, she was unsure what was happening, how did she get here in the first place and who was this man. She sat against the wall crying, while he stepped right in front of her. His eyes beat down upon her light brown hair, until she raised her head, and met his eyes. She was more terrified than she could have ever imagined, his eyes were a deep blue, but they reflected the fire that covered the room. His grin was unsettling, but he held out his hand in a friendly manner. She didn’t know what to do, but after a few moments, she had decided to take his hand. Without saying a word, he walked her away from the wall, and to the middle of the room. A hole opened in the floor, steam emerging from it, searching for a way out of it’s home. The man led her to the edge of the hole; she looked down into it, only to see a dark burning pit, with yelping from bellow of pain and suffering, but also joy of finally seeing the light.
The man turned to her, putting his arm on her back keeping her from moving. His grin stayed put never leaving his face, “Welcome to your new home, I’m sure others will be dying to meet you” he pushed her into the hole, with a few more words as she plummeted, “Welcome to hell, Kimiko Nabashimi” The floor closed in as he finished his words to her. He walked back into the flames, vanishing, as the flames slowly died, revealing the room filled with people, all crowding around the wall, with people on phones.
They hovered over, unsure what was going on, with a single boy, about the age of 19, knelt down crying to the heavens “Kimiko!”, her light brown hair laying all around her head, her body collapsed on the floor, and a single gunshot wound right through the heart, she was dead.
It took ten minutes for the police to arrive, though to everyone inside it felt like an hour. From the time she got shot, to the time the police arrived, everyone was forced to stay inside the building and they were panicked. Everyone was chattering about the events that had just happened, phones going off in no order, the whole city knew before it was even on the news, and everyone was scared.
When the police arrived they questioned each person and got their information, in case they needed another interview, before letting them leave, they questioned people one by one, until the whole room was empty except for one man, kneeling next to kimiko’s body, the same boy who called to the heavens for her. His eyes were red, but they were mostly covered by his hands. Tears ran down his face, dripping on to the ground creating a puddle that soaked into kimiko’s body. They hadn’t claimed her body yet, they knew she was dead, but there would have been hassle if they tried taking it before the interviews.
An officer in his early 30’s came up and walked next to the boy kneeling next to kimiko, he tried to sound friendly, but it was hard to when someone just lost someone they loved, “Hey, I’m Officer Matthews, do you mind if I ask you a few questions about tonight’s events?” He stood there for a few moments of silence, as the boy gave no answer, “listen, I know this is tough, but you have to cooperate with me if you want us to find her killer. So let’s start off easy, what’s your name?” He said this as he crouched down next to him, and put his arm around the boy’s shoulders. He had wanted to comfort the boy, since he knew what it felt like to lose someone, but he also knew that whatever he said wouldn’t help this trauma. The boy turned his head to officer Matthews, his skin pale from the trauma and tears continuing to run down his face, dripping from his nose and chin. He moved his mouth but nothing came out, and when it finally did he was stuttering, “I….I…I’m Zach…Zach Taylor…What’s gonna happen to me?...I…I couldn’t save her”
Officer Matthews stood up bringing Zach into his arms, comforting him with his arms wrapped around Zach, while the paramedics walked across the room to the body and picked her up on a gurney carrying her to the vehicle. Matthews watched as they took the body with the boy crying on his shoulder, “nothing’s going to happen to you, it wasn’t your fault. Now tell me what happened”.
