The Night I Was Saved

Chapter One

I kick my front door shut with my foot and dump my sports bag in the corner of the hall, reminding myself to pick it up later. My body feels tense, and all I need is a hot shower and a few hours of sleep before I have to get ready for work.

Although I'm having the job that I wanted since I was a kid, I sometimes miss the times where I could just spend my weekends with the guys playing football or Fifa before going out until five in the morning. It still happens, but so rarely I can't even remember the last time.

Luckily, today I'm starting with my series of night shifts, which meant I was able to play on the Saturday amateur competition with our team M-Boys. We've won the game, and while all my friends are now celebrating in the park, probably followed by a night full of booze and pubs later on, I'm expected at work in a few hours.

I might still see them tonight though, since I'm a police officer in the center of London. It's Saturday and tonight will probably mean a lot of drunk people that either disturb the public order or get into a fight about whose cock is bigger.

Good fun you would say, only if I'm honest, said fights would be way more manageable if there weren't knives or guns involved. You'd be shocked how many people walk around with weapons these days.

My friends not included, of course.

At the age of twenty-three, I have seen some of the most shocking injuries as a result of drunken fights. So many in fact, that when I do have time to go out with my friends, I tend to not drink as much as I used to.

During almost every shift, I'm confronted with people that lose complete control and common sense because of alcohol, and I promised myself that I'll never end up in a situation like that.

As I walk into the bathroom and start the shower, I peel off my sweaty clothes. Today's match was great. We had the lead with one goal for three-quarters of the match until the other team got a penalty which made the score one to one. In the last thirty seconds, I got the ball and passed their two defenders before dropping it in the left high corner of the net. Their keeper didn't stand a chance, and we took the three points home with us.

It's great how a group of friends, most of them whom I've known for more than half of my life, are still the same as years back. We've all grown up; most of us having jobs, some of us having girlfriends, and all of us wiser than when we were sixteen. But when we are together, it's like nothing has changed.

We're all older, but no matter how much time gone by, we are still there for each other. It's a true friendship and I treasure it dearly.

When I've done a quick soap and rinse, I jump out of the shower, towel dry my body, and put on clean boxers before walking to my bedroom.

I've been living in my apartment for almost a year now, and it's one of the things I'm most proud of. It's not much; a two-bedroom apartment on the second floor just outside of London, but it's home and most importantly, completely mine.

I come from a wealthy family. My parents are both working in the entertainment industry. My mum is a director, my dad a cinematographer. I have uncles that are actors, and when I was ten years old, I was cast as the young Tom Riddle in a Harry Potter film.

Back then, I was completely convinced that I wanted to follow in the family footsteps and become an actor as well. That was until I saw a documentary about police officers in the United Kingdom on tv.

I remember it like it was yesterday; I was thirteen years old and in the documentary, a police officer with a body cam was in the middle of a chase. In the end, he managed to overpower a man that was terrorizing the streets by mugging young women.