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Grade
10

Cold Cement

“Please please PLEASE just take me back to school,” Kyle begged, shaking in his seat.

“Oh god no, it took me a year to find you, and you’re going to pay for what you did,” The man chuckled.

“I don’t understand. I never did anything. I’ve never even met you,” his voice trembled. He had never been so terrified in his life. He wondered how this could be happening, or if it was all a dream. Yet there he sat, with this man he didn’t know.

“Oh you know exactly what you did. Stop playing innocent kid, I caught you,” the man spat.

Kyle began to cry. The reality of the situation began to set in. He didn’t know how he was ever going to get out of this. They pulled into a pebble filled driveway, the sound of gravel crunching underneath the pressure of the tires. Kyle was yanked out of the car and pulled through a paint chipped doorway. The house smelled musty and was littered with chinese food containers and dirty dishes. He stayed silent. What do you even say in a situation like this?

He was ushered down dark stairs and his handcuffs were removed. The man didn’t say a single word before heading back towards the stairs and locking the door. Great. He looked around, trying to find alternative exits. There was a window on the wall opposite him, but it was far to small for anybody to fit through. Perhaps he could use it to get people’s attention as they walked by. Other than the window, there didn’t look to be any way out. It’d be a lot easier to determine this if he knew where the light was, though.

Kyle wandered around for a couple of minutes before finally finding a light. He flicked the switch and dozens of items came into view. Cardboard boxes labeled memories, empty pill bottles that once contained a drug called perphenazine, and shelves filled with miscellaneous tools. He became curious as to what perphenazine was, but he had left his phone in his backpack, which the man had taken. Instead he looked towards the boxes. He wasn’t ready to look through those just yet. Thoughts raced through his head of what could have happened. This was overwhelming already, he didn’t want to add more.

A couple of hours later, Kyle made his way over to the window. Nobody walking by just yet. He let out a deep sigh and slumped to the cold concrete floor. He heard the door open and Roy emerge from behind it with a plate of food.

“I’m not eating that. You could have poisoned it,” Roy had shoved the plate towards him.

“I’m not going to kill you, I have questions for you. You can either comply and answer them, or face punishment,” his words made Kyle shudder.

“Please, I’m begging you. I haven’t done anything,” tears began to roll down his cheeks.

Roy sighed and stomped up the stairs, slamming the door on his way out. Kyle cried harder. He sat there for what felt like hours until he finally heard faint voices coming from the window. He rushed over and peered out, there stood two people some thirty feet away. Kyle began banging on the window, he figured screaming would alert Roy. The people continued walking by, not even turning their heads. At one point, the girl turned her head slightly but couldn’t see where the noise was coming from. Kyle slumped back against the while. As the sun set Kyle’s anxiety rose.

After an almost sleepless night, he decided it’d be best to try and figure out why Roy was targeting him specifically. He thought the case files box could give him some good insight, or more reasons to worry but he decided it was better to cross that bridge when he got there. The box was fairly small, but definitely held a lot. Kyle pushed the box into a smaller room that connected to the basement, that way if Roy came back downstairs, he wouldn’t notice what was going on. He spread out the contents of the box. There were about 20 photos, some too gory to look at. The photos started off with innocent pictures of the victims, and what looked like a picture of a car taken from a traffic light camera. The next few photos weren’t as pleasing to the eyes. Blood pooled on the windshield and drivers seat. The drivers air bag was covered in splotches of red. He couldn’t bear to look at these any longer.  The rest of the box was just manilla folders and huge packets of legal information.

He moved onto the first folder. Inside was a photo of a woman. She looked to be in her twenties. She had this huge smile on her face. Underneath the photo was her information. Sara, Age 27, Brown eyes, Brown hair, One child. Underneath that was a photo of a little boy. Kyle assumed it was her son, they looked pretty similar. His name was Owen, 6 years old, same brown eyes and hair. Kyle began to put two and two together. This must’ve been Roy’s son and wife. The next folder held scattered information about the other driver. He was around 16 years old at the time, and was presumably under the influence of drugs. That’s all that was gathered, considering the kid fled the scene right away. They were hit in a head on collision and both died on impact.

Kyle heard the door start to creak open. He hurriedly grabbed the photos and rushed back to his spot beneath the window.

“Are you ready to talk yet?” Roy grunted.

“I promise you that I didn’t do anything,” he responded. “If you would just tell me what you’re talking about, I can prove I didn’t do anything.”

“NO,” Roy’s voice filled with anger. “I know what you did and you need to admit to it. I CAN’T JUST SIT HERE KNOWING THAT YOU’RE THE REASON I DON’T HAVE A DAMN FAMILY ANYMORE!”

“Woah… wa-” Kyle stuttered.

“No more excuses. Please. You HAVE to admit it.”

There were a few minutes of silence. Kyle wasn’t sure what he could say in this moment, until he remembered the photos.

“I found this. I know this is your wife, she’s gorgeous,” Kyle exhaled.

“Where the hell did you find this?!”

“In the boxes, I went through them. I know what happened Roy,” Kyle admitted.

“But- I. You shouldn’t have done that. That’s private information,” Kyle saw the heat returning to Roy’s face.

“I just wanted to understand. This is your wife right? And this is your son?”

“I mean, yea- but…” Roy trailed. You could see it in his eyes that he was remembering that day. “She was so beautiful and caring. She was such an amazing wife and mother. And owen was so sweet. He would make us drawings at school. And- and YOU took that away from me,” his voice rose once again.

“What about your wife Roy. Would she be happy if she knew you kidnapped somebody?”

His face dropped and he shook his head, “I can’t. You need to come forward and admit to what you’ve done. It was you. You were driving the car that day, you killed my Owen. You took my little boy.”

Roy’s breathing became heavier and more erratic. He began pacing back and forth, a concentrated look spread across his pink face. Kyle became more and more nervous. What was he going to do next?

After a few minutes filled with heavy breaths, Roy reached towards his back. Kyle felt the icy touch of metal lean against his forehead. His heart sank further every second. Kyle dropped the photos to the floor.

“Look,” he exhaled, his voice shaking. “Do whatever you want,” Kyle took a deep breath. “Just know that I didn’t hurt your family, and even if I did, you’d be just like me if you shot me right now. So do what you want. Pull the trigger if you feel like you need to, but you’ll become the person you’re so against.”

It took a minute for Roy to realize that Kyle was right. Tears rolled down his flushed cheeks. He began stuttering, trying to form words that weren’t there. He continued to cry harder.

“They deserve justice,” his eyes softened as they fixed to the cement.

 

Kyle’s body was still shaking. He was still unsure of Roy’s next move. Terrified, he remained silent.

“You deserve this.”

Kyle furrowed his brows in confusion. Just as Kyle opened his mouth in response, he pulled the trigger.

The high pitched shrill of a phone rang out. Roy hesitated for a moment, but answered it.

“Hello?” he choked out.

“Roy! This is Detective Ramos, I’m calling about the case on the hit and run…” he trailed off.

“Uh yea, I thought they were closing that case?” Roy panicked.

“Well we were, but something came up and we found some new evidence. I Have some news that you’d like to here.”

Roy remained silent.

“We caught him. We finally made an arrest on the man who killed your family.”