FOR YOUR EYES ONLY
12
Leave or Die by Jusalanne Matulac
"Don't tell anyone you saw it," he warned me with his death-glaring eyes, scowling at me as he minded his own business. I am a woman who stands for justice and never for imprudence. I'm not as ignorant as anyone is. I can't shut my mouth if an innocent life were put into harm. If not me, no one else would stand up for the life that was lost. Running was never my best skill but, today, I have to get away from the bad guy. I kept running until I reached my destination – the police station. "I witnessed a crime in the street!" I outrageously reported to the police the moment I got in. "It happened near my house five blocks away!" I added. They seemed surprised. I was left confused. Was it new for them to hear a report? They escorted me to a private room. My hands couldn't stop fidgeting but I tried to calm myself even though the horror of seeing someone held at gunpoint kept flashing before my eyes; the image of the dead body, the guy with the gun – everything. "What happened?" he calmly asked while chewing his gum and sticking it out his tongue. I know that I panicked but he was too calm as he crossed his feet below the desk during my interrogation, somehow guessing that I was going to report an attempted murder. I told him the details of what exactly happened. I was out from my house to buy some groceries at the nearby store. It was about 10 o'clock in the evening. The streets were narrow. Children were playing under the dim lights with their neighborhood friends. It wasn't new to me because they are there every night; that's a thing of being a child. When I was heading back to my house, the street went cold, empty. And the loud noises of the kids were gone. At first, I thought it was just nothing. They were kids who simply get tired after playing but not until I heard someone raise his voice. "Why are you still out in the street?!" he shouted. I never wanted to intrude but the voice of the child asking for help got me into it. It wasn't that far from my house, so it was easy to sneak out to the corner of the block. I can't clearly see his face but I almost caught him strangling the child with his own hands. "What are you doing?!" he shouted again.
