He tugged a cigarette and lit it, inhaling the toxic air that flew from it. He walked toward the old-fashioned store, its door broken and everywhere filled with broken glasses. The outside counter, that were once filled with clothes and for people views as the past was all shattered.
Each step he took brought in silence and fear within. Just then, a lady rushed to him, hands clutched on his jacket.
"Sir… please help us." She whispered; her eyes dim with fear. William held her hands and bowed to her level. She was in her early 50s but was looking older than her age.
"What's wrong?" William asked. The lady stood there, lips parting as she pointed at the bathroom.
"Who is there?" William probed. The lady inhale deeply and wrote a word on her palms as William stared at it. "He killed a customer, and he's still there, dumping the body."
"Oh, wait… do stay alert and hide somewhere." William commanded the lady. He then pulled a gun out of his back pocket and tiptoed in front. Eyes lingering at each movement, the clothes shattered and some filled with blood. He took a deep breath before douching the split clothes and then went to the toilet.
Hands firmly at his gun, as he spied inside. The bathroom had both male and female toilet on in the hallway. It had a blood stained, and the tiles were wet with water—not water, but something that looked like oil, gasoil oil.
He gently pushed the door; it slid open and made a crack sound. Silence filled the toilet as he walked over to the female toilet. And just then, he opened it with his gun raised on the air.
"No one?" he muttered as he stepped back. But that was too late; William landed on the ground, blood oozed from his nose, and he screamed in pain. A man walked toward him with a sharp butcher knife, ready to slaughter him.
The man, in his middle 30s, moved closer toward William. William, still trying to patch himself back, wiped off the blood from his nose.
"Who are you?" William lashed out, as his eyes darkened, and the blood filled his T-shirt and a little of his jacket. The man didn't say a word; instead, he clashed the knife against the wall. The little fire that buzzed off from it gave some deep fear in him.
Just immediately, the man jumped onto William with the knife. William struggled with the knife as they fought for it. He spotted his gun, already flipped at the door entrance. He hissed and pushed the man off him with his office shoe.
"Get the hell off me!" He lashed out again, pounding the man with his hard office shoe. The man screamed, protecting his head from being harmed.
Still in pain, William stood up and walked toward him. Jumped on him and landed a punch heavy enough to shift the man's gums.
Just then, William started hearing husked groaned stronger and stronger as he panicked and held the man by his neck.
"Who are you?" his fist over the man's face, ready to punch again. "Who am I?" The man scoffed, with his gums filled with fresh blood.
"Talk or else," William threatened the man, as he was ready to lay another. That's when the door opened, and police stormed and circled around William. Two men brought William to the ground, face buried on the floor, and hands behind, plugged with handcuffs.
What are you doing?
Leave me!
"Get off me!" William struggled, but the two men looked like gym types as they squeezed his hands firmly, making a scream echo from his lips.
"You're under arrest for breaking into a citizen store and harming a customer." The man snarled as he pulled William off the ground.
"What? He's the thief and not me." William pointed at the strange man, filled with his own bucket of blood. The man glanced at him, a smirk tugged out, as a man and a female police officer helped the man out.
William stood there, with no freedom, glancing at the trouble he had caused himself. He wished he was never here, but fate had another reason. They dragged him out of the toilet and to the main shop. He glanced at the woman from earlier.
"She was there. I asked her, and she told me there was someone dangerous in there…" William kept on shouting as they dragged him, head flipping in motion.
"Tell them what's happened." He yelled at the woman; she stood there, hands trembling and eyes parting. He observed her firmly; beside her was a young lady, properly her daughter. They pinned their bodies together, head bowing and eyes batting.
William glanced at any opportunity and ran toward the lady. With handcuffs, he pushed her to the wall and pinned her with his broad shoulder.
"Who paid you?"
Is it Mr. Anders, right?
The lady's eyes filled with fear as she tried speaking but got her lips shut down. Her teenage daughter dragged her off him as they kept nodding no.
"Who?" he yelled as they got scared and moved backward, and then the lady from the distance pointed at a paper pinned near a cloth rack.
"Another one done; next would be yours! Mr. Prosecutor.
William's eyes parted as he stared at it for, like, ten seconds, still trying to grasp what the person meant. Immediately the police ran toward him and dragged him off there and to their car.
The rest of them, walked to their other cars as they drove calmly but with speed. William's mind became blank, without a word. He sat there, hands with handcuffs at the front, with no hope, no smugness. The man sat beside him while he was in the middle. Hot sweat dripped down them as he inhaled the toxic air, no AC, all sweaty to their destination.
They arrived at the police station finally; William glanced at it. It was the old police station he had worked at years back; a smirk of hope echoed, because someone might know him and help him out.
They dragged him out, knees unbuckled. "Take it easy, police!" He scoffed. "You will realize once you meet yourself in hell." The female lady yelled back as she pulled him toward the door entrance.
Her phone buzzed as she excused herself and handed him over to the male police. The man folded his hands firmly and pushed him inside.
"Mr. William, what are you doing here?" Dave, William's old colleague, and now a general.
"You see?" William waved his handcuffs hands at him, with a smirk, praying for hope.
"Is he the one?" Dave asked the police holding him as he nodded.
"Take him to the investigating room; he will remain there until sunset." Dave ordered; those smiling eyes he just saw now had turned to a mean and soulless one.
What? Dave?
"What are you waiting for? Take him now!" Dave ordered.