“Andrew, a nice family just moved into the Old Ramsey Place. We should go over and say hello.” My wife was always trying to get me to socialize with the neighbors. But I couldn’t. Not after what happened.

“Sweetheart, not today,” I held my tongue.
Don’t keep asking, I thought. Don’t keep asking.
“Please Andy!”
“No.”
“Please?!”
“No.”
“Well fine. I’ll just go alone.”
“You most certainly will not.”
“I’m sure they’re nice people, Andy! Let’s go. You need to get out more.”
I exploded.
“What are you talking about?! I am always at the station! I work all of the time! For you! So that you can buy new things, stay in your book club, so you don’t have to work. So can you please respect my decision as the man of the house? And stop begging to have your way like a child!” She retreated a few steps back as the tears gathered in her eyes.
“I…I…I’m sorry…” She hurried herself into our room, out of sight.
Just breathe Andrew. Just breathe. I sat in the living room for a while, colleting my thoughts. I sighed, then walked into the bed room.
“Kristen?” She was already under the covers, her back to the door from which I had entered. I crossed the floor, sat down beside her, pulled her into my arms and said,
“Would you like to know why I decided to become a cop?” She sniffled.
“What does that have to do with anything?” She pushed me away angrily. I pulled her back into my arms, kissed her cheek, then whispered in her ear,
“It has to do with everything.” She must’ve heard the fear in my voice that I was trying so hard to hide, for she looked at me curiously. I took that as a sign that I should continue. I sighed heavily.
“It all started the day I met John Daniels.”
“Who’s John Daniels?” I smiled, trying to hide my sorrow.
“Who was he would be a better question.” She nodded slightly, then laid her head on my chest.
“Go on.” I took a deep breath,
“Alright, here it goes…
~

~

~
“Andy! There’s someone at the door!!! Please go see who it is!!!”
“UGH! But Mom! I’m in the middle of this really hard level!”
Please leave me alone!
“Andrew Steven Pratt! Go answer the door!”
“Fine!” I sighed and put down the controller, then trudged over to the front door. I opened it to find a boy about my age wearing clothes at least two sizes too big for him and a Texas Rangers ball cap on backwards. He was holding something behind his back.
“Hiya!” He said, smiling like an idiot.
“Can I help you?” My monotone voice must’ve come off a little too strong, for his smile faded and his eyes met the floor.
“Well…I was thinkin’…that maybe since you’re new to the neighborhood…you’d wanna…maybe wanna…play some ball?” He pulled a baseball out from behind his back and held it toward me hopefully.
“N…”
“Of course he would love to play ball with you John!” My mother interrupted what would’ve been an amazingly devious decline to his childish dream.
“Andy, this is John, John Daniels. He lives across the street.” She smiled. I glared at her. She knew I didn’t “play well with others”.
“Awesome!” John beamed.
“Yeah…awesome…” I groaned.
“Oh you two are going to be best friends!” My mother practically threw me out the door and into my new “best friend”.
“Alright, let’s get this over with…” I began to walk down the street toward the neighborhood park.
“What? You don’t like playing ball?” John asked pathetically.
“I’ve never played before.” John stopped in his tracks.
“You’ve never played ball before?!” He shouted loud enough for the entire neighborhood to hear. He covered his mouth, and then looked around frantically as if he had just confessed to a crime in front of a dozen cops.
“It’s not that big of a deal.” He answered me with an index finger to his mouth, and then quickened his pace. I had to practically run to keep up with him, so I was completely out of breath once we reached the park.
“What’s your hurry?” I condescended, breathing heavily. My escort had ducked behind the merry-go-round, and I could hear him whimpering from where I was standing, about forty paces away.
“John, what’s your problem?” I crossed my arms.
This is absolutely ridiculous! This kid is a nut!
“John Daniels!” I was getting really annoyed with this guy, and we had only been together for about twenty minutes.
“Fine, I’m going home.” I threw my arms up in aggravation.
Well, this was a total waste of my time. I turned to walk back just as John jumped out from behind the merry-go-round and grabbed me by the shoulders.
“No! You can’t go! You can’t leave me!” He looked at me, eyes burning red.
“Whoa man, just calm down.” I pushed him off of me, stumbling backward.
“Please help me!” He pleaded as the tears began running down his face.
“Help you?” He looked fine to me, besides the fact that he was crying hysterically.
“He found me…” John’s voice gave out at the last word.
“Who? Who found you?” He shook his head frantically, stepping backward a few paces, then turned and ran into the woods bordering the park. I ran after him without a second thought.
“John!” I called, pushing through the brush.
“John!” I slowed to a stop. I turned in a circle, examining my surroundings, but had no luck finding my acquaintance.
“Alright John, I give up! You win! I’m going home now.” I turned and walked back the way I came. As I reached the edge of the playground, I caught a glimpse of something that moved out of the corner of my eye. I jerked my head in the direction of the movement. There was no one there. The only thing out of place was a white piece of paper pinned to the tree closest to me. I walked over to it thinking it was a note from John, explaining why he was acting so weird all of the sudden, or maybe informing me of a new way to play hide-and-seek, in which case I was going to beat him senseless the moment I saw his pathetic face again. But there was one problem. The note was not from John. It read,

Andrew Steven Pratt,
You don’t know me, but I am a friend of John’s. That got your attention, didn’t it? Well of course it did, you want to know where he is, don’t you? Let’s just say he won’t be asking you to play ball any time soon.
You’re welcome.
-He


I tore the letter off the tree and stuffed it in my pocket. As I turned to walk home, I could feel someone looking at me, as if their eyes were burning a hole in the back of my head. I did my best to keep an even pace, so not to arouse any suspicion from the neighbors, but I began to run once I turned onto my street.

What if He is following me now, watching my every move? Is John okay? What has He done with John? What do I do now? Who should I trust with the note? Will He come after me? These horrifying thoughts flooded into my mind all at once, as I walked into my house through the front door. The fact that the door was unlocked sent chills down my spine.

“Mom I’m home.” I did my best to keep my voice steady, despite how jumbled up my insides were.

“Well you weren’t out very long. Did you have fun playing baseball?” I followed the sweet sound of my mother’s voice into the kitchen, where I found her baking cookies.

“Is John with you?” She asked.

“Nope, it’s just me.” I tried to sound as nonchalant as possible given the recent occurrences, so as not to worry my mother.

“Oh okay.” She smiled at me, and then returned to her cookie-decorating. I exited the kitchen and proceeded to my bedroom on the second floor. I froze. A piece of paper was taped to my bedroom door. It read,
You want answers? Meet me at the Old Ramsey Place at midnight.
Come alone or John dies.
-He

I took a deep breath, entered my room, lay down on my bed and waited for midnight to come.
*

*

*

Around eleven thirty, I snuck out of the house. I climbed out my window and down the tree in my backyard. It was easy enough. I thought about what the second note said as I made my way down the dimly lit street. This was a trap. That much was obvious. But what other choice did I have? John and I weren’t close, we had only known each other for about thirty minutes before he went missing, but I would still care if he got hurt. So there I was, walking around by myself in the middle of the night, going to meet this creep who abducted my friend and threatened me. No big deal.

I’m an idiot. I thought as I walked up the creaky old wooden steps leading up to the front porch of the Old Ramsey Place. The door was unlocked. I heard a muffled noise come from below the porch.
Was that someone screaming? That’s the last thing I remember thinking before I was knocked unconscious.
*
*

*
“Good morning Star Shine, the earth says ‘hello’.” It was He. I had never heard a voice so crisp, so proper, so devilish, so grotesque in my entire life. I slowly opened my eyes to find that I was tied up in the corner of a small, poorly lit room. In the corner opposite me, lay a shriveled up creature, facing the wall. I gasped.
John. It was John. His Texas Rangers baseball cap was lying on the floor beside him. He wasn’t moving. Laughter came from my right, but I couldn’t take my eyes off of John’s limp body.
Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. He’s dead. I thought. The laughter grew stronger. I twisted my neck around to look John’s murderer in the eyes and shouted,
“YOU LIED! YOU LIED! You told me you weren’t going to hurt him! You said if I came you wouldn’t kill him!” The perpetrator stepped out of the shadows, blocking my view of my dead friend. He was a tall, pale skinned man, with jet black hair and red eyes. He smiled.
“You didn’t really believe me did you?” His smile grew into an all-out grin. “Oh but you did believe me didn’t you? Otherwise you wouldn’t be here. Isn’t that sweet? You’re a hero in the making.” I began to feel sick. How stupid I had been, how very, very stupid I had been.
What was I thinking? He wasn’t gonna let John live. He had planned to kill him from the start, and now he is gonna kill me too.
“You aren’t gonna get away with this!” I did my best to sound confident, but it was pretty obvious that I had lost all hope in escaping. He walked over to where I was. He stood right in front of me, bent down and whispered in my ear,
“Oh, but I always do.” I began to thrash; kicking and screaming, trying to get away from this monster. But it was no use. He grabbed me by the ropes that held me prisoner and dragged me over to the fireplace. He poured some gasoline in the fireplace, and some on my head. He lit a match a few inches above my face and said,
“Now, you die.” At that very moment, five police officers beat down the door shouting,
“Police officers! Put your hands where we can see ‘em.” He smiled, stood, raised his hands above his head and said,
“Don’t worry, I’ll get you, Andy, I’ll get you.” One of the officers grabbed He, handcuffed him, and he and another police officer escorted him out. Two of the officers rushed over to me, while the other casually walked over to where John was.
“Are you alright?” The female officer asked me, bending over to help untie me.
“I’m fine! But John…is he dead?”
“I don’t know,” The taller officer, who was standing a few feet away from me, stated plainly. That infuriated me.
“Well let’s get him to a doctor!” I shouted. The officer closest to John made eye contact with me.
“I’m sorry. It’s too late.” He confirmed my worst nightmare, in the most insulting way. None of them cared about John’s murder. Their job was done; they had caught their criminal. That was all they cared about. And I hated them for it.
~

~

~
I fell silent for a while as I let Kristen absorb all that had been said. She hadn’t said a word throughout the course of my story, which led me to think that she did not believe what I had said, was true. Just when I was about to try to coax a response out of her, she said,
“So you decided to be a cop in order to show more compassion to victims than you were shown during that experience as a child. You want to be there for the victims emotionally, more than the police officers were for you. You want to be better than they were.” I smiled. She understood me so well. We stared into each other’s eyes for a long while, as the tears began running down her face.
“Andy, I am so, so sorry that happened. I am so sorry.” She kissed my cheek and squeezed me tightly.
“So am I sweetheart, so am I.”