Book- Misunderstood

Chapter 18

I remember always thinking of the nights. Shrill, and loud, filled with the sounds of bullets flying everywhere, disturbing my restless body as I could no longer sleep. They always dragged on long, some nights the sounds louder than others, some nights yelling and screaming in agony and rage, and some nights where hell itself threatened to engulf the very room I was in, not noticing the rain had finally stopped. I watched the ceiling, the turning of my fan silenced, blinking at times to keep my eyes from drying out. Then one day, it all stopped.I stood up, and looked out my window, the silence slowly setting in, the night taking back it's home of darkness and silence. My ears slowly began to adjust as I looked around my room, my eyebrows furrowed as I saw my bed, the small wooden nightstand with a lamp, my bed, and books that lined the shelves to my right. Slowly but surely, I began to hear the soft whir of my fan again, the sound almost foreign to me as if it had come from some abnormality. "What.... happened?"I slowly got dressed, my pistol in the my pocket as a makeshift holster to the weapon. Within moments, I heard the door slam behind me, leaving it unlocked as I sprinted down the hallway, running down the stairs of my apartment and burst into the street, my eyes darting from right to left. Nothing, No one, just the absence of sound had invaded me as it most likely did anyone else. Soon, I began to see people leave their homes across the street, cars passing by with the soft sounds of the engine and spray of water to the sides in mist, all to investigate the sounds that no longer littered the air. I immediately felt my body put pressure on my feet, as I absent mindedly went toward an alleyway that was only so far from everyone, pulling free my gun and turning off the safety. When I stopped, I was met with Alley, who still in her pajamas and ruffled hair, still looked rather cute. I scoffed when I saw her peeking around the corner into the alleyway, her gun at the ready. When she saw me though, she pointed into the alley."See if you see anything... I have your back."I nodded as I pressed my body against the glass window of the bakery shop that lay next to the alley, and slowly moved myself, peering out into the silent corridor. There I saw a strange vision, a man wearing wearing a gas mask, the goggles black and the canisters for breathing in a triangle like fashion, the single letter of 'I' engraved in it's forehead. It looked straight at me, the person wore black clothes that held needles on the outside or so I thought. Black gas flooded from these canisters as the gloves he wore dripped a liquid that I knew all too well, crimson, and thick. Though I could feel the same feeling I felt with Rea at the time, spiders crawling along my skin now accompanied by nails seeming to rake across my mind, my head beginning to sting. Slowly the figure lifted his fingers, directed as if to judge an individual for their crimes. What I didn't expect though were the whispers as I saw it's finger point toward Alley instead, and I recoiled back in surprise. It's visage slowly turned and it stared at her, though she didn't seem to notice, the whispers now coherent as they all said the same words, thousands of voices at once within my ears."Liar"Then it stopped and I blinked, the image, the person, what I had witnessed seeming to disappear without any trace, leaving only the amount of bodies that littered the corridor behind it. The street lights reached them well enough that I could see that they were all dead. I looked at Alley, dispelling what exactly I had seen a moment ago and spoke."They're all dead Alley, it looks like there was a shootout with a winner this time but..."She looked over her shoulder at me, the people who had left their homes now crowded around us, trying to see what was happening but most likely stopping, seeing as we had guns. The ones closest to me gave me looks of confusion while the other paid attention to only the scene within the corridor. I immediately turned the corner and began to walk toward the pile of bodies, the sound of my footsteps echoing, leaving Alley with my words to go investigate."Something doesn't seem right..."I walked fast toward the bodies, and slowly began to see something that struck me as odd. Why were the bodies all piled to the middle of the corridor? This shouldn't be a possible thing if they were just in the middle of a gunfight between each other. I slowly knelt down once I had reached the first body, the eyes of the gang member lifeless as his eyes looking into the sky dreamily, glazed over by death which had taken him, his clothes tattered from bullet wounds along his shoulder, left side of his ribs, and the last one in his head. Then I took note as I realized this was another crime scene that held 'segments'. I stood up and looked over the body one last time before proceeding to the other ones, carefully examining each one, some bodies turned up, some flipped over, some holding gashes in their neck. I then took notice of the tattoos the gang members usually wore as initiation to show their loyalties. I stopped thinking a moment when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned quickly, gun ready only to stop seeing it was Rea, already in uniform, most likely having been on a night patrol."Well glad to see the great detective Irsa checking out the crime scene! Figure anything out partner?"I stood up and holstered my gun, checking my sides, seeing other officers close off this section of the city with the yellow tape of a crime scene having occurred. I turned around and looked at Rea."Something isn't right about this crime scene Rea. It doesn't make any sense."I pointed at the many bodies, and overturned tattoos on the wrists of the men, many the same, and many that were different."This murder was committed with ALL the gang members, if you notice..."I kneeled and pointed at gashes within few of the mens necks and bullet wounds within the back of others heads. I tapped the ground with my finger, lining the pieces of slowly though still giving Rea insight."Some were killed from behind. It was a gun fight, though... where are their guns?"I held my hand up and drew a circle in the air with my finger. Then I looked up at Rea who held his chin with his hand. He rubbed it slowly and then looked at me."Figure out why they're all piled up?"I looked at how they all sat, some piled against the wall some left to the sides and spread around. It was odd but I couldn't figure out exactly why it was like that. I then realized another piece of evidence to use as a 'segment'."They were dragged."Rea looked down at me now, his eyebrows furrowed."What? Thats impossible, there are no blood trails or anything."I slowly began to realize just how possible this was and how long we had been fooled. I stood up and looked at Rea, my mind clicking more 'segments' together until I was sure of what had happened."No... it's possible. I'm thinking that some of the men were killed by rival gang members but others were killed by someone else, then under the cover of the rain and probably use of gunfire from guns that were dropped by these members, kept shooting to make sure that no one noticed any difference. The bodies were dragged, the blood being washed away by the rain for a while since there isn't any fresh or dried blood anywhere, and piled the bodies here, taking the weapons that were used by the gang. When the rain stopped, the gun shots stopped after, WHY they murdered the gang members though is something I can't see so easily. There isn't enough evidence."Rea just nodded as he began to make the connections I had made, giving him the clues I had found and presenting what I had pieced together. I stood up slowly and stretched a little before turning to Rea."That seems to make the most sense but it just seems too complicated. Without the reason nor the exact time we can't narrow down when the gang members were murdered and without camera's, we can't look into it. So the best thing to do is leave it to professionals and our officers. Hey, look at the bright side though, with this many dead gang members, we can get a good nights sleep."I looked at Rea with my eyes wide in shock at the cold hearted statement that he had just made to me but sighed. He was right, this might've come off with more privilege than it would worry, and that in itself was worrisome but sleep sounded divine. I rubbed the back of my neck and patted Rea's shoulder."If thats the case, then I should go get some sleep then. Night partner."Rea just smiled and pat my back as I passed him, moving through the crowd before slowly making my way back up the stairs and the gentle corridor that was house to my home, and entered my apartment. I walked slowly, leaving the gun on my kitchen table, locking the door, then went to my room and laid down. I blinked once then slowly closed my eyes.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"So why did we do this boss?"A big, burly man with muscles sat in the back of a van on top of the shelf that held the wheel of the car under it, protected by the metal, a gun in his hand while many more littered the floor. A man sat across from him, his face covered by a mask that held eye's all over it, save for the one eyehole that his own peered through. He picked up one of the guns and raised it, pointing it at the ceiling."Do you hear that?"The burly man looked around curiously and listened for anything out of the ordinary before he looked back at the masked man and shrugged. The masked man sighed, and tapped his head with the gun's barrel, a pistol engraved with an insignia that was from one of the gang's. Then he quickly pointed it at the burly man before firing, blood and brain matter decorating the side of the van he was on, before falling to the side, lifeless. The man spoke one more time."THAT. THERES NO MORE SHOOTING. God... I may be patient but the fight with the gangs has been going on for weeks on end... I haven't had any good sleep." His face curled in a smile under the mask as he looked at the lifeless burly man and placed his fingers on his face before closing his eyes. Then he sat back and the eye behind the mask closed itself, sighing in relief as he slowly let the car rock him to sleep, leaving the realm of the people who remained awake with a single word."Goodnight"