Chapter 1

DOA

9.14.2004
11:30 pm

"Nine-one-one. What is the address of your emergency," stated the dispatcher. The phone line was silent. "Hello, what is the address of your emergency?"

The little voice came on the phone, the high pitch, the shaky voice, the I-am-scared-can-you-please-help voice stated her address for the dispatcher. The dispatcher could tell from the voice that this was a little child, girl-to be specific.

Poor thing thought the dispatcher.

"What is the nature of your emergency?"

"My dad . . . really mad . . . home . . . my mom . . . he hurt . . . her blood . . . it's every where . . . send help . . . please . . . I gotta hide . . . I . . . he's . . . back!"

The dispatchers eyes filled with liquid, as she contacted the local emergency response , and police departments. Oh, please. Let her be OK!

~

The door shattered as the foot went threw the wood, splinters flying everywhere, armed bodies ran through the passage way.

Every room scanned for danger as they past each portal, when they arrived at the room at the very back of the house. The sound reverberated through the house, deafening some of the police officers.

BOOM. The shot rang out.

BOOM. The police burst down the door.

BOOM. The man's body hit the floor.

His hand covered in glistening substance. The wall behind him was covered with blood and fragments of his grey matter. His wife, what they had assumed was his wife from the nine-one-one phone call, lay on the floor. Her blood scattered everywhere, and a knife lay beside her. The pool of blood at her side was smudged. Maybe the husband had knelt beside her and realized what he had done, bloody hand prints painted her cheeks. The scene was a terrible tragedy.

Suddenly the atmosphere was filled with another familiar sound, GASP.

The gasp for air, for life, for the very breath that sustained us. It was towards the back kitchen, it sounded as though it had come from under the sink. Luckily, the cabinet doors were open just enough to know where the sound had come from. The door had blood smears on the outside.

"Stand back."

They opened the cabinet doors.

The girl lay in the cabinet. The scene brought tears to the lead man's eyes, and bile to his throat. The body laid there her dress torn, half dressed, blood covering her neck and abdomen. The EMT checked out her neck, thankfully, her father had just nicked the edge of her neck, and the blood on the shirt was blood from the cut on the neck. They didn't dare check her other injuries. A female doctor would examine her, since she had been raped, she would be scared to death if a male tried to see the damages to her soul, her innocence.

She was in shock.

When they stabilized her on the gurney, they rushed her to the ambulance. They wanted to get her out of there before she became catatonic. She didn't need to see the scene. She had probably been a witness to the death of her mother, father, and the attempted murder of her body and soul.

The ambulance raced down the highway towards the hospital, its siren blasting in the night awakening every sleeping person and telling them that someone was hurt and needed help.

~

"Baby, I'm sorry that it took me dying to open the barriers in our marriage. I wish I could jump up off my death bed take you in my arms, kiss you, and tell you how much I love you. And maybe, if I had the strength, make love to you. HA, look at me a blubbering mess, confessing my undying love for you and all I can try to do is make you happy. I'm sorry I couldn't give you all you needed in our relationship. I wish I could go back, and give you the time that you needed, and deserved, but no I had my life built around my job not you and I see that now and I do really wish I could change that, but I can't, we only get one lifetime to give our love to our loved ones, and hope that we do the right thing. Oh, Demi, if I had only been as wise in my life as I am in my death, I would give you everything! Oh, my side, it hurts! What is wrong with my side? Help, Hun. Help Me. Oh, my side."

She and her tear laced eyes, face, and shirt came over to look at his side; though the shirt had snot and slobbers on it as well. She didn't see anything, so she lifted the cover.

A gasping oh escaped from her lips. The tears flowed down her checks. The stains on his hospital gown were to much for her brain to process, she did the only thing she could do; she let out a heart pounding, blood quickening, adrenaline coursing alert, "AAAHHHH. HELP. Somebody, Help him. HEEELLLPP. NURSE. NURSE."

The nurses ran to her aid.

The wife ran out the room trying to catch something . . . her breath . . . her husband's escaping soul . . . her life . . . sanity . . . peace . . . hope . . . love . . . help . . . cleansing of her heartache. She ran down the hallway, out the automatic doors, out into the down pour.

~

The EMT had called the hospital to explain the case that they were bringing, so they could prepare for their arrival.

They had just took a right-hand turn onto Black Drive, and were about a two blocks from the hospital speeding far past the speed limit, racing against rain, against death, against the clock.

~

"NNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOO."

The water splashed everywhere. The blood combined with the mud puddle. She lifted her hand to see the jagged edge sticking out the joint of the arm and the hand. The blood poured from her wrist. Her body fell, the water displaced everywhere from the force, the weight, and the speed of her body.

The light . . . go towards the light . . . oh, it is so beautiful . . . come light, come death. I will be with my husband even now . . . oh, how the gates of death do shine.

~

The ambulance had just entered the parking lot. As they speed down towards the ER doors, the lights illuminated on a dark lump in a mud puddle.

"What is that," demanded the driver to the passenger.

"Well, I don't know . . . Oh, my G . . . it's a body. Look at the hands, the head, the hair."

EERIERK. BOOM. The ambulance swerved to miss the body, slid on the slick blacktopped surface, and slammed right into the ER doors. The juggernaut of death broke through the glass sliding doors of the ER and became a crushed ornament on the far brick wall.