In my heart I knew that I was gonna die, as that train headed straight towards me, all I could think about was her, would she be lonely without me, or just move on with life like nothing happened. I couldn't get her out of my head as those three seconds slowly crept through, like a fox creeps up on its prey, as I watched those headlights I knew it was the end, this was it, no more second chances, no more saying sorry, I couldn't apologize to anyone for the pain that I've caused them, I never even got to tell her that I loved her. This is the end.
It was just any other day, I woke up at seven as always to get ready for another school, I said bye to my parents, and headed out the front door. The day was sunny, the birds were chirping, the kids were playing, just like any other day. On my way to school, I stopped and said hello to Mrs. Roberts that runs the local pastry shop down the road, and can't forget poor ole Mr. Williams that sits on his front porch every morning in his old worn out rocking chair with his coffee in hand reading the local newspaper. Just like any other day.
As I entered the intersection, out of the corner of my eye I noticed a fishy looking man dressed in black. Something about that man didn't sit right with me, even though I knew that I would be late for school, something told me to follow him, and that I did. I followed him without him noticing for around 10 minutes until we reached a dark back alley. As I peeked around the corner I could only imagine what I would see as I turned my head, would it be a dead body, an illegal drug deal, maybe a stolen scooter. No. As I looked around the corner, to my surprise I saw a girl, she was about 5'4, long blonde hair, and dark blue eyes, around my age. She was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. I could only wonder what she was doing with a guy like that. Intrigued I kept watching, the girl seemed very uncomfortable around the man, some few moments later, the man grabs her by the arm and starts unbuttoning her shirt. She tried to resist but he wouldn't stop. I knew that I had to stop him. I was ready for any consequences attached to helping her. As I took my first step I froze. I couldn't move. My head was all over the place. "What if he has a gun?, a knife maybe, what if he kills me?" I wondered. I then remembered the words my grandma told me the night she died. "Always do the right thing, even if it ends up hurting you in the end. Would you rather end up regretting doing the right thing, or regret doing nothing." As I thought about the words my grandma had said to me, it gave me the little boost of courage I needed to keep going, to put my life in danger to save someone else. I then remembered that I had a baseball bat in the side of my backpack, that I use everyday at baseball practice. With bat in hand I sneak up behind the man the girl notices me, but doesn't react like so, I come up behind the guy, take my baseball bat to the back of his head and he falls to the ground. I take the girl by the hand and quickly escort her out of that alleyway. And I let her go. I didn't ask her who the man was as it was none of my business. I vowed to not mention this to anyone, so I went on with my day as normal. This was not any other day, little did I know, this day would change my life forever.
The next day, as I woke up and started my daily routine, I overheard the local news station, "man found dead" I thought of it as just another senseless murder, but for some reason I kept listening, as I was brushing my teeth the news anchor mentioned that the person was identified as 34 year old Michael Richardson, he was found in a back alley with a wound on the head. The same back alley, where I saved that girl. At that moment my soul felt like it left my body, does this make me a murderer? Should I turn myself in? Would the police believe my story? Those were just a select few of the thoughts that were going through my head.
Proceeding through the door, I forgot to say bye to my parents, as this was still weighing heavy on my mind. I walked with my head down the entire time not even saying hello to Mrs. Roberts or to Mr. Williams like I always do. When I arrived at school I cleared my mind, I didn't want anyone to notice that I was acting strange. So I proceeded through the first part of the school day as normal. Half way through daydreaming during the first period the teacher gets the attention of everyone in the class. As everyone's attention was focused on him he announced that we were getting a transfer student. As everyone was causing an uproar about if the transfer student was a sexy girl, or maybe a hot guy, the door slowly creeps open revealing a girl. The same girl I had saved the day before.
During our lunch mod, I noticed that the girl was sitting alone not touching a thing on her plate. I proceeded to sit down across from her, she acted as if she didn't even notice me as she kept staring at the table with those empty eyes of hers. I ask her why she's sitting alone, no response. Finally I managed to get a quiet response from her as I asked her, her name. Ann she mumbled with that same empty look of hers.
A couple days go bye, I continue to sit with Ann everyday during lunch, she starts opening up to me explaining what she was doing in that alleyway with that guy. She explained to me how her family is low on money, her single mom works two jobs and she has three younger siblings, she explains that prostitution is the only way for her family to get by. I could do nothing but feel sorry for her. I said nothing in response.
On my way to school the next day I was surprised to see Ann standing outside of my house, how she got my address I do not know. She explains to me that a local convenience store had a security camera pointed towards the alley at which I had killed that man. The police now have mine and her face now on camera, the police have already searched her house and questioned her mom, thankfully she was not there at the time, mine was next. As I worried about the grave outcomes I figured that the only thing I could do was run away from home and not trouble my parents with something that I had started. I took Ann and we headed towards the next town.
We found a little abandoned drug store in a somewhat less populated area on the outskirts of the city. I figured that would be the best place to hideout since no one knew us and it would be hard for the police to find us. A few days went by of scavenging through trash cans and stealing produce from food stands while the owners were not looking. I didn't like doing that type of thing but I had to do whatever necessary to keep us alive. We usually took turns going out a couple times a day to look for food or whatever else we thought would be useful.
One day I go out and dig through the garbage like a stray dog looking for something to eat just to get by. Little did I know, a local shop owner recognized me from the security cam footage and contacted the police department. I hear the sirens so I take off through the city, the opposite direction of the abandoned drug store, as I didn't want the police to be directed towards Ann. I came to a railroad crossing, a train was very close, I knew I was taking a big risk if I tried to cross the railroad but I had no other choice. If I waited for the train to cross the police would catch me. If I made it across the train would block the police and I would be home free. I take the risk of crossing the railroad only to realize that my shoe was untied from running for hours. It was too late. I had already tripped over it when I had realized. I was there, right in the train tracks laying face first with a train six yards away. I didn't have enough time to get up, this was it.
In my heart I knew that I was gonna die, as that train headed straight towards me, all I could think about was her, would she be lonely without me, or just move on with life like nothing happened. I couldn't get her out of my head as those three seconds slowly crept through, like a fox creeps up on its prey, as I watched those headlights I knew it was the end, this was it, no more second chances, no more saying sorry, I couldn't apologize to anyone for the pain that I've caused them, I never even got to tell her that I loved her. This is the end.
