Chapter 24
318 Words
24
I give chase through a maze of glass buildings. Empty paved corridors with no sign of Frogger. Only the echoes of his footsteps.
I follow the sound to a blind corner. The rear of the courthouse. The hum of an air conditioning system coming out of the vents.
I wait and listen. But the beat of a police chopper drowns out everything else.
I move slow around the next corner. Just another empty passageway. The tinted green glass of the new law courts rising up high in front of me.
I wait. Both hands on the gun. Finger on the trigger. The chopper beating louder and louder as it searches me out.
I’ve got nothing.
Yet the sun comes out from behind the clouds. A thick wave of light travels up the passageway and casts everything in a bright yellow glow. The sun is warm and lights up the glass in front of me. I see my reflection, crystal clear. And another behind me. A tall, lean figure with a white bandaged hand. Coming out of hiding. Raising his weapon. I whirl around and fire twice. Frogger gets a shot off, but it’s lost to the sky.
He hits the deck. The gun spills from his hand. Blood seeps through his dark-grey hoodie. I think I got him in the heart.
As I stand over Frogger, he coughs up a mouthful of thick blood. “I know you like Neil Diamond,” he says.
His eyes roll white as he takes his last breath. I linger a moment in the warm sunshine. I’ve never been the Bible-bashing kind. But it almost feels like God is talking to me. Helping me out. Telling me I did good.
He speaks to me in a Manchester accent. Screams at me to drop the weapon. To get down on the floor. I turn to my right. I’m faced with four semi-automatic rifle barrels. High-powered kit pointed square at me.
No, it’s definitely not God.
- Writer
