Walk with Me

Author's Note: This is an entry for SnakeTongue237's Title Writing Concept. My title was "Walk With Me".
As the 5-year old ran out to play in the yard, she excitedly jumped up and down as Josephine looked at her and smiled. She watched her daughter run around and play silly games for a few minutes before she realized that the house phone was ringing. She glanced at her daughter quickly, afraid to leave her alone.

Josephine quickly yelled to her daughter, “I’ll be back in a couple minutes. Just remember not to wander off!”

As she went to grab the phone, the daughter continued to play her games, going from pretending she was on the moon to back in prehistoric times.

Her games were interrupted when she tripped on a rock, crashing on the bright green grass below. She slowly rose with no injuries when she realized exactly how eerie the town was.

The town was completely quiet. The only sounds emitting from the town seemed to be those of her own, slow footsteps as she walked across the lawn. Suddenly, she heard a voice call out, “Hey, Emily!”

The young child turned around to see a man in a uniform with a wide smile. He seemed to have an almost gold badge on his chest, which Emily thought looked very nice. The man said in a deep voice, “You wanna go on a walk?”

Emily stood there as though her legs were glued to the grass. She replied with, “Who are you?”

The man laughed and continued his enthusiastic smile before uttering, “I’m your friend! You are playing all by yourself with nobody to play with, so I thought I would come play with you!”

The man just kept that grin on, as though nothing could get rid of it. Emily began to carefully step forward, still unsure if she could trust this man. However, something about the way he presented himself made him seem almost familiar. It was as if she had known this person her whole life, and that she could trust him.

The man noticed her sluggish walk towards him and just smiled wider. “Come on, dear. Walk with me.”

Finally, she reached him. The man put his arm around Emily, made sure to keep smiling, and stabbed her in the chest multiple times. He then threw the body over in the nearby bushes, laughed to himself, and waited for the perfect moment to execute his plan.

When Josephine arrived back outside, she immediately panicked. She called out her name, but never heard or saw Emily come running back to the yard. After minutes of looking around and yelling, she quickly began to walk inside.

After dialing the police, telling them of the missing child, she collapsed on the couch for a minute and broke down into sobbing.

Her daughter was gone. The only daughter she had, the only person she really cared about after the events of the past few years, and she might never be found.

Both of her parents had died earlier that month in a car accident, and she had divorced her insane husband the previous year. Therefore, the only person she could really care about was poor Emily, who might have wandered off to who knows where.

Josephine’s eyes widened as she thought of all the horrific things that could have occurred, but when she thought about it for just a mere second, she realized exactly what must have happened. Her mind flashed back to the previous week.

“Mummy, can we watch some TV?” Emily said loudly as Josephine finished cleaning up from dinner.

“I have the news on right now, but I can turn on something upstairs.” Emily’s mother said as she stopped washing the dishes and started to climb up the stairs.

After turning the television on and selecting Nickelodeon, she left Emily there as she went back downstairs to finish cleaning. About 10 minutes passed when she heard the man on the news say, “Nick Basqueck,” causing her to instantly tune in to hear every word the news-person said.

“After being forced into life imprisonment, Basqueck and 2 other criminals broke out of prison after…”

Josephine didn’t need to hear a word more. Her husband, after the incident that occurred, was now going to wander around wherever he wished to be, but this time had to have a goal in mind.

Since she was the one that divorced him, she had a feeling that she was going to come after her and hurt her in an emotional way equal to the way she affected him. The thought of it caused Josephine to suddenly feel nervous for the fate of her child, and pray that Nick would be caught before anything life-changing occurred.

Josephine quickly ran up to be with her child, hoping to god that Nick wouldn’t have gotten there first. Josephine gave a sigh of relief as she realized that the child molester she used to call a husband wasn’t sitting in the room with her daughter.

Back in the present, Josephine stood up as she heard the doorbell ring. Anxious and frightened, she opened up the door to see a relatively young police officer standing there. He wore a helmet, as well as sunglasses. Considering it was July, Josephine paid no mind to it.

“Did you find her? Did you find him?” She sputtered out as fast as she could.

The officer took a deep breath before replying in a low, deep voice, “I’m afraid we found your daughter.”

The worried mother took a sigh of relief before processing the sentence again. “I’m afraid? What happened?”

The officer replied, “Your daughter was murdered. Stabbed multiple times. We found her not too far from here."

Josephine stood there, frozen in shock. She knew that something like this was going to happen, but now that she was confronted with the truth, she couldn’t believe it.

Beforehand, she had dealt with her anxiety and made sure to always keep an eye on her child. Now, her one mistake completely changed her life.

She sobbed for a bit before the officer came to comfort her. “There, there. You’ll be joining her soon.”

Josephine suddenly noticed what the officer had just said. Then, she began to recognize his voice.

The pieces came together when she noticed the flashing lights of a police car pulling up in her driveway. There was no sign of any other police vehicle already there.

As Josephine began to back away, the officer smirked. “Now Josephine, don’t walk away from me. Walk with me. I’m a police officer, so you should have absolutely nothing to fear.”

Nick pulled off his sunglasses, pulled out a blood-covered knife, and stabbed Josephine right in the chest.