That girl I met on the train. Why does she look so familiar? That was the only thought that raced through my head since I had that encounter. I looked around my office to try and distract myself from thinking about the girl. With my legs propped up onto my desk and the heels of my boots playing with the lamp string on my desk, I start to let my mind wander about a case where I wore a similar pair of these boots. That kid…I wonder what happened to her. None of my coworkers would tell me what happened after that case and that kid just went missing. I still refuse to believe that child killed a man, the case went cold and no one knew where that little girl went. Shutting my eyes for a moment, I take a deep breath and let my mind stop. I need to focus on the case I was even tasked to do and that was to find this goddamn little vigilante who keeps killing all these Child predators. Not that any of what they do is necessarily bad, but that still doesn’t condone them to killing. Slipping into my coat and placing my gloves on, I sigh and decide to head home after a long day of work. My home is not much, it's merely just a little cottage out on the outskirts of the city and the same train I met that girl. I wonder if I could see her today. 

I walk out of the building and start walking out into the streets. The streets are lit with neon lights as the sun starts to set. Taking a deep breath, I make my way to the train station. Nothing interesting happened other than a stray black cat with these beautiful purple-blue eyes walking up to me for pets. What an odd cat, and what strange eyes. They remind me of someone, but I just can’t place my finger on it. Strolling through the streets where very few people were out, I finally made it to the train station, and I stood on the edge of the yellow line of the platform waiting for the train to come. I look to my right and left, observing the people around me, then I see her. Her beautiful long black hair was perfectly curled, like a calm sea of black. Those eyes remind me of the deep ocean and the night sky. I just stood there and looked at her. Just admiring her beauty. I noticed her clothes and it clicked. That’s no woman— that's a schoolgirl. Part of me wants to avert myself, but the other part reminds me that this girl could be the same age as that little girl from the house invasion case. Confusion rose in me. Why did I think like that? 

The train pulls in and I start to follow her. I watch as she sits down in a seat. Gazing at her phone, she doesn’t notice me. Well, I guess that’s a good thing since she ran away from me the last time we met. She was quite elusive since we last met, I couldn’t find this girl anywhere on the database. This is odd because that implies that she’s not from here or she doesn’t exist. She does exist, so she is not from here. Sitting for a while I decided to approach her as I noticed her stop was the next one coming along. I walked up to her and said, “Hello, my name is Detective Tanya, how are you?” She looked at me with wide eyes and slowly glanced at the doors. She looks back at me with fear and betrayal. Betrayal? She stands up out of nowhere and glares at me with so much emotion it almost knocks me back. Those eyes, that’s where I saw them, the little girl from all those years had the same eyes. 

“You abandoned me.”

“What?”

“I said YOU FUCKING ABANDONED ME.”

Suddenly the train slows down and doors open up. I realized at that moment that we were the only ones in the cart and no one was on the platform.  She dashes for the doors, but I grab her wrist tight. I shouted out to her, “WAIT, NO, DON’T GO!”Out of nowhere, she swung her bag and it collided with my head. At the same moment, I fall to the ground and she runs away through the door, leaving me alone again, but this time she left something behind. A knife, a fucking knife, not just any knife, but the same knife that the killer I’ve been looking for was using to kill people in the city. I scrambled off the ground and picked up the knife and ran to the door. As they started to close, I forced my way through and ran after her. If my theory is true then…that would mean she’s the killer and she has been doing this since they met. The poor child I failed to protect is now a blood-thirsty killer that I have to stop. I am a terrible person, aren’t I? I chase after her screaming out for her. We kept running past people, she kept knocking things and people over as we ran and I was stuck behind the chaos. Through alleys, roads, and whatever you could find in a city at night, we just kept running. At one point, the damn girl jumped over a chain link fence, and when I tried to follow her I lost my coat to the fence. 

Finally, we stopped at the edge of the city where a forest lies. Running through the forest.  I started to get tired of running, but I knew I had to get her. With renewed determination, I kept running after her through the forest, until we made it a clearing. Suddenly, she collapsed on her knees and started to shake. Suddenly,  I hear a heartbreaking sound, a sound I wish I had never heard. Her sobbing. In her trembling voice, she started to talk. 

“W-why…why did you leave me that night? I trusted you and you just left me.”

“I am sorry.”

“Do you know what he did to me?”

“I’ve been told by the girls in the orphanage.”

“Did you know that would happen?”

“No.” 

I slowly approached her like she was a scared little puppy. I started to try and comfort her as I approached, “Hey, it's okay, look, you can tru—” Suddenly, she wrapped her arms around me, and I thought she was going to hug me. I felt something move in the pocket with the knife and then a sharp pain in my stomach. I look down to see the knife in my stomach, surrounded by blood, and her hand on the knife. Hunching over and curling forward on the ground, I saw that she had stood up and in that moment I made the last mistake I will ever make in my life. 

I threw myself onto my back and pulled out my gun from the holster and shot her in the chest. However, at the same time, she was tossing her knife away. I just shot her, she looked at me wide-eyed with those beautiful eyes and fell to her knees, grasping at her wound. We looked at each other and realized the mistakes we both made at the moment. We hurt each other. We just killed each other and all we wanted was to be safe. She collapsed and fell onto her side. I can tell that life was fading from her and refused to abandon her again. I crawled over to her cling to life as I can feel myself succumbing to my wound. Gently, I got up and held her in my arms as I could feel my life fading away. Then with our last breath, we finally talked

.

“I’m sorry for leaving you.”

“I’m sorry I stabbed you, hehe.”

“I’m sorry for shooting you then.”

“Why did you do it?”

“I had to.”

“Did you?”

“Yes.”

“I see. At least I won’t die alone.”

“At least I can make sure I won’t leave you again.”

Closing our eyes we both die in each other's arms. Maybe in our next life, I could save her. 

The End