“I remember her innocent face; she was so pure and kind. Yet was scarred unwillingly and involuntary. She didn’t have to do it. They took her away from us, I couldn’t protect her the way I wanted to. It saddens me every day knowing that she will never come back to me. Hopefully, I can get over it and try to live my life the way she would’ve wanted me to.”

***

Tyler opened his eyes to see that he was lying in a pool of blood and tears. He didn’t know where he was or how he got there. He looked around to see a girl’s lifeless body lying on top of him. He moved her long curly hair from in front of her eyes and he proceeded to sob all over again. He remembered why he was there and what happened and how he ended up in that situation.

“Desi, why did you do this?” He said. “Why didn’t you come to me to help?”

***

Six Months Earlier…

Desirae, or “Desi” as she liked to be called, was Tyler’s younger sister. And she committed suicide by hanging, but no one notified Tyler of her suicide because he had no way of contacting her. Before she committed suicide, he left his aunt’s house when he was eighteen, he only saw her one more time after that when she was 12 or 13 years old. He couldn’t remember, it was so long ago according to him. The only thing that he remembered was that his aunt told him that if he tried to go to the police about what she was doing to Desi, that she would cut off all communication between them. Of course, Tyler, being the kind of guy to make people mean what they say, went to the police for alleged child abuse. When a worker from child protective services came to investigate what Tyler had told the police; their aunt, daughter, Desi, and their mother weren’t at their aunt’s house. The aunt had a feeling that Tyler was going to the police to show his “manliness” and brushed off whatever threatening message that she told him. So, their aunt forced Desi and her mother into a car and drove to another part of the city to live with one of their aunt’s boyfriends.

“We went to your aunt’s place of residence—”

“Step…aunt. She’s our step-aunt.” Tyler interrupted.

“Right, my apologies. Step-aunt.” She said. “Well, we went to her place of residence, and she wasn’t there—”

“Bullshit!” Tyler shouted. “How do you know?”

“Well, we knocked on the door and tried looking through the windows. We believe that she was aware that we were on to her and left the area abruptly.”

“Wait… what do you mean ‘we believe’? What are you saying?”

“We have been informed by her school’s teacher and principal that she had bruising, scars, and burn marks on her legs, neck, and wrists.”

Hearing this, Tyler was enraged. He tried to remain calm as the social worker was telling him the awful things that were happening to his sister. But in the back of his mind, he knew that something needed to be done. The only thing that was concerning to him was that he couldn’t take his sister and mother away from his aunt.

“Do you know the name of your step-aunt?” The social worker asked.

“Her name? It’s Andrea Stevens. Why is that important?”

“So, we can send this information to the police so they can track her down and hopefully find her, and then when that happens, we will go out there to talk to her.”

“So, by ‘we’, you mean…?”

“Child protective services and also the police to confront your step-aunt about the abuse.”

Tyler stood back and thought about the fact that he couldn’t do anything to help his sister at the moment because he didn’t know where she was. The only thing he could do was hope that by giving his aunt’s name to the police that they would be able to find where she could’ve taken them to.

“Umm… excuse me? Mister?”

Tyler started to see his aunt standing in front of him. She was just standing there looking down at him like he was beneath her, like how she did when he was younger. As he stood there looking at her, he started to see blood dripping from her nose and eyes and then started to see bruises and rope marks all over her wrists and neck, like someone had tortured her violently. Then he had a flash of him standing above his aunt and her daughter lying in a pool of blood. He started to hyperventilate and felt very dizzy after having that thought.

“Sir, are you alright?” The social worker asked concerned.

He couldn’t respond, he didn’t know what was happening. What was causing him to have that sudden dark and violent thought about his aunt and her daughter lying there dead in a pool of blood? He couldn’t understand why he was thinking about a thought so vivid and demented. He had a couple of these thoughts before, but they weren’t as violent as that one. After being guided to a nearby chair, Tyler was handed a cup of water and was told to take a deep breath and was asked to be taken to a hospital; to which he declined, saying that it was just a sudden intrusive thought and that it shouldn’t worried about too much. But in the back of his mind, he still knew that something was wrong that needed to be resolved.

“Since you just had a slight episode of panic and anxiety, I’ll just come back in a few minutes. Please feel free to walk around the office to stretch your legs or ask for water. I’ll be back shortly.”

The social worker stepped out of the main room and walked into an office room, presumably her office room, but Tyler wasn’t sure. He wasn’t sure about a lot of things at the moment, he wasn’t sure about where his sister was, or why his aunt just up and left without saying anything and decided to run from the child protective services and the police. Nothing was making sense to him, and he couldn’t understand why all of these events were happening. He was worried about the situation that his sister was in and the living conditions that his aunt has them living in.

“That bitch is responsible for this,” Tyler muttered. “I would find out where she is, and I would kill her my damn self. She doesn’t deserve to live, let alone a chance to explain herself. She did this. I want answers, that’s all I want. Are some fucking answers.”

Tyler proceeded to get up and started pacing back and forth in long strides and was shaking his entire body in anger and frustration. He was so aggressive and loud with his movements and was muttering so loud to himself that some people started staring at him and were looking at him like he was a psychopath because of his unexpected actions. But he couldn’t help himself because of what was happening to his sister. He knew he had to do something about it and potentially find his sister and save her from whatever hell she was in.

After twenty minutes, the social worker came out of the office, but as she was walking out of the office, police were walking into the building. This concerned Tyler, yet it made him feel at ease just a little because he knew that he could go to the police and tell them about his aunt and what she was doing to his sister.

“Officers, I’m so glad you came.” The social worker said. “This is the man I was talking about.”

Tyler looked at the social worker with confusion because he didn’t know what she meant by he’s the man she’s talking about. However, that didn’t matter because the police were already walking to the building with a skeptical perspective about Tyler because of what the social worker had told them while she was in the office. She told him that Tyler had a “panic attack” and then while Tyler was just venting out loud to himself, she made it sound like he was a crazy, deranged person of his odd behavior. So, instead of Tyler getting the opportunity to explain to the police what had been happening with his sister; the police instead decided to ask Tyler some questions down at the police station. That confused Tyler because he didn’t understand what was happening and why the police officers traveled down to the child protective services building for those reasons that Tyler wasn’t aware of.

“Is there a way we can speak to Mr. Wilson in private, ma’am?” One of the officers asked.

“Oh, yes, of course.” She said. “Right this way, follow me please.”

They all followed the social worker to an empty office room towards the rear of the building, however, the room that she put them in was intentionally decided on by both the social worker and the police officers. Because of Tyler’s abrupt behavior, they felt it was necessary to put at least one officer in the room with him while the other one sits outside of the room, just in case something bad were to happen and backup needed to be called.

“Hello Mr. Wilson, I assume you’re wondering why we’re here speaking to you in a situation such as this.” The officer said.

Tyler looked around the room and saw that there was a big window and also a big, long station-like section in front of where they were. There were more social workers and the other police officer standing out there trying not to look like they were listening, even though they were.

“Well, I don’t know why I was brought into this room to speak to you privately, I was only wanting to talk about my sister and what was going on with my aunt. I wasn’t expecting to be thrown into a situation like this, let alone be talking to a police officer.” Tyler said.

“Well, whatever you have to tell the social worker; you can tell me. I can help you just like she can.”

“But you’re not the child protective services.”

“But we can together with child protective services to better help your situation with your family.”

Tyler was feeling very skeptical about this police officer and what they were saying, he didn’t know whether to believe this person or not. Because, he didn’t really trust anyone except for his sister and mother. So, asking Tyler to basically put his trust into this person that is coming off so aggressively towards him, is almost ridiculous in Tyler’s eyes. But what other choices did he have? His sister was nowhere to be found; God only knows what their aunt may be doing to them. Only if their aunt was doing something to his sister in the first place.

Was she?

Tyler was sure of it, that’s why he went to child protective services, to begin with, because of the abuse that was going on when he wasn’t there. The only problem is that…

“…You don’t actually have proof that any abuse was going on at all, do you?” The police officer asked.

“What do you mean ‘actual proof’? I’m sure of it!” Tyler exclaimed. “Find my sister and she’ll show you!”

“So, you’re saying that there are actual marks and bruises on your sister’s body?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m telling you!”

“When was the last time you saw your sister?”

Tyler had to think about that question for a long while. The last time he spoke to his sister, he was eighteen years old. That’s when he was going off to college, or in his words, “trying to get away from the hell that God put me in for some reason”. But then, he remembered that he saw her one last time a couple of months ago because he got a letter from his sister saying that she missed him and that she wants him to get her and their mother.

“…So, when I arrived at the last known location that our step-aunt was living at, I knocked on the door; she opened it…”

Tyler paused for a long time. The room was still as Tyler tried to prepare himself for the daunting memory that his aunt bestowed upon him. Tears started falling from his eyes.

“She told me that if I were to go to the police or anyone about my sister, t—t—that I would never see my sister again.”

Tyler was basically in tears at that point, he couldn’t control himself. He knew that he had to get it out eventually.