Jackson

It was raining that day. It was a light shower, but it was predicted that it was going to become a thunderstorm later that day. I sat on the couch in my family’s living room, my two younger brothers and three younger sisters all sat on the floor as we watched the Saturday morning cartoons. That’s what twelve years old and under usually did. My parents were up in their bedroom getting dressed to go out. Today was the day that they usually went out shopping for groceries and took all of us out for a fancy dinner.

“Okay babies, your father and I are about to head out, so make sure you all listen to Jackson, understand?” Our mother stood at the front door, our father right behind her. My siblings had all looked up at the same time in acknowledgment. “Bye, we love you all! We’ll be home in a bit.” We had all said that we loved them back, but we didn’t know that would be the last time we saw them. I watched out the window as the car backed out of the driveway and drove off from the house.

Hours were passing, it was dark outside. Just like predicted, the thunderstorm had started and my youngest brother was starting to complain about being hungry. “Jaaaaaackson, when are mommy and daddy gonna get home? Aren’t they usually home by now? I’m getting hungry!!” I had looked up at the clock and then at my brother. “They should be home by now. I’ll make you a small snack to hold you off until they get home, okay?” My brother nodded, I headed into the kitchen where our snacks were.

Crack! Lightning flashed across the sky, causing the house lights to flicker. My sisters had screamed, they all were afraid of lightning and the dark. It was almost an hour until we were all supposed to be in bed for school the next morning. “Jackson, when are we going to eat?” My sister was tugging at my shirt, tears welling up in her eyes. “In just a few minutes. I’ll make something.” I headed back to the kitchen and paced around the room. ‘What can I make for them? They can be so picky sometimes.’

The lights flickered once more as lightning flashed across the sky. I heard my siblings scream. “Okay everyone,” I said to my siblings. “Let’s get to the kitchen and I’ll make some sammies.” Back then my parents called sandwiches sammies for my siblings considering they were all pretty young. They all headed into the kitchen and sat at the table as they watched me fix their food.

Once fed I put them all to bed and sat back down in the living room, looking out the window as I waited for our parents to return.

Knock. Knock. I was startled awake. I had fallen asleep on the couch waiting on my parents. I looked up at the clock at the wall. 1:14 am. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and glanced out the window to see who was there. I saw blue lights flashing in front of the house and my heart sank. I was barely able to make out the print “POLICE.” The rain was coming down hard enough to make it hard to see.

I got up and opened the door. In front of me, an officer stood, staring down at me. “Are you Jackson Bridges?” I nodded. “Bring her in.” The police said into his radio. The next moment I heard a car door slam shut, and footsteps running towards the front door.

There stood another officer with a woman who looked much older. “Jackson, do you recognize her?” I looked up at the woman and met her eyes. She had the same green eyes like me, and her face reminded me of my mother’s. It finally clicked. “Grandma!”

It had been years since I had last seen my grandmother. My mother had told me that grandma had moved across the country, that it would be a while before I saw her again because of that. “Is it alright if we come in?” The officer asked. I stared at my grandmother, unsure of what answer to give. “It’s going to be okay sweetie.” I nodded then stepped back, holding the door open for the three. I lead them to the living room.

“So what brings you here grandma?” I had questioned. My grandmother’s expression had turned into a sad one. “Jackson, honey…” She said softly. She reached out for me as if she wanted to hug me. I went into her arms and she hugged me tightly. “With what I’m about to tell you, you have to be strong, okay?” I nodded, unable to talk from having my face buried into her shoulder.

“Your mother and father… They… They got into a terrible car accident. They were on the way home when someone on the opposite side of the road lost control of their car in this rain and your parents tried to avoid a collision, but they ended up driving into a tree. Both of them had died on impact.” I looked up at my grandmother and saw the tears swelling up in her eyes. This wasn’t real, right?

I pulled away, unable to process the news I was just told. “There’s no way they died!” I screamed. I looked at the officers, hoping one of them would tell me this was a sick joke. They looked at me with pity, and I felt sick to my stomach.

Tiny footsteps approached the living room. I turned to face the source to find the youngest of my sisters standing in the doorway. “Jackson? Who are these people?” I glanced over at my grandmother, unsure if I should let her know. My grandmother shook her head, and I looked back at my sister. “Don’t worry about it sis, just go back to bed and I’ll see you in the morning, okay?” She nodded. “Where are mom and dad?” She questioned. My heart had felt like it dropped.

My grandmother was suddenly by my side. She smiled at my sister. “Don’t worry about it honey, just make sure you get to bed.” My sister broke out in a grin. “Grandma!” She shrieked, hugging our grandmother. “There, there. I’m happy to see you, but right now you need to get back in bed. You’ll see me in the morning, okay?” My sister let go and nodded, heading back off to bed.

I wanted until I heard her bedroom door shut before I spoke once more. “Since our parents are dead, what’s going to happen to us?” I couldn’t bear the thought of what would happen to me and my siblings now that our parents were gone. My grandmother patted my shoulder. “Either you and your brothers and sisters will come to move in with me, or I’ll move in here with all of you. I’ll be taking care of you all. We’ll get everything sorted out tomorrow.”

I felt numb. Of course, I was glad my grandmother was here, but why did it have to be at the cost of my parents losing their lives? I wanted to scream. I wanted to break something. I was exhausted. “Jackson, you look like you could use some sleep, honey. So go get in bed, okay? I’ll come to wake you up in the morning before everyone else.” I nodded and headed to my room, the numb feeling growing with every passing minute.

The next day my grandmother had woke me up just like she said. “Would you help me with breakfast honey?” I felt disconnected from the world as I had silently followed her. I was silent the whole time I helped her cook. It was still settling in that I would never see my parents again. We had to break the news to my siblings.

“Hey, grandma?” She hummed in response. “When are we telling the others about mom and dad?” She sighed. “I want to wait until everyone has eaten and then I’ll tell them. After that, I need to figure out if I’ll be moving in here or if you all will be coming with me.”

Breakfast came and went. Dishes had been washed and put away. We all were seated in the living room with our grandmother afterward. I watched our grandmother rub her hands anxiously. “Listen, children, I have news to tell you all.” My siblings were all staring at our grandmother, waiting. “Your parents… Last night on their way home, they got into an accident. They… They died in the accident.” I looked at my brothers and sisters, seeing the confusion on their faces.

“It means we’ll never see mom or dad again. Ever.” They understood. They all burst into tears, I couldn’t stop myself from spacing out. After that day it was decided that we would move in with our grandmother. There were lots of fights and protests over leaving. This was our home, and suddenly we were being told we could no longer stay there. We loved our house. We had so many memories in it, and now we had to leave all those memories behind. It took a few days to get everything packed and into the car, but they did it. With that they had driven off, heading to their new home in a place they had never been, where they knew no one. Where their lives would change forever.

I bolted upright in my bed. I looked around the room. I was at my house. ‘I must have been dreaming,’ I thought, shaking my head. It had been a long time since I last dreamt about that day. I looked at the other side of my bed, only to find it empty. She was gone.

“Good morning Jackson,” a cheery voice called. It was Elisa. I blinked a few times then smiled. ‘I don’t even remember getting to work.’ She held out a cup. “I always saw you getting yourself a cup of coffee each morning when you get here, so I thought I could go ahead and get it for you.” I took the cup from her hand. “Thank you, I appreciate it, but do you know how I like my coffee?” I questioned. I watched as her cheeks turned red. “Well, I had to ask a few people if they knew, and eventually someone told me, so I’m hoping they were right.” I took a sip. It was right on point.

“It’s just the way I like it, again, thank you.” She smiled. Elisa was beautiful. When I first saw her it was hard to believe that her eye color was actually grey. Her eyes had entrapped me. They reminded me of skies right before a storm. The same skies that presented themselves early in the day before my parents died.

Her hair was down today, it looked good. I wanted to run my fingers through her hair, see if it was soft as it looked. I could have stared at her all day. “Jackson?” ‘Ah, I must have spaced out.’ “Sorry Elisa, are you ready to head out?” She nodded. “First we’re going to stop my forensics, see if they had a break with the fingerprints.”

“Officer Bridges, Officer Reynolds,” a lady spoke. We had put in the call to let them know we were coming, she must have been waiting to meet us here. “Yes, that’s us. Are you here to escort us?” The woman smiled, “Yes, if you don’t mind, follow me.” She turned on her heel and led us to the back.

“Stay right here, okay?” She left us in an empty room, we stared around the room, unsure as to what we were waiting for.

Minutes passed before someone finally came into the room. This time it was a male, he looked closer to Elisa’s age. I watched as his eyes skimmed over Elisa, checking her out. I couldn’t stop myself from glaring at him. “So, are you the one that’s going to tell us what we need?” I said rudely, crossing my arms. Hearing my voice snapped him back and he rubbed his neck. “Ah, yes, I am.” He pulled out a form from his pocket and looked down at it.

“We ran the fingerprints in the system to see if it could have been someone we’ve dealt with before, but no one came up. The weird thing is though, we had these fingerprints on file from a case years ago.” I glanced over at Elisa, she was frowning. She looked better with a smile. “Is there anything about the previous case you can tell us about?” She questioned.

“All I can say is that you’ll have to dig back into this one. It was a case from 3 years ago. I don’t know much else, that’s all I can really tell you.” I nodded. “Thank you for the information. Let’s go, Elisa.” I led us out of there. There was one place I had to go now. I had to go through cold cases from 3 years ago, it might contain a clue to help us find our killer.

“You can look through this, while I looked through the other one. Does that work for you?” I asked Elisa, placing a stack of paper in front of her. We had gotten permission to go through the cases, and to my surprise, there were more cold cases from 3 years ago than I would have thought. She nodded, grabbing the first case from the stack. “If you find anything, let me know, okay?” She nodded once more, now intensely focusing on the task at hand.

“Nothing, nothing…” I muttered to myself, leafing through the cases in my pile. Nothing was standing out that could be related to our case. I leaned back in my chair and stretched. My stomach rumbled. I glanced at the time. It was almost one o’clock. “Hey, Elisa, are you hungry?” Looking at her I could tell she was lost in reading over the reports. Strands of her hair were falling into her face, but she tucked them behind her ear as quickly as they fell. I loved the sight.

I got up and walked over to her, placing a hand on her desk, this caught her attention. She looked up at me, her mouth slightly opened. “Are you hungry?” I asked again. She blushed and shut her mouth, nodding. “Uh, yes, I am.” She admitted sheepishly.

“I’ll order us some pizza then. Is that okay?” “That’s fine, I like regular cheese though.” I smiled. “Got it.” I walked out of the room and took out my phone, making a call for our order.

It didn’t take long before I had to meet the pizza guy up at the front desk. I tipped him and took the two pizzas I had ordered, heading back to the room I left Elisa in.

“Look what I got!” I practically sang. “Oooh! It smells so good!” She got up from her table and walked towards me. I handed her a box. “All for you. Eat as much as you want.” She nodded again. “Let’s take our break while we eat, okay?” I sat down at my desk with my pizza.

“So, if it’s okay to ask, how old are you?’ Elisa asked. Her question took me by surprise that I almost choked on my pizza. “I’m sorry!” She was starting to get up. I held my hand up. “No, I’m alright, don’t worry. I just wasn’t expecting that. To answer your question, I’m 29, I’ll be turning 30 next month.” She looked surprised.

“Why? How old do I look to you?” She blushed. “I uh, thought you were closer to 35.” She muttered, looking down. ‘Wow, that stung.’ “I don’t mean it in the way you think!” She said hurriedly. “You have always had that air about you that made you seem really mature. So I assumed you were older.” I chuckled. “I’m glad you thought that. Since you asked me, can I have the pleasure of asking you for your age?”

“24.” I whistled. “Wow, almost a 6-year difference. What made you want to be an officer?” I took another bite of my pizza as she looked off in the distance as if she was thinking about what kind of answer she wanted to give me. “Well, I always just wanted to keep people safe. This town is my home, and I want to make sure everyone is treated fairly and that they are all kept safe.” I nodded. I had the feeling she was the kind of person who wanted to protect others. “What about you?”

“I guess you could say it’s the same reason as you, except that it’s not specifically because I was raised here. In general, I want to keep others safe. I’ve seen a lot growing up, I’ve seen a lot that needs to be changed. I want to help make that change. Without someone on the inside to try and make a change, then change is never going to happen.” She was grinning from ear to ear, causing me to blush.

“What is it?” I tried looking down to hide my blush from her. “That answer. I haven’t met a single officer yet who has said they wanted to make a change. Everyone knows a change needs to happen, but no one seems to care about making that change happen, so it’s good to know we have someone else in the force who wants to make things better.” Her saying that made me happy, it felt as if we now shared a common goal, that we have grown closer.

“Well, I’m going to get back to going through these cases, as soon as I see something I’ll let you know.” I nodded. “I should do the same.” I put the rest of my pizza to the side, then grabbed the next case from my now dwindling stack.

There was a loud gasp, and I looked up. Elisa had her hands covering her mouth, tears welling up in her eyes. I shot up out of my chair and went over to her, placing a hand on her shoulder and giving a slight squeeze. “Elisa, what’s wrong?” Her hands were shaking. “This case has to be the one.” Her voice even sounded shaky. I grabbed it from her and skimmed it. The case was almost the same. Someone had been slaughtered and skinned, their skin having been used as curtains, their bones being the only thing missing.

Tears were streaming down her cheeks and I was instantly washed over with worry. “Elisa, talk to me, what’s wrong?” “This case… It’s my sister’s father’s case. I never knew the actual details besides that he had been murdered. Knowing that the one who killed him also killed someone else in my town bothers me to my core.” She wiped away her tears.

“Your sister’s father?” I questioned. “Yeah, my father apparently ditched my mother when he found out she was pregnant. When I was about five years old my mother had met someone and they started dating, they really loved each other and they got married. When I was thirteen they had a child together, Elizabeth, He was murdered when I was twenty-one and she was just eight. To me, he was also my father. My sister has the same last name as me though, because my mother didn’t want us to be questioned about having different last names.” The sadness in her eyes made my heart tug.

“I’m so sorry Elisa, are you going to be okay?” She nodded. “I’ll be fine. I just want to find him and bring him to justice for the family he murdered and for my father.” She stood up, looking me right in the eyes. In her eyes, I could see a storm brewing. “Let’s catch him and make him pay for what he did.” “We’ll get him, I’ll make sure of it.”

She smiled. It made my heart melt. “We found what we were looking for so I think we should head out now and put in a report, are you ready?” She nodded, clearly determined to get the case solved.

Back at the department, I walked up to my boss’s office, knocking on the door. “Come in.” Came his gruff voice. He looked up at me. “What is it, Bridges?” I had Elisa’s father’s case in my hand. I placed the file down in front of him. “I want this case to be reopened.” He snorted at me. “Do you not have your own case you need to be worrying about right now?” I nodded. “Yes sir, but I’m positive that this case has ties to the one I’m currently working on. The way that man was murdered and how he was skinned as well as his bones being the only thing missing from the crime ties directly to what happened to the family in my case.”

There was a pause. I was beginning to worry. ‘What if he doesn’t reopen the case?’ I bit my bottom lip. “Okay, fine. I’ll have it be reopened. I’m also placing the case under you to investigate since there seems to be a connection.” I couldn’t stop the smile that made its way onto my lips. “Thank you, sir!” The people in this town might not be people I grew up with or know well, but I was going to make sure they could feel safe in their homes. I wasn’t going to allow another senseless murder to take place, not under my watch.

“Elisa, I got the Cap to reopen the case. He’s putting it under me since there’s a connection between the two cases. Hopefully, this gets us one step closer to catching the sick freak who did this.” She smiled. “Thank you, Jackson, seriously. I don’t know how I can ever repay you.”

“You don’t.” “No, seriously, please, tell me what I can do to repay you for doing that for me. I’m never going to let it go.” I paused for a moment. ‘This could be a good chance to get to know her better.’ “How about… You make me dinner?” She looked shocked, I almost took back what I said. “Of course! Just, not tonight. I need to prepare Elizabeth for the fact someone she has never met is coming over, and I have to clean the house.” I smiled. “I didn’t mean tonight Elisa. I just meant whenever you can.”

“Oh.” She blushed. She was cute, I was tempted to reach out and touch her cheek to feel how warm they were. “Well, what about tomorrow night then? I can go home now, tell Elizabeth, go shopping for dinner, and clean up.” I nodded. “That sounds lovely. I look forward to it. Also, good job today Elisa. Let’s crackdown on this case even more tomorrow.”

I held my hand out. She grabbed my hand and we shook. “I look forward to solving this case with you Jackson.” “I look forward to it as well.”