• Officer James Hughes was doing his daily rounds around the neighborhoods as usual. Oh how he longed to get out of Detroit, Michigan and go........ he didn’t know, just somewhere.
    His job was dull, really dull, sure he had a speeder or two sometimes but that was only fun if they gave a chase which most of them don’t. But for some reason every time he gave out a ticket he felt sad. He wanted to do something interesting. Well his opinion of what’s really interesting had changed. 2 years ago he thought being a police officer must really be interesting! Interesting my butt! All he did for the last 2 years was train and do traffic control, not chase down a kidnapper like he had hoped. But at the moment nothing interesting has happened. James sighed, I have no idea about what’s interesting anymore, James thought, and its not like I can get another job, the police only let me in because they felt sorry for me!
    You see James has no memories from before 3 years ago. He remembers nothing about going to school or anything, not his parents, any brothers or sisters he might of had, or of any girlfriends he might of had. He sighed; sometimes grief consumed him when he tried to remember anything from before 3 years ago. All he knew when he woke up on that hospital bed 3 years ago was that his name was James (and how to speak) and that was it. The doctors had diagnosed it as ‘memory loss due to trauma’ whatever that meant. Anyway it totally bugged him that he couldn’t remember because the doctors had said “Don’t worry you’ll probably remember sooner or later, probably anyway.” It was comforting at the time but now it was not so comforting. What if he never remembered?
    His watch beeped interrupting his train of thought. Good, he thought, my shifts over. James sighed with relief, he got to go home. Well it wasn’t exactly his home anyway, he was renting a room. Liz (the person he is renting the room from) and her daughter Anne are like family to him. Anne’s father left Liz as soon as Anne was born. James looked forward to seeing them again.
    Lost in his daydream, he stared out the window waiting for the light to turn green, when suddenly wave of familiarity stuck him when his eyes fell on a 12 year old girl with navy hair and green eyes, the pupils widening with surprise. His hand subconsciously went toward his gun. James stared at his hand dumbstruck, why did my hand act on its own? Was it a warning of some kind? He abandoned that thought immediately, why would it be a warning I’ve never seen that girl before in my life! Yet why did he know her? His brain flooded with questions he didn’t have the answers to, his head felt like it was going to explode!
    He clutched his head as he sped away (the light had turned green). He should have been paying attention to the road but instead he was raking his brain for answers. No answer came but a wave of despair did along with a frightening image of the girl he saw a few moments ago slaming her palm against his forehead smiling evilly at him. Even as the image faded away he could still feel her gaze on him. James was very disturbed, so disturbed in fact that he ran a red light. He hadn’t realized this at all, he was too freaked out from the images that kept interrupting his view on the road.
    He started clawing at his head, it hurt like hell. In fact, his whole body hurt, like it was on fire. His eyes finally came into focus and noticed the outside world covered in flames. He also noticed the airbag deflated over him that had protected him from the windshield that shattered, though some of the glass shards were poking up from his skin alongside chemical burns. He was afraid to see what his face looked like.
    The heat was intense; the flames covered the whole front end of the car. James thoughts were interrupted by a sudden banging on the drivers side door. The navy haired girl was standing there, her mouth formed words but James couldn’t hear her. Why is she here isn’t she evil? Why would she want to save me? He looked again to see a fireman push her aside, then rush back to get him. The fireman yanked the door open and said, “Can you stand?” James just stared, his mind wearily trying to comprehend what he said. The fireman hearing no response carried James to a stretcher.
    He was vaguely aware of his body being strapped down and people rushing around, but all of that didn’t seem to matter anymore. He knew he was dying, he could feel it, feel the tugging of an unknown force. His mouth twitched upward into a small, grim smile as he gave up resisting to the tugging and faded away.