• In the police station of Emerald City, Joe Halmark, a police officer that was well known on the field, was handed another missing persons case file from his chief. "Tanner Bridge, age 15. He's been missing for nearly two weeks now." Joe said as he read the file and then grabbed the other two missing persons files he was working on. "Just a few days before these two disappeared. It's got to be connected somehow." He said to himself. Then when the phone began to ring, Joe answered it before it got to the second ring.

    "Officer Halmark, what's-"

    "Joe! I just saw your daughter, -Jessie, was it?-, get pulled into a van. I think it was a black van, I'm not sure it was too dark to tell."

    "What!?" Joe exclaimed, already started to grab his gun, and coat to take off.
    "It looked like the van went to the old warehousing dock at-"

    "I know where. Thanks!" Joe said, cutting the person on the other end of the phone off and hung up. He grabbed his keys and ran out to his police cruiser without turning on the sirens. The man drove several minutes without traffic issues because of the late hour and pulled into the warehousing docks. On the far side of the old abandoned warehouses, he could see a dark colored van parked. Grabbing the walkie-talkie, he called dispatch, and asked for back up. Joe cursed under his breath when he was told it would be in about fifteen minutes.

    Joe climbed out of the car, with his gun in hand and went to investigate of any signs of activity. He saw a rusted door of one of the farther warehouses were gaped open and bent up like it was force that way, and there was a dim light coming from inside. Cautiously, he went up to the warehouse and peered inside.

    His heart near stopped when he saw a young brunette woman that looked just like his once beloved, Kimberly. It was his daughter, Jessie! She was tied up by her ankles and wrists rope, and she was blindfolded. Then to his surprise he saw two more people, a young man and a young woman were with her, and he recognized them from two of the missing persons files. They appeared to be unconscious. Resisting to just run to his baby girl, Joe checked the area for anyone else and saw no one. Joe climbed inside and went straight to his daughter, then removed her blindfold.

    "Jessie?" Joe whispered, fearing he may be heard if the one responsible was still nearby. "Jessie, wake up." He urged quietly. The teenager stirred and groaned, causing the police officer to sigh in relief. Knowing she was somewhat okay, Joe started to untie the other two captives starting with their blindfolds. "They must have been drugged." Joe muttered to himself, as he checked their stability.

    "Wha- . . . ?" Jessie groaned and looked around confused. He just froze where he was crouched, suddenly afraid to face his daughter. He was afraid that she still hated him for what he had done. The man could hear her climb to her feet as the other two started to stir and wake as well.

    "You. . ." Joe heard Jessie said in shock and in anger. She still hated him. "What are you-?" Jessie started but was cut short when Joe heard someone run up behind her. Quickly, the police officer jumped to his feet and grabbed Jessie's arm, pulling her to the side. Suddenly Joe felt a sudden sharp pain pierce his chest.

    Joe looked down and saw that a knife was dug into his body, and a hand still held the blade. He followed the hand and found the face that belonged to it. It was the fifteen-year old that had gone missing, Tanner Bridge.

    "This was un . . . expected." Joe said, a little in shock and then dropped face first into the ground. He could hear the one who stabbed him grab the other two once missing persons stumble out of the warehouse, leaving his daughter and him alone.

    Everything seemed to become void of all sound except the sound of her own pounding heart and the dying breathes of her savior. The stench of blood was nauseating as it seeped out of the once great policeman's chest. The man had just saved her life, the same man that had abandoned Jessie and her mother, Kimberly to scrape to survive. He was the same man, whom had never come not once, not even to her mother's funeral. Hot and furious tears poured down her sea green eyes as Jessie watched the man she once called Dad die from the blade that was meant for her. She was angry, but mostly confused.

    "Why did you save me when you didn't care about me before?" Jessie asked the man but got no response. Then she heard a woman's scream that suddenly stopped like it was choked off from somewhere outside. The policeman's daughter jumped to her feet, fearing that the man who kidnapped her and brought her here to this forsaken place had come back for her. It was when she realized that the scream must have belonged to the woman that was held captive with her.

    Jessie looked down at the lifeless body and for the first time noticed the sleek black standard weapon in the man's right hand.

    "Stop! Please!" A young man's voice rang out from somewhere a little farther away, beyond the walls of the warehouse. Without a second thought, Jessie grabbed the gun from the man's hand, unable to hold off the shock she felt when her fingers touched his. The skin was still warm, like it was still full of life, just like when she was a child and she used to hold onto that hand.

    "Enough. Stop it!" Jessie hissed at herself. This wasn't the time to be nostalgic. Hurrying, back through the large metal doors that were near rusted shut, she checked to see if the weapon's safety was on. Satisfied with what she saw, she continued in the direction she heard the other's voices come from. She could only hope she wasn't too late.

    Just around the corner of another old abandoned storage warehouse, there was a dark blue van and Jessie saw that the man that kidnapped her and the other captive young man stood. Before because she was blindfolded she had never gotten a chance to see who the killer was, but now that she can she almost couldn't believe it.

    His hair was light blond and messy and he wore dirty street clothes, in his right hand was a bloody knife and his left arm was wrapped around the young man's neck, keeping him from running away or trying to fight back. It was just a boy, a few years younger than her, but he seemed older with the tired bags under his hazel eyes. His eyes, there was a desperate look that made him look so pitiful that made Jessie had the urge to run over and embrace him in a hug and comfort him. The bloodied knife is what kept her from doing so.

    "How could you do this? Why?" Jessie asked, still a little dumbfounded by the discovery of the boy being a kidnapping killer. She didn't understand how he could have done so much wrong.

    "Why?" The boy repeated as he pulled the young man closer and held the crimson blade closer to his face. "It's . . . it's in my blood." He said, as if had tried convinced himself otherwise, but didn't succeed.

    The boy's words left Jessie even more flabbergasted. What did that mean? She shook her head, deciding she didn't care and raised the gun, aiming it at the murderous boy.
    "Please put the knife down and let the hostage go." The policeman's daughter said, like how she had heard Joe Halmark say so many times before.

    The one with the knife bit his lower lip as if it was a habit that had developed over the years. Jessie could barely see that the lip had been chewed raw.

    "I . . . can't." He said, slowly like he wanted to but something wouldn't let him. The guy in the boy's arms started to cry silently from fear. He had seen what the boy had done and was too frightened to attempt to fight him.

    "Yes, you can!" Jessie yelled at him, her voice tried to stay strong and steady like her father's would have been if he was alive and in her position. "Just drop the knife now!" She hadn't noticed that her hands were trembling from the weight of the gun. "I will shoot!" She said before gritting her teeth.

    "Then shoot!" The murderer screamed at her and moved the blade.

    BANG!

    Jessie had pulled the squeezed the trigger, and the knife was dropped. The young man quickly pulled from the boy's grasp and disappeared into the darkness. The young killer's hazel eyes widened in shock as crimson liquid seeped from his chest. For a second that seemed to last years, their eyes met. There was a silent wordless moment between them before Tanner collapsed to the gravely ground.

    The policeman's daughter cautiously walked over to him and kept the weapon aimed on him, but she never would have been prepared for what he was going to do. The boy was still alive, barely, and tears of relief poured from his eyes as he looked up at Jessie with a small smile.

    "That makes three . . . . " He said his voice small. "Thank you. . ." He cried softly, and then the tears stopped as the smile faded as did his remaining life.

    In the background the sound of sirens blared, but Jessie didn't hear them. The gun just dropped from her hand as her arms went limp. Her face showed no emotion, and her voice was dull.

    "No . . . that makes one. . . "