Rooftop Arrest.

I was going through some old draft scripts and notes from various ideas that I have had over the years for short films, stories etc, and found a few that I thought I would share with you.

The following short story is one that I wrote many years ago, hasn't actually been read by anybody, and has been sitting in a drawer collecting dust. I thought that I should share it with you in my blog as a way of publishing it.

After adding the text, I decided that I should include some illustrations to break it up a little, and so I've quickly doodled some... (I know they are terrible...!)

Apart from the terrible scribblings, I hope you enjoy the story!

- TheLittlerich

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Rooftop Arrest.

The warm, female body remained standing, but was only supported by the gripped hands around her neck... His hands...

The hands loosened and she collapsed into a heap on the bed.

Steve woke up with a jump. As the sleepiness and vague memories of the dream subdued, the memories crept back into his consciousness. His dream wasn’t a nightmare, it was real.

The hands around the woman’s neck were his, and the woman was Sarah, his fiancé. At least she was. Until she told him about Alan Halloway, a police sergeant she had an affair with.

In a drunken rage, Steve had started to hit her. Between the cries of pain and the pleads for him to stop, he grabbed hold of her throat and squeezed. Hard. His grip got tighter and tighter.

He could feel Sarah trying to escape the vice grip of his fingers. But as she struggled more and more, his grip became tighter and tighter.

Until she stopped moving...

He suddenly panicked and let go.

She collapsed onto the bed, surrounded with messed up pillows and sheets.

He looked at her. She didn’t move.

"She’s faking it" he thought, he tried to tell himself, until he realized that she wasn’t.

She really was dead. Her chest wasn’t moving, she wasn’t breathing. He hurriedly felt for a heartbeat. Nothing.

"Oh god’ I’ve KILLED her!" he whispered. Then the thought repeated over and over
in his head. "You’ve killed her, you’ve KILLED HER!"
Looking around quickly, he wondered what to do.
"Gotta move, gotta get out of here, QUICK" he thought.

The rest of the time it was hard to remember. He couldn’t remember running away from the house, he couldn’t remember coming to the old apartment building.

The only thing he could remember was killing Sarah. The memories burnt into his mind like a laser. He could see her face, even when he closed his eyes. Her face was burnt into his memory.

It came to him most when he was asleep. He could only dream about what had happened. When he woke, he could not remember for a few seconds. He hoped it was a nightmare, until the memories returned, then he knew what he had done.

Steve was in an old, run down apartment. The rooms were bare, the wallpaper was hanging off the walls, and the place smelt damp. Some of the rooms were worse than others. Some of them weren’t even fit to stay in.

He had fallen asleep on an old couch. The cushions were bare, the pattern had long faded. There were a few springs poking out the bottom, and the seats were damp and smelt bad.

But this was the only place he could go. The police wouldn’t find him here. At least not for some time. Besides, he couldn’t go to any of his family...

His family lived nowhere near him. The nearest person was his sister, Louise. She lived in France. She had done ever since she had been married. Her French husband, Jac, was a complete bastard. He didn’t care about her. He only married her because of the baby.

She had wanted it, but he hadn’t. He was opposed to it ever since she told him. He told her to get an abortion. He even tried to kill it himself. Jac beat her up, kicked her in the stomach and pushed her down the stairs while she was pregnant. Jac didn’t deserved to live in Steve’s mind.

But he hadn’t killed Jac, he had killed Sarah. She didn’t deserve to die.

"I didn’t mean to kill her" he thought, "it was an accident".

The sound of a police siren made Steve look out of the window. He could see a police car speed around the corner. He watched it for a few seconds.

Then he could hear the sound of another one.

Then another... And another!

"How did they find me?" he wondered.

He then ran out of the room, down the stairs and towards the front door. He could see the flashing blue lights through the dirty glass, and quickly turned around and ran towards the back door. He could see more blue lights.

"What the hell?" he thought, “have they brought the entire police station with them?".

He decided that the roof might be a better idea, turned around and ran back up the stairs. He ran into the hall, and through the door that led to the roof. Then he ran up another flight of stairs and to the door where the roof exit was. He pushed the door hard and it gave way.

He pushed the door open wide to see the bright blue sky overhead him.

The roof was gray. He could see a low wall at the end of the roof. Past that, he could see another roof, a little higher, but he could make it.

A loud bang made Steve turn around. The police had broke down the front door.

His heart thumping, Steve ran towards the edge. He stopped just before the wall and looked at the next roof.

It wasn’t far...

He looked down the gap between the two buildings. It was a fair drop, about three storeys. Steve climbed onto the wall as the police emerged from the door.

"Freeze" he heard a police officer shout as Steve jumped.

The next roof was a little further than Steve had expected, and he fell slightly short.

He grabbed hold of a pipe that was sticking out of the floor, and pulled himself up.

As the police officers had reached the wall on the first roof, Steve was back on his feet

and running towards the other end of the roof.

He looked back to see a couple of police officers jump the gap. They had more experience at judging the gap than Steve had, and landed perfectly on the next roof on their feet, and continued running.

Steve ran to the edge and jumped, without thinking about the gap or the distance down. All he thought about was getting away.

He made the jump, but landed funny on his leg. A sharp pain shot up his leg. The pain made him fall to the ground. He grabbed his leg. The pain became very strong. Tears came to his eyes, and his mind became blank, trying to cut the pain out.

A police officer jumped the second ledge and landed next to Steve. Through the tears of pain, he could see the blurry shape of the man standing over him.

"You’re not going anywhere, you son of a bitch" the policeman said in a low tone of voice.

Steve blinked hard and the image of the man became clear.

The man was older than he was. He was well built, but not fat. He had a thick, gray mustache, and his hair was slightly gray, but not balding. He frowned and looked angry.

Then Steve noticed the gun in the man’s hand. It was a Smith and Wesson .22. He recognized it because he had one. He wished he had it with him, but it was under the mattress at home. The mattress where they had probably found Sarah.

A few tears came back into his eyes. He blinked them away.

The man spoke again. "You killed Sarah, and now I am gonna kill you, you piece of..."

He was cut off by another police officer who landed next to Steve.

"Put your gun away, Sarge".

The sergeant turned around and looked at the other police officer as Steve spoke:

"How do you know Sarah?".

It was a bit of a silly question, he would have found out from her identification back at the house.

The sergeant turned around and looked at Steve. He put his face close to Steve’s.

"My name is Sergeant Alan Halloway... You might have heard of me?".

Steve’s mind recognized the name, and then remembered where he had heard it.

"I’m having an affair" he remembered Sarah telling him, "His name is Alan Halloway, he is a police officer".

Then all of the pain disappeared as the anger and hate in Steve grew. He turned towards Alan. This man, the one in front of him now was responsible for Sarah’s death.

Steve wanted revenge, for sleeping with Sarah, for making him break his leg, but mostly for making him so angry that he had killed Sarah.

Steve grabbed hold of the gun and tried to take it from Alan’s hand. Alan had a strong grip, but the sudden fight in Steve made took him by surprise!

They wrestled with the gun as the other police officer drew his gun.

"Freeze!" he shouted as they continued to fight for the gun. Steve threw a punch at Alan’s face. It made contact, and threw Alan back a bit.

He let go of the gun.

Steve aimed the gun at Alan’s head.

BOOM!

The police officer fired at Steve, and the bullet slammed him down against the floor.

The pain shot through Steve’s body.

Alan bent down and took the gun from Steve’s hand. He pointed it at his head.

"What are you doing?" shouted the police officer, "he’s not armed".

"He doesn’t deserve to live, he killed Sarah, and now I’m gonna kill him!".

The police officer now had the gun aimed at Alan’s head.

"If you fire, I’m gonna have to arrest you, Sarge".

"Do what you have to do, but I am gonna kill him" Alan replied. He took aim and slowly pulled the trigger back.

BOOM!

The police officer fired, and the bullet hit Alan in the shoulder. The force threw him down onto the concrete and he dropped his gun. The police officer ran over to the gun and kicked it away from the sergeant.

He pulled out his radio and pressed the button. "Officer down, requesting backup".

"I’m putting you under arrest, Sarge" he said, and then turned around to Steve.

"It’s the cells for you too, but you are going to the hospital first, to get that leg checked

out".

By Richard Stewart