On My Own

Sixty seconds. My entire life changes forever in sixty seconds.

I can't stop shaking. Its five degrees and I can see the glow on my watch as its just ticked over to midnight. Rain hits my face like tiny needles, my nose is frozen and every breath I make is shown in the air.

I try to keep my focus through my sights. My arms are throbbing as I try to balance my .38 over my batten torch. The light bounces as I tremble and the rain turns it into a distorted silent disco. I try to yell "Police! Drop the sword!" I squeak instead of yell, sounding like a mouse about to be eaten.

Ten metres in front, blood shot eyes and bright white teeth mock me. He thinks he's already won. He's visualising how his sword will look slicing through my body. I can feel his dark energy stretching out like tenticals trying to pierce my soul. It's unnerving but I stand my ground.

My forefinger is on the trigger. Behind me is the back door to their house. Inside the back door is their living room. In the middle of the living room is where my partner is. She is trying to untie this mans family. Through pure evil intentions he had tied his wife and four children up, poured petrol on them and was moments away from lighting them on fire.

My partner had kicked in the door. I stared straight into this mans bloodshot eyes and chased him out the back into the rain. Here we stood. A standoff between a sword and a gun. A man who had lost all worth in human life and a 23 year old copper who still believed all life had worth.

He would happily take my life. As he smirked and mocked me he imagined the feel of his sword going through my belly. He watched me shake, barely able to hold the gun straight. I was a lamb and he was the wolf.

My adrenaline was making me numb. My knees were unstable as the reality of what I was going to have to do set in. I yelled at him again "DROP THE SWORD!" This time my voice reverberated around us. The strength in my tone gave me belief in myself. Thoughts raced through my head, "No one is coming to save me, there is no back up, I'm on my own." I wished he dropped the sword. I wish he would just back off.

"She won't do it" he thought to himself. He took a step forward and I yelled at him to stop.

"He's coming closer, he's not backing off!" I see a flash of something across the bloodshot eyes. He's made up his mind, he's going to kill me. I take a deep breath, steady my eyes, make my hands still. The throbbing in my arms go. He's now running at me. He's almost on top of me. My forefinger squeezes the trigger and the gun fires.

His bloodshot eyes widen as his body lurches backwards. "She shot me!" The sword falls from his hand as his knees hit the mud and he sees his own blood pooling beneathe him.

I don't move. I stay with my gun pointed ready to fire again. I got him in the chest. I hear a voice behind me that sounds like its at the end of a long tunnel. They're calling my name. The voice gets louder and louder until they're right behind me. It's my partner, she says "Are you ok?" My eyes are still on the man crumpled on the ground. His bloodshot eyes still wide open but he no longer lives. My partner takes my torch and pushes my hand down with my gun. I reholster my .38 and take a step closer to the bloodshot eyes. Their life no longer lives. Their dark energy lingers. Rain falls heavily causing his blood to run off the ground in little rivers going the wrong way.

I look at my watch. It's one minute past midnight and my life as I knew it has ended...but I am still breathing with no rivers of blood travelling the wrong way.