Fiction logo

Shielded from the Darkness

A cop must find her sister in time.

By Skyler SaundersPublished about a year ago 5 min read
1
Shielded from the Darkness
Photo by School My Kids on Unsplash

Cleaner, lubricant, preservative (CLP) applied to the weapon. The liquid oozed from the toothbrush from buttstock to barrel. Vigorous actions allowed for the thirty-four-year-old Kanila Milgrow to finish the last of the two AR-15 assault rifles.

In her Bear, Delaware home, she sent messages and private chat with her thirty-four-year sister, Doreen the cop.

“You don’t know what you’re doing, Kan.’”

“I’m going in the morning and setting things straight.”

“You can’t do this. These are people. These are lives.”

“They hurt me, I hurt them. Isn’t that how that phrase goes?”

“This is way bigger than that. And simpler, too.” She said it with impact and a twinge of somberness dripped from her voice. Still, it didn’t quake or waver. There was like a barrier between raw emotion and steady reason forming in Doreen’s timbre.

“I know you understand. You had him,” Kanila said.

“He never did anything to me, but I know the case is different with you. I do understand, I want you to understand that this is the wrong route. You have options—”

Kanila held up the rifle. “This is my only option.” The screen went as blank as a fresh sheet of paper. Doreen got busy. She lived in Bethany Beach in Sussex County. The distance from her house to Kanila’s was just over a hundred miles.

To go there tonight would mean she would have to travel away from her post, outside of her jurisdiction. No alerts would serve anyone because it wasn’t a crime to showcase assault rifles on the Internet. She hadn’t mentioned any specifics so Kanila was clear. Sadly, she was in the clear.

“Goddamnit!” Doreen exclaimed. Her dog barked, her only source of consolation as she lived with no husband, no kids. Doreen prepared herself, however. She made sure when she clocked in for work, she would be announcing her plans. The squad car sat parked outside her house. Its tracking device would definitely pick up where she would be going so she had to be wary.

That next morning, she arrived at the statiom and reported to her captain. He was forty-two-year old Osman Klerk.

“Lieutenant Adamson. What’s on your mind?”

“Good morning, sir. I have a dire and severe situation.” His face turned to granite.

“What’s this all about, Adamson?”

“My sister has intentions to commit a mass shooting at a school in Wilmington.”

“We can get units there to—”

“You have to see. This has to be me. I’m the only one who can get to her.”

“That’s tricky. You want to go as a cop or as a sister or—”

“All of the above.”

Klerk looked cross. His muscles flexed and he turned his neck slightly.

“Very tricky. I’m going to call the unit in Wilmington.”

“But sir! If you—”

“I’m not hearing it. I’m notifying right—”

Doreen took off quickly. She found her squad car and gunned it out of the station parking lot. Speeds weren’t a problem with the siren blaring. It just looked as if she were in pursuit of a perpetrator. Then, a trail of cop cars performed maneuvers, not to stop the car but just to block other cars from running into her. Her comms system in the vehicle resounded with Captain Klerk’s rhetoric.

“You’ve got a lot of nerve, Lieutenant. I want your resignation letter on—”

She interrupted the transmission. She continued to floor the car until it was out of the Bethany Beach line and then the county line into Kent then New Castle. She drove all the way up into Wilmington with the intention of reaching her sister and talking her down.

Finally, she arrived and saw Kalina parked in a car. She got out with the two assault rifles, ready to enter the private elementary school.

Doreen hopped out of the squad car as sirens blared. The Wilmington Police Department had been tipped off to the location and the situation. They employed a conflict resolution specialist and even equipped a sniper to take out Kalina.

“Stand the hell back!” Doreen shouted. The sergeants and corporals obeyed her command despite her being away from her jurisdiction.

Doreen walked towards her sister with her hands in the air.

“Hey, hey, Sis’. It’s me. What you want to do is not you. You have to realize that. Whatever happened to you, we can work on having you heal. This is not it.”

“You say all of this and you’ve got cops out here ready to blow my head off and I’m supposed to listen to you?”

“Yes.”

Kalina held up the two assault rifles as f posing for a picture. The authorities trained their weapons on her.

“Goddamnit! Stand down!” They followed the command. She turned to her sister.

“Put those down and listen to me. You’re already in a world of trouble. I’m not a cop speaking right now. I’m your sister. Don’t do this.”

Kalina began to weep. Great tears burst from her eyes like great raindrops.

“I—” her voice cracked. “I know he still works here. I saw his profile online. I—I just wanted to show him I’m older and stronger now.”

“Yes, you’re stronger, but not with those.”

The wind kicked up and the sun hide behind the clouds. The two sisters in the stand off tried desperately to find some sense of solace.

“If you come with me, just me, forget about all the cameras and weapons and uniforms and just focus on me. What we’re going to do is lay down the weapons and we’re going to slowly put our hands up and walk backwards toward the police cars, okay?”

Kalina continued to cry. She did as she was told, however. Doreen said the words in plural first-person possessive because she actually performed the words she instructed her younger sister to say. A real pity, divorced with one son and still couldn’t fight her demons, Kalina continued to walk backwards as officers retrieved the rifles. Swiftly, the policemen and women descended upon Kalina and wrapped the cold steel of justice around her wrists and proceeded to tuck her into a squad car.

“Watch her head!” Doreen shouted. The officers complied. Doreen then walked up to the car where Kalina had her head down, looking at the floor. She attempted to wipe the tears from her eyes to no avail. She stared out the window.

“How’ya doing? I’ll tell you what…you’ll get through this. You’re in a world if trouble, now. I’m not promising it will be easy but we can have trauma specialists and other professionals who will be able to set your life back on track. That’s the start.”

A crooked smile curled around Kalina’s mouth. “Thank you, Dor’.”

“You get well.”

The squad car whisked her sister away. Doreen donned a pair of aviator lensesf. She wiped a tear from her cheek.

Short Story
1

About the Creator

Skyler Saunders

Cash App: $SkylerSaunders1

PayPal: paypal.me/SkylerSaunders

Join Skyler’s 100 Club by contributing $100 a month to the page. Thank you!

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments

There are no comments for this story

Be the first to respond and start the conversation.

Sign in to comment

    Find us on social media

    Miscellaneous links

    • Explore
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Support

    © 2024 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.