Chapter 15: Assaulter

Hailey was always a very good person, always putting other people before herself. It isn’t a bad trait at all, but it does make a parent worry. From the time that Hailey was born up until these very moments, I have always wanted the best for her. Which is why I was worried that she got herself into trouble when we passed that hospital.

At first, I decided to conduct my own series of online investigations, but turned up nothing. Even if the web told me absolutely nothing about the place, I knew for sure that something was off. Call it: Father’s Intuition. This was stressing me out, and since I didn’t want to worry my wife unnecessarily, I kept quiet and didn’t tell her.

A week passed by and I still had no progress at all. When Hailey stopped by, it was to do a quick check in before she went to work again. There were things that I couldn’t help but notice, like the way her hands would shake when looking at the mail basket by the door, or the bags under her eyes. Hailey was fighting with all she had right now, just to help us out.

If I was a good father, I would have told her to stop helping us pay for things and that we got it. However, I was in no such position to do so. We owed so much and if Hailey stopped helping us with the bills, we were pretty much screwed. So in many ways, what followed next was pretty much my fault.

The day was pretty nice. The temperature was just right, not too hot, not too cold, a gentle breeze. My wife made arrangements to meet with an old friend of hers until the evening and I was driving her there. “I love you!” I said to her as she left the car. There isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t tell her that now. After the accident, I’ve learned to appreciate her and not hold back when showing her just how much I cared.

I sat at home that afternoon with nothing to do. It truly has been awhile where I had no plans, no one to take care of, or any of that. It should have felt nice to be able to sit back and not have any obligations to tend to, but for some reason, it made me feel uneasy. The day was a Tuesday. Hailey usually visited every Tuesday at six sharp. She was never a minute early nor late. That day, even when 6:30 rolled around, she didn’t show up. My father’s intuition was going off. Something was definitely wrong.

I got in the car and raced over to her house, just hoping that because of how long she’s been working nonstop that she just slept in a little too long. When I got to her place, I threw my car door open and raced across the gravel to her front door and started knocking aggressively. I waited for a couple of seconds, and there was no response. I started shouldering the door, trying to get it to open. I was glad when it didn’t because Hailey should be protected but I wished I could get in.

Then I remembered, I have the key. I shook my head in frustration at my stupidity and unlocked the door. I ran through the house calling Hailey’s name. All of which was in vain because she didn’t answer me. I was beyond worried at this point. I checked the living room, the bathroom, and all the bedrooms, but she was nowhere to be found. I was going to race back out of the house, when I ran by the kitchen and saw a hand reached out from behind the counter.

I ran over, tears threatening to spill from my eyes. Hailey was collapsed on the floor and on the counter above her was an envelope titled: Suicide Note. I grabbed it and fell to my knees beside her. Looking at her now, her skin was so pale, and she really looked dead. I tore open the envelope and read:

Dear whomever may read this,

I know they say that suicide is the last thing that you should turn to, but trust me when I say that I took that literally. It was my last resort, and for doing this I am sorry. This morning, because of my foolishness, I ended up killing another child. They asked me a simple question and I overreacted. Because of me, the child is now gone. That makes two children that I’ve killed with my recklessness. I don’t want to stick around any longer to find out how many more people I’ll kill. I can’t take that. If I happen to wake up from this, I’ll have you know that I will find the child’s father: Chris Jin, and have him finish me off. Either way, I am done.

I love you guys and I’m sorry,

Hailey

The tears were no longer contained, they spilled over, creating little splashes onto Hailey’s letter. I couldn’t believe that it was true. My little girl was really dead, all because of the guilt she felt for “killing” someone else’s child. I slowly rose up and went outside to make a phone call to Evan. Hailey didn’t know, but I’ve talked to him several times and he works at a hospital, so he must know how to help her.

“Hello, this is Evan.” He said in the standard professional tone.

“H-Hey Evan, this is Oliver, Hailey’s dad. Can you come over to Hailey’s place please?” I pleaded.

“Unfortunately I am busy at the moment-”

“Evan, Hailey tried to kill herself. I think she may be dead and I don’t know what to-”

“I’ll be right there.” He said, cutting me off, and hung up.

I waited for what felt like hours for Evan to arrive. As soon as he did, I felt more at ease. He was a medical professional and someone who cared for Hailey. If there was anyone who would be able to help her, it’d be him. I backed away from Hailey in silence as I watched him examine her. It was quite obvious that he cared for her from the way his face fell when he saw her lying there, lifeless.

He had brought a bag with him, which he went through at a pretty terrifying speed. He took out a syringe, filled it with some kind of liquid and stabbed it into her right leg. I’d have gotten mad at him for being so rough with her if I didn’t already know that he was a professional.

“That should bring her back. If it doesn’t, then that means that it’s been more than two hours that she took the pills.” He said as he laid his head against the kitchen counter.

“Thank you Evan. I really hope that she is going to be okay.” I looked at my phone. It was now eight at night and I remembered that I was supposed to pick up my wife. “Can you stay here with her Evan until I am able to bring my wife here?” He simply nodded.

I walked outside with heavy footsteps to get into my car. I drove over and picked her up, filling her in on all that had happened within the past couple of hours. Of course, just like the rest of us, my wife cried. I don’t think Hailey realized how much we all cared for her.

I was just pulling to the driveway of Hailey’s house when I got a phone call from Evan. “Hey Evan, I’m just pulling into the driveway.”

“Oliver, you have to come to the corner store alleyway that’s on 45th and June. Hailey-she’s-” He struggled to get it out.

“Hey, hang in there Evan, we’re on our way!” I yelled and hung up. If it meant that Hailey hadn’t died after all, I was glad. But why did Evan sound so sad?

When we got there, I found Evan crouched in front of a very bloodied body, his whole body shaking with sobs. “Evan, what happened?” I looked at the body more closely and realized that it was Hailey. I fell to my knees beside Evan.

“I woke up and found her gone. I then started getting a notification that her heart rate was going up. I found her here with the child’s father. He was beating her up and she didn’t even-she didn’t-she didn’t fight back.” He put his head in his hands and continued to cry.

My tears dried just as fast as they came. My sorrow was replaced with hot burning anger. How dare a man take my daughter from me. He should’ve known how hard she worked to save every child that she encountered. Hailey was a good person with so much more ahead of her, and he took it upon himself to take that from her.

I got up and stormed away from the scene, using the horrid scenery to help me find the person. I didn’t know what he looked like, but I had a feeling I’d know who it was when I saw them. Boy was I right. I was looking up and down main street and bam, I found him. Walking along the side of the road was a man, hair all messed up, blood on his knuckles, and he was yelling at the air. I pulled over quickly and wasted no time. I hit him square in the face. I didn’t stop beating him until the cops arrived and even then, I didn’t stop.

The cops were yelling at me to back away, but I couldn’t do that. This man took my daughter’s life. That was unforgivable. Especially since it was done intentionally. That man was a murderer. So I would beat him until I knocked some sense into him. The police had to taze me so that I’d stop.

That afternoon, I was taken to jail. I was convicted of assault. The police wouldn’t even listen to me when I told them what that man had done. It was then that I lost all faith in humanity. Maybe it was that I felt so wronged by the police, but I thought it was unfair that I was the only one behind bars. That man should also be serving time.

The next several months were really hard for me. For everyone that was involved with me or Hailey. I was informed that Hailey wasn’t dead, but in a coma instead. A coma that she hadn’t woke up from yet. Don’t get me wrong, I was relieved that she was alive, but I still believed that that man should’ve gone to jail. He just got away with it, scot free. It was beyond messed up.

However, through playing along with the system’s rules, I was released after six months. During that time, I had a lot of time to think about all sorts of things and eventually the anger that I had for that man calmed. Of course I still wanted to beat him to death, but I realized that it wasn’t the best thing for me or my family. Taking revenge on another person doesn’t make you any better than them.

The day I was released from prison, I stepped out into the free world and immediately hated it. The day was so similar to the day that Hailey was beaten. I despised it so much. I clenched my fists at my sides and took a deep breath to calm down. All I had to think about was how I was going to see my wife soon.

I flagged down a taxi and really fast, like ten seconds fast, I climbed in, putting my bags on the seat next to me. The driver didn’t ask me where I wanted to go, he just started driving. I thought that maybe this taxi worked for the prison and they told him where I was going. I believed that for about one minute. After that one minute, I found that we were in an alleyway. In fact, the same alleyway where Hailey...I felt the anger come back.

“This isn’t where I wanted to go. Please go to 568 Sycamore avenue.” I told him angrily.

The man laughed. “I don’t think that’s possible.” He turned around and pointed a gun at me. “Goodnight sir. Go and join your daughter.”

Then he took the gun and shot me, sending me into the same darkness that my daughter was in. All I could hope was that in the end, I would be able to see my daughter and wife again. Either in life or death, I didn’t really even care anymore.