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The Night I Witnessed at Murder

In: English and Literature

Submitted By tiffany77
Words 1009
Pages 5
Tiffany Stanley Cox College Composition Essay #2
25 September 2015 The night I didn’t call for help Dear Diary, It was a cool crisp spring morning on March 27th, the street lights were flickering as I walked home from work. I had a very long day at work, and I couldn’t wait to get home to my bed. I usually get off work at midnight but was held over as usual, and much longer than I had planned to be. I looked at my watch, it read 2:50am. I had just a few more blocks and I could crawl into bed, “I said to myself.” As I approached my apartment door I saw a silhouette of a person standing at the corner of the parking lot. Thinking to myself, “Why in the world would someone be out this late?” I couldn’t make out who it was, so I went inside. I took my shoes off and changed into my night clothes. Just as I was crawling into bed I heard a scream. I flipped on my bedside lamp and ran to the window to see what was going on, and why someone was screaming at this hour. Outside the street lights were still flickering, which made it very hard for me to see anything. The person from the corner when I entered my apartment was no longer there, and the screaming had stopped. The streets were actually deserted, so I crawled back into my bed and laid there wide awake, staring up at the ceiling. I was unable to fall asleep now due to hearing screams from outside. So I picked up my book from the nightstand and began reading. I must have dozed off because I was woken by another horrifying scream. This time with the screams, I heard what appeared to be a woman’s voice yelling “I’m dying.” I jumped up out of bed and I ran to my window again, pulled back the blinds and curtains and threw open my window. Once again no one was in sight, but the screams for help seemed to be very close. I then ran to my bathroom and opened the window. There stood what appeared to be a man, over a slumped body which was leaning up against the brick wall. I yelled, “Stay away from her”. He acted as if he didn’t hear me, and lifted his arm above his head, in his hand he appeared to have something long and he stuck it in her chest. She didn’t scream this time she just laid there, slumped over against the wall. He turned around as if nothing just happened and began to walk toward my apartment building. I shut my window and quickly ran to double check that my doors were locked. I hurried and shut all the lights off, and pushed my couch up against the door. I didn’t hear anymore screams and it seemed to be so quiet outside now, that you could probably hear a pin drop. I contemplated in my mind what should I do, should I call for help? Do I want to get involved? I was afraid for my life and feared that the man would come after me. I decided to leave it be, someone else would probably call for help, I hoped. Minutes later, I heard sirens and I ran to my bathroom window and looked out. An ambulance had arrived, and was loading the body onto a stretcher. The body appeared to be lifeless. I saw lots of bystanders, so I slipped on my shoes and ventured out with the rest of them.
The police had arrived and were questioning the bystanders. A police officer approached me, and pulled a small notepad from his jacket pocket and introduced himself. He began asking me for all my information and kindly asked if I heard or saw anything. I explained that I heard screaming, and saw what I thought was a man standing over the body holding something long in his hand, and stuck her with it in the chest but the street lights flickering made it so hard to get a good description of him. I told the officer that I had yelled and told the man to stay away from her but he ignored me. Instead he turned around and started to walk towards my apartment building. The officer then asked, “Why didn’t you call for help?” I stood there frozen, not knowing what to say. Why didn’t I called for help, “I asked myself?” I replayed the question over and over in my head until the detective asked again, “Ma’am, Why didn’t you call for help?” bringing me back to reality. I replied “I didn’t call for help because I feared that he was coming after me next.”
The officer continued to write on his notepad and told me that if I had any questions to give him a call and handed me his card. I shoved the card in my pocket and told him I would and walked away. As I was walking back to my apartment I realized that more bystanders had arrived and were watching the police officers tape off the crime scene. I went inside and locked the door behind me, slipped off my shoes and crawled back into bed. I laid there, the thoughts of the events of what had just happened kept running through my head. I still feared that the man would come back and find me for trying to interfere with what he was doing to that poor lady. So just to be safe I double checked the locks on my windows and door one more time and pushed my couch up against the door just to be on the safe side. I climbed back in to bed and decided that until they caught the killer I would be sleeping with my bedside lamp on and the phone right next to me. Better to be safe than sorry, “I said to myself,” as I dozed off to sleep.

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