[Warning! This chapter contains serious issues and is somewhat political in terms with current events.]
I tell my mom that I'll call her back and that I love her before hanging up. I hadn't noticed but it had gotten very dark. The neighborhood I lived in wasn't exactly horrible, but it wasn't the safest either. The scream came from the direction I lived. I made sure to have the police on speed dial while staying aware of what was going on around me.
To say I wasn't scared would be a lie, but to say I wasn't also incredibly excited would also be a lie. My life was often times boring, like being the side character of someone else' story. I often would hear of my friends getting into fights, being in a situation where they had to act before thinking.
I always wanted to get into the same type of situations as they did. For some reason it always managed to happen when I wasn't there. I picked up my pace, it was likely going to be over and dealt with before I got there, or it might even be something not at all bad either, but just once I wanted something exciting that wasn't just a reality kick to the face.
As I get closer I hear sirens blaring and see the orange glow of fires light up the night sky. I started to panic. This was more than just some random street mugging attack, there was a straight up mob of people.
I had so many questions running through my mind. Why was there a mob? How long had this been going on? What was the police doing? Why were the police wearing riot gear?
I was reminded, suddenly, of something a classmate had talked about that I overheard. A social movement, things involving racism and other corrupt things in this world. How people who had enough of the mistreatment were starting to rise up. At the time I thought I understood what was happening, I even donated and shared information on social media, but it never really fully clicked to me just how serious this was till that moment where it was taking place in front of my eyes.
There was a car on fire, there were people screaming and shouting as they got shot by some sort of projectile, there were police doing the shooting. It's something that you normally don't think about, the police opening fire at unarmed civilians.
I stood there in shock when I heard someone yelling for help. In the chaos I looked to see someone laying on the sidewalk across the street and someone trying to help them up. The police were getting closer and I knew that getting caught up in this would end badly.
My body trembled. Was it out of fear, or anger? Fear of getting caught and injured, or anger at myself for not helping someone and expecting someone else to do it?
I made myself move, I ran to the other end of the street. The person on the ground didn't look good. There was a massive wound where their left eye was, and they were groaning in pain. The person helping them was a larger person who was trying to get them to stand up, it looked like their right arm got hit by something the size of my fist. The mark was a deep violet color and was limp at their side.
"Hey! Do you need help?" I yelled out over the sound of sirens.
They looked up at me, blue eyes filled with panic, "Please," was all they said.
I reached out and did my best to help the other person up. I wasn't very strong, but I was able to keep us balanced. We started to make our way down the street as fast as we could, which honestly wasn't very fast at all. Soon enough the police started catching up as we were nearing another group of people. We shouted out to them and they began to run over to help out.
For a moment I thought that I could get out of this just fine. I'd find my way home, quit school, and return to my small hometown far away from the conflict of the big city.
I heard a yell from someone in the group, I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head, I heard a loud bang to the right of me, and then everything turned white.