Vengeance

• Emma Gerber, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2017

Isaac Wolf stared, grim faced, at the scene spread out in front of him. The uncontrollably weeping family huddled on the front lawn, the red and blue display of cop cars’ flashing lights; the image before him looked straight out of a CSI episode.
The tenured cop was certainly accustomed to suicides; in the large town of Dunwich, it was not unusual to hear of a troubled teen taking their own life. However, it did not usually hit this close to home.
“My little Katie,” Isaac murmured. A bitter taste crept into his mouth, a mix of immense sorrow and regret. He sank to his knees, unable to comprehend the enormity of what his brain felt could not be true. Fragments of memories danced across his eyelids; his niece at seven, painting a mural of colours on her bedroom wall; beaming proudly at her primary school graduation, her smile a beacon of youth; fifteen year old Katie only a month ago at her dance recital, radiating joy and elegance. His Katie, his niece, who he had practically raised from the day she was born, dead.
A gravelly voice pierced through his grief-clouded stupor as his fellow officer, Andrea approached. “My God, Isaac, I’m so sorry.”
A primal sob escaped from deep within the caverns of his chest, a deep, guttural sound. Warm arms embraced him, as his colleague of six years held him close. Isaac leant into her, breathing in the musky smell of cigarette smoke and vanilla.
Anguish mounted within Isaac, congealing into a knot that sat, seemingly as heavy as Jupiter, at the pit of his stomach. A ringing in his ears distanced him from the weight of the grief surrounding him, and he clasped Andrea’s hand like a lifeline. Unbeknownst to him, a crowd had gathered around the two paramedics, hushed condolences falling on deaf ears. As a cataclysmic void opened inside of Isaac, his sobs subsided and he was left numb.
He rose from Andrea’s embrace, a new purpose filling him with zeal. A fanatical look surfaced in his eyes, and he charged towards Katie’s father, ignoring the tide of people who rose with him, offering mindless sympathies. A deluge of images filled his mind, and he remembered the bruises discolouring his niece’s face. He remembered the trips to the emergency room at 2 a.m. He remembered the countless tearful phone calls in the dead of the night. He remembered Katie slipping into depression; confessing to her uncle her suicidal thoughts.
A surge of wrath rose within the cop, and an extreme desire for vengeance consumed him. His vision tunnelled; his surroundings were discoloured, wrong. He was simply a vessel containing an intense, all-encompassing rage, and, as he cocked his rifle and aimed at his niece’s father, a quiet peace settled over him. Isaac Wolf, acclaimed police officer, was avenging the death of the one person he had ever loved.