State Of Confusion

"Where are they, I have been waiting here for two days" Dan clasped his face as he looked in the mirror, " I look like crap, what is going on, my head is pounding" Dan reached into the medicine cabinet and downed a couple of headache pills, he leant into the tap and drank straight from the stream. He noticed spots of blood on the basin, he looked more closely at his hands and could see abrasions over his knuckles. Dan was confused; he couldn't remember much as he ambled back into the living area. He scanned the room and all he could see was a sleeping bag in the corner, some empty packets of chips, three empty bottles of scotch, some dirty socks and a brown paper box. “Whoa, that's not good” Dan could see his daughter crying inside his head, it felt so real like she was really there, he could hear her sobs echoing through the empty house. He picked up his phone and dialled his wife’s number “ Hi this is Sascha as you might be aware I can't take your call right now please leave me a message and I will get back to you, bye” Beep “ hey baby it’s Daniel where are you? I thought the moving van was meant to get here yesterday, I got so drunk I can’t remember a thing! Can you give me a c..” Beep “ aaagh damn it!” Dan through down his phone and picked up the brown paper box it was labelled #17423562 Terusso. He started to open the lid when he heard a loud clunk coming from the neighbours house, he put down the box and walked over to the window. He could see a man dragging someone down the steps into a basement, she had a gag in her mouth and she was kicking and fussing, he was having trouble getting her down the stairs. Dan reached for his gun “Where is it” he searched the room and couldn’t find it. In all of Dan’s 17 years as a city Detective he had never misplaced his firearm. “ Something doesn’t feel right’ Dan had that feeling and it cut right through him, there was something familiar about this moment.

Dan ran out the house and snuck into his neighbour's yard, he grabbed a shovel that was leant against the shed as he looked towards the basement he noticed the doors were still open. He carefully made his way down into the basement, his heart was pounding and the fear started to creep in. “I have been in here before” Dan thought to himself, It was a small basement with a washing machine and a dryer in the corner, one wall was completely covered with boxes. There was a chair in the middle of the basement with some rags and some ropes sitting next to it. “What the heck is going on” Dan noticed something black behind the chair, he walked over, placed the shovel down on the floor and picked up a gun, “This is my gun” Dan paused. All he could hear was his daughter crying; it just echoed inside his head. Dan checked the magazine and the chamber was still fully loaded, “that’s good I guess” Dan grew even more anxious as he went to investigate the house. He walked from room to room and he opened every cupboard door. There was no one, not one person in the house. Dan could feel himself trembling and his left hand started shaking, the feeling cut through him again, like he had seen this moment before. He had to get out of there, so he tucked the gun into his pants and ran back into his house.

Dan laid down on the sleeping bag, his heart was racing and his head was still pounding. He rubbed his face and all he could see was his daughter, “I am losing my marbles” Dan whispered to himself, he closed his eyes and before long he was asleep. Dan woke up the next day by the sounds of some distant banging, like the sound of someone knocking at a door. He looked out the window and could see a Police Officer knocking at his neighbour's door.

Dan quickly left his house and approached the officer, “Morning Officer I’m Detective Daniel Terusso, I witnessed something happen here yesterday” “Morning Detective I am Officer Belows and this is my partner Officer Martinez” “So what happened here and we are going to need to see some ID Detective” announced Officer Martinez. Dan replied “I'm sorry officers, I can't find my belongings, it’s been a strange few days, but I saw a man dragging a woman into the basement so I went to investigate but there was no one there”. Officer Belows remarked “wait you witnessed this and you didn’t call this in, hang on a minute what precinct are you in?” “I work out of the 12th precinct up on the southside under Sergeant Bill Mason, and I passed out again last night I'm sorry things are rough at the moment” said Dan “well don't go anywhere we are going to talk to the neighbours, something is not right here we might have some more questions for you, we are investigating a missing person report” replied Officer Martinez.

Dan was confused, he had that weird feeling again this time it felt like something was building, as the Officers walked away Dan went back inside and sat on his sleeping bag. “Think Dan how can this be happening” Dan picked up his phone and dialled his wife again “ Hi this is Sascha as you might be aware I can’t take y….” Dan hung up the phone “where are you sweetheart” Dan rang the number again only to hear it was her voicemail. Dan dialled his sister but the phone just rang out “aaaargh” Dan started to get very anxious he could see his sister crying huddled up with his daughter in his head, it seemed so real like he was remembering a memory. “That never happened, I don't understand this” Dan threw his head into his hands, then he glimpsed the brown paper box again. Dan picked up the box and read the label it said #17423562 Terusso "what the hell is this? '' Dan began to open the lid when a loud knocking was on his door. Dan got startled by the knock and dropped the box as some paperwork fell out onto the floor.

Dan rushed over to the door and called out “who is there? '' a voice replied sternly “it’s officer Martinez and Officer Belows Mr Terusso could you please step out of the house” Dan replied “what why? What’s going on” “could you please step out of the house Mr Terusso we have reason to believe this is not your house” said Officer Martinez in a more aggressive tone. Dan started to feel sick and he clutched his hand onto his gun “What are you talking about we just bought this house and the moving van was supposed to be here yesterday and I can’t get hold of my wife she was meant to be staying with my sister while the move happened” Officer Martinez shouted “Mr Terusso come out with your hands up or we will be forced to kick your door down”. ”Listen Officers you have the wrong man I'm a Detective, ring Sergeant Mason he will straighten this out” yelled Dan, at that moment the police kicked in Dan’s door, both officers wrestled Dan to the floor. Officer Martinez with his knee in Dan's back pulled out a firearm from Dan’s pants “ what have we got here, You're under arrest Mr Terusso, you have the right to remain silent… “Dan replied “I know my rights I'm a flippin detective, get your hands off of me” the officers dragged him out in cuffs and threw him in the back of their squad car.

“Copy despatch this is Officer Martinez requesting additional units, I have the perp in custody” “copy that Martinez units are on route, question him on the whereabouts of Sascha, Bianca and Stacey Terusso'' the voice bellowed out of the officer’s radio “copy that” replied Martinez. Dan quickly got agitated and said “what’s going on hey where is my family, what have you done with them” Officer Martinez then replied “ Mr Terusso just tell us where you have them, let us help them and then we can help you” Dan shouted at the detective “ are you crazy officer I am trying to get hold of Sascha and she is not answering” officer Martinez replied “ listen Mr Terusso, whatever is going on here just tell us where they are, you don’t want to see them get hurt do you” Dan was so confused he had conflicting thoughts, he could see all the girls in his head now all crying with his wife bound and gagged! “ What the heck is going on, I don’t know where they are officers, you have this all wrong” exclaimed Dan. Officer Martinez shut the car door as another squad car arrived, Two officers got out and they talked to officer Martinez about the perp. Officer Martinez told officer Belows to stay with the perp as he and the other two officers went to search the house that Dan was squatting in.

The officers went room by room and found nothing, no furniture, no belongings, just a sleeping bag in the corner with some mess surrounding it. “ This guy is a drunk” said officer Martinez, officer Bailey replied “ yeah he is a former detective who was kicked off the force for excessive drinking on the job” “ sounds like a waste of space if you ask me” replied officer Martinez. Officer Bailey picked up the brown paper box and noticed some paperwork sprawled over the floor he picked up the paper and read the words “ this is divorce paperwork between Sascha Terusso and Daniel Terusso, and blueprints for the house next door ” said Officer Bailey, he soon realised that on the blueprints, the basement had another level underneath.

Both officers ran into the basement next door and searched the floor for a trap door “here it is” said officer Martinez as he cleared the space, he then opened the trap door and found two ladies and a child all tied up like they had been beaten. “ It's okay you are all safe now” said officer Bailey as he untied the girls. Sascha was crying and said “ thankyou for finding us, my husband went crazy and beat us and tied us up here” officer Martinez replied “ is this because you filed for divorce” Sascha softly replied “ yes officer, I thought he was going to kill us” the officers escorted the girls out of the house to where an ambulance had just arrived.

Dan was sitting in the squad car with his head in his hands searching his mind for what was going on, then he saw his girls and he just started to sob. It all came back to him: he remembered beating them and dragging them down the stairs, he remembered his wife asking for a divorce, he also remembered being fired as a detective. Dan was trembling and he felt sick to his stomach. He couldn't believe that he had done this to his own family. Dan shrunk into his seat and cowered as his wife stared at him through the windscreen. The ambulance drove away with his family as officer Martinez and officer Belows got in their squad car. Officer Belows said angrily “ You used to be a detective and now look at you, a disgrace to the badge. I hope you're ready for a lengthy stay because you're going away for a long time, you degenerate”. Dan replied “ I didn’t mean to hurt them, I love them, please forgive me Sasch”. Dan just went on sobbing as the squad car drove off into the distance. THE END