“It didn't even matter to me that he was dead”. “But Ms. Smith this is a matter of national importance. You need to tell us what happened”. I sighed thinking about it. It was too much. I despised thinking about it let alone speaking about it but, I had to so I began. I narrated - It all started a few weeks ago. I was on the phone with Steven, my boyfriend, and we were doing the typical couple things on the phone. “I love you”, “No I love you more” and this went on for a few hours, “Oh I have to go now sorry” he said in a rushed voice, this was very unusual for him. I was slightly worried but I thought it must have been something important. I decided to go spend time with my father, who doesn’t get much time off from work as he was a politician and as it was a national holiday he was home. “Hey dad!”, “Hey cupcake, how’s Steven?” I thought if she should tell him about the phone call and how he left early and decided to leave it out, “He’s fine”. We sat and watched television for some time, that day was the X-Factor auditions, so there were many horrific singers, we laughed a lot. Later that day I decided to go out and visit my friends in the city, I did this regularly but today was special. It was Lizzy’s birthday so we were planning a surprise party for her. We were all extremely delighted, but that was not all I was going to do that day, but I didn’t know that. When I got there, there was still lots to do but we soldiered on and finished before the planned starting time. When Lizzy got there she was ecstatic. We all sang “Happy Birthday” and ate the cake, it was chocolate, I thought it was a bit bland but everyone seemed to enjoy it so, it was fine. We all danced and by 16:00 people started to leave so we started to pack up which took up about an hour. Lizzy wanted to go shopping with all of the money and vouchers she had just received and we all agreed as it was a very special occasion for her. We didn’t want to wait for the bus or the tram so we agreed to pick up a taxi as it was only three of us. We got to the city square which didn’t take long. On the way to Lizzy’s favorite shop, I noticed a few men walking in the other direction, I made eye contact with one of them but then we passed so, they were behind us. I thought they were just a few guys but I guess not. I felt like I recognised them but I couldn’t figure out from where. Lizzy did her shopping and then we all decided to call it a day. Both of them called a taxi and went home, I wanted to walk and that decision changed my life. I said goodbye and gave them each a kiss on the cheek and then they left. I took my phone out to find the route to my house and I began trotting along. I started thinking about what I should do for my father’s birthday, because we only had each other, as my mother left him for another man when I was a little girl, I used to miss her but as I got older I started caring less about her. I thought maybe I should host a grand party for him in the city center or maybe a small quieter party in our living room with our closest friends and family. I was all on my own on the road and then in the corner of my eye I saw a van, with fully tinted windows, I looked up. They were driving slowly in my direction I didn’t know what to do, I was terrified because I was all alone. It was at this moment that I started to regret my decision to walk home, but I just kept walking. Soon enough they were right by my side going at exactly the same speed as me. This is when I was completely petrified, I thought about running but I realized that they have a vehicle so, I would never get away. At that moment the side door of the van slid open and I peered inside and saw the same guy that I saw in the city center. He squatted there smiling with his shades on. Then out of nowhere he leaped out put a bag over my head and with one guy at my head I felt another pair of hands at my feet and in was lifted in to the truck I tried to fight them but I couldn’t they were fully grown men and I was just a 16-year-old girl so in the end I gave up. It all happened so swiftly. I heard the van door close and then we took off I tried to remember all the turns we took but I couldn’t get them all. It was a long drive and I started cramping up so I attempted to move but then I felt hands all over me so I ceased. “Where are we headed?” I asked, and all I heard were a few men speaking a language that I didn’t comprehend then one man spoke English and said “We have something to show you”. I was a bit mad so I said, “That’s not what I asked, I asked where we are headed?” The same man replied “That is classified”. Then I just sat there in silence, waiting for the ride to be over so I could stretch my legs. Then I felt a few hands on my legs and arms, they had picked me up and started to started carry me out. They put me down and took of the head mask. I was in a huge room, big enough to store hundreds of cars, then I realized that I was in an aircraft hangar by the way the doors were placed, an empty aircraft hangar. I was standing in front of what seemed to be an enormous control panel but I didn’t know what it was. There were very few men there and then one man came down the stairs fully suited up I didn’t know what any of this was so I was still very afraid. I thought of running but I knew that they would just apprehend me. The man in the suit started to speak. “Ms. Smith, this must all be very baffling for you and you have no idea what is going on. We will explain all of this very shortly. As you can see you are in an abandoned aircraft hangar. This was purchased by us a few years ago.” “Wow, a fancy suit and the word baffling. Am I meant to be afraid?” I asked trying to look brave. “Just listen to what we have to say. Now Ms. Smith we have been trailing your boyfriend for some time and we have some very sad information for you.” “What are you talking about? Why am I here?” “Your boyfriend, he’s been cheating on you...” I didn’t know what to do at first I didn’t believe them but then it all started making sense, like why he was leaving the phone call early and not meeting up as usual but I still didn’t believe them, “Prove it”, I saw in the man’s eyes that he didn’t want to and I knew that he had proof. “Are you sure Ms. Smith?” I thought, and then I realized maybe that they were trying to trick me. “SHOW ME!” The man pointed at one of his men and he began to walk to the control panel and he started doing some things with the panel and in a few seconds all the lights went off and a large image appeared on the back wall of the aircraft hangar. It looked like CCTV footage of a street, it was around 16:00 I saw this in the corner of the screen where it told the time. All I saw was Steven sitting on the bench it wasn’t in the city it was slightly on the outskirts. There were very nice trees and many people took walks there and at this time hundreds of thoughts raced through my head wondering what he was doing there, maybe even waiting for his, then I thought no he wouldn’t. What I didn’t know was that in a few minutes my life would be ripped to shreds but then at that moment I didn’t believe it. So I sat there and watched to see what would happen. They fast forwarded it for five minutes and a girl walked into the shot and Steven ‘My BOYFRIEND’ got up and walked up to her. That’s when I stopped watching the tape. I heard a click and they had turned it off. “Ms. Smith I know this must all be very hard...” “How would you know how this feels, you have no family, all you do is ruin people’s lives. Why me why did u have to pick me. What do I do now?” “Ms. Smith I think it’s time we tell you who and why we are here.” “No I don’t want to hear anything from you I don’t care”, “It’s about your father” I was still thinking about Steven but what could the possibly know about my father. Maybe they were his old friends from when he lived in Russia or maybe they were somehow his enemies. “What is it?” All the thoughts rushing through my head I didn’t know what to think. “I don’t know if you know this but your father lived in the USA quite a few year ago, before you were born” I didn’t know anything about this. Immediately an image appeared through the projector of my father many years younger when he had hair and my mother was also there, and there they were posing together in front of the White House, Central Park, etc. I didn’t know anything about my father living in the USA. “My father never told me anything about him living in the USA” “Well it was because he did not do the greatest job” “What did he do?” “Well... he owned an insurance company that closed down. An insurance company, those bastard that take your money and never give it back” “I don’t know anything about this. Why are you coming after me?” “We can’t get to him directly so we are getting to him, through you” “But what did he ever do to you?” “You want to know what he did to us.” He nodded at his man and he put up some more images on the projector, images that were horrible, people’s houses destroyed blood everywhere, water everywhere. “This was 20 years ago in a small village along the east coast of the USA and it was completely and utterly destroyed by a hurricane” “Yeah well, what does that have to do with me?” “In that village all those families, all those homes were insured by the same company, your fathers company and as soon as the hurricane happened, that bastard closed his company and he left the country with all of our money and came here.” I felt the anger building up inside of me, how did he have the guts to call my father, a respected politician, a bastard. My father would never do that, all that he cared about were his people, he would never leave them like that in a time of need. “My father would never do that!” “Well then, why don’t you call him and ask...” “Maybe I will”, I called him, and as usual 3 rings before he picked up. The man signaled to put it on speaker. “Hi darling, where are you? When will you be home?” “Hey dad, I with my friends, I’ll be home soon. I just had a question.” “What’s on your mind?” “Dad, what did you do before you moved here?” “Why do you want to know?” he said in a worried tone. “Well it came up in a conversation with my friends and I wanted to know?” “You already know honey, I moved here and became a politician years ago, to help the people.” “No dad, I mean before that, what did you do before you moved here?” “I lived in the US, that’s where I met your mother, and then we came here. Is that enough?” “No but dad what was your job?” “I don’t remember” “Dad, come on it was your job, how do you not remember?” “I don’t know OK!? Now that’s the end of that, come home right now!” He hung up and at that moment I realized that what the man was saying before was all true. I didn’t know what to do. There were just so many lies, I couldn’t believe it. “I understand what you must be feeling right now, it must be a lot to take in” “How would you understand?! Have you ever been lied to for 16 years straight, do you know what it means to have lived you whole life as a lie. First my boyfriend and now my father, are there no men in my life I can trust anymore? Why did you bring me here anyways, your enmity is with my father so why am I involved?” I didn’t have any understanding about how my boyfriend cheating on me and his enmity with my father were connected, but I knew that I would know soon. “As you know your father is a respected politician and the only way to get back at him is to affect his image.” “So don’t you have to attack him rather than me?” I was starting to lose my patience. “We can only affect him through you, as you are his world, the only one that matters to him, he has no one else and if you do something horrific, people will start to think he is a bad parent and an even worse leader. So.” “You want me to do something to my boyfriend that will affect mine and his image” “Precisely!” “What will I get out of this?” “Are you angry at your boyfriend and more importantly you father?” “Of course I am!” “This can be your way to get back at them. To have your revenge.” “But what can I do to have my revenge” “That is something we have decided to leave up to you, but we will help in every way possible.” “I might as well just kill Steven” I said this as a joke but they took this seriously immediately as I said it. “Yes. Yes. That’s perfect we can have it set up so that you won’t go to jail.” “Well, I don’t care, there’s nothing worth living for anymore in my life, my boyfriend was my life and my father, my shield, but it turns out I am not good enough for either of them.” The man stayed silent. They sent me home for that evening and told me to meet them the next day and they would pick me up in the same place from where I was kidnapped. When I got home I went to my bedroom immediately and went straight to bed. Even though I knew that I wouldn’t be able to sleep, I ended up going onto Netflix on my phone and watching ‘Vampire Diaries’ this was the one show that calmed me. “Ms. Smith I’m extremely sorry for interrupting but could you speed up your recollection of these events as we have other work to do.” “Yes sorry” I answered. I got back to the story. So I met with them the next day and they didn’t have to kidnap me I got in and sat cross- legged in the back of the caravan, they didn’t cover my face this time. I had a nice conversation with one of the men sitting in the back called ‘Ozias’. He told me about his wife and his kid and how he was forced to move here after the hurricane. When we got to the hangar, the man came out but he was wearing sunglasses, probably because his eyes looked horrific from staying up all night planning the assassination. In my mind I just thought they would give me a gun and I would shoot him. The man came down and he began to explain all of his plans, and as he was about to get to Plan-C I said “Just give me a damn gun and park up next to him and let me pop one into him!” He was stunned. I had just wasted his whole night that he had spent planning this. “Fine” he said annoyingly. They got me a gun and they told me how to shoot it and said I could practice on the wall, where they put up a target. Astonishingly I did extremely well. Since they had been tracking Steven for the past few weeks they knew exactly where he was. They drove me there and on the way they alerted all new channels so that it would immediately affect my father and his position. As we got there I started thinking about what would happen after all of this was over. I would probably go to jail, Steven would be dead, my dad would no longer be a politician and he would be fighting to get me out. They told me to get ready, we were almost there. They dropped me off one street away, and around the corner was the man I was about to kill to have my revenge on my father and my boyfriend. I began to walk without even another thought. I turned the corner and of course there he was, the bastard, sitting there waiting for his ‘mistress’. He noticed me and I saw the worry on his face. He looked afraid. It pleased me to see him in fear. I walked up to him and he was baffled, he stood there silently, even though he cowered over me I felt stronger than him. I looked into his eyes and I saw the horror. He opened his mouth as if he had an explanation. I raised the pistol to his face, and he fell silent again, even more afraid. He knew what was happening but he started gaining confidence again, I saw him becoming less distressed. I didn’t like this so I shot him in the foot. Blood sputtered out of his foot and he fell over, grasping his foot. The gunshot must have been heard for a very long distance. Then I realized that I must kill him before the police got here, so I just shot him in the head and immediately the shouting ended, blood erupted out of his head and it was done. From that moment on, I was a cold-blooded-murderer. I timed how long it would take the police to get here and take me away. It took exactly 4 minutes and 32 seconds. And from then I was immediately taken here to this moment. Me explaining my whole story to you, Sergeant. 3 weeks later at trial- “Do you accept the consequences for your actions? Do you plead guilty?” “Yes I completely understand the consequences for my actions. Everyone got what they deserved, me, Steven, my father. What’s the sentence?” “It’s your life” “Well, I have nothing to live for anyways. I have no one in my life...”