As I got into my car and started the engine I heard her laugh, it was so light. She’s here with me, I just know it. I quickly turn my head to the back seat and there she is. 

“Ella? Oh my God I’ve missed you so much. I’m so sorry what happened to you. Please forgive me,” I’m begging her, “I turned around and you had wandered away and before I could even noti-” 

“Dad,” hearing her cut me off in her sassy voice brought tears to my eyes, “it’s okay. I still love you. Hold it together.” 

    Tears start flooding out of my eyes, as I rub them away I look back at her again, but she’s gone. I turned all the way around just to see if she was hiding my seat, she’s gone. She will always be gone. 

As I am whipping away my tears and getting myself back together, I begin to merge onto the freeway. As I look up from rubbing my eye, I see it. The car that killed my baby Ella. I got into the right lane and caught up to them slowly, but when I got my chance I would cut them off. As the car in front of me speeds up and gives me enough room I veer in front of the Golden Nissan and they slam on their breaks and horn.  Good, they’re frustrated. They speed up to my right side and when I look over a woman is yelling at me.

She is not what I had envisioned. She was blonde, wore glasses, looked like she would be a stay at home mom. She is pointing her finger at me and yelling that she would call the cops. Why does she think she can talk to me like that after the pain she has caused my family? My face is burning hot and before I knew it my hand was in the glove compartment and grabbed my handgun.  I rolled down my window, still hearing this woman yelling at me, but then as I looked over to meet her eyes with a gun up to her car, her face turned white. That face would be burned into my memory forever.  Before she could even hit her brakes I pulled the trigger. 

When I look into my rear view mirror as I am speeding off, I see her car in the air flipping. A sense of almost release is flooding my body. Holy crap, I just did that. Justice is finally served. She got what was coming. Right? Did I do the right thing? Yes I did, I know it. I feel too good right now for this to not be right.  Before I even knew it I was already home.

I walk into the door with my head held high, after all, I am the man of this house. I deserve some respect around here. No, I demand it. 

“Uh, hey Henry. How was work?” I looked over and Leslie, my wife, was speaking to me. My face goes blank for a second, we haven’t spoken much since Ella passed, her and my daughters blame me for her death since I was the only person around when she was hit. Why is she finally saying something now? Can she sense that I finally caught the person who took away our baby? 

“Um, well, it was okay,” I’m lying. It was a great day. “Actually, if I am being honest, this is the best I have felt in a long time.” As I say those words I look up to see her glare, as if she was mad at me for having a good day. 

“Must be nice to actually move on from something you caused here,” she says. She said that with such a harsh tone. Does she not realise all of the work I have done today to bring a peace of mind for us?

“One day,” I say to her with such a firm tone, “You will see the sacrifices I have made for this family.” 

    Before she could even respond with another jabbing comment blaming me for such pain, I headed back out to my car. I shut the door behind me and grab my gun. This holds so much power, why haven’t I done that before? The amount of pain and stress release I just had on the road was the best I have felt in forever. To see that golden Nissan spin in circles behind me felt like justice had finally been served. Maybe I should start taking issues into my own hands from now on. 

“Dad?” I turned quickly around, still lost in my own thoughts, and hiding the gun behind my back, it was Maddy. 

“Yes?” I said quickly, still struggling to look organized. 

“Why do you have a gun?” she asked with an attitude. Well I guess I wasn’t smooth enough at hiding my gun. Even if I did hide it, who is to say that I shouldn’t have one? I am the man of this house. 

“Because I’m a grown man and can have one.” I say back sternly. 

She looks at me and rolls her eyes, she’s done that ever since she was 7 and learned that from her mother, she has no respect for me and I know it. 

“You’re far from a man, let alone a dad. You better put that thing away, if you can’t even keep Ella alive being 6 feet from her, who knows what you could hurt with that gun.” She turns and stomps away. 

    Why does she think she can talk to me that way? This whole family has absolutely zero respect for me. They learned it from their mother, she is the root of all my issues. She has taught my kids to not respect their father. They will see one day, all of the sacrifices and justice I have given them, especially now. She has made my life a living hell, and if I let her keep walking all over me in front of my own children, it will only get worse. 

    They don’t deserve me, none of them do. I can’t even stand coming to my own house now. I can’t stand being at my work, my house, around my family, what’s next? This life is meaningless to me. I will be respected. Before I could think another thought I was back in my car, I needed to blow off some more steam. 

I start the engine and I get a rush all throughout my body. I can see that woman's face, her car flipping, her paying for what she did to me. She deserved everything. 

    As I pull out of the driveway and look to my left and right to make sure nobody is seeing me, I see the car. How does that make sense? I saw her car flip? She’s gone. She got what she deserved. 

    I start to slowly pull behind the golden car at the stop light, but it’s not her. It’s a man, brown hair, brown eyes, looks to be about my age. How could he have killed my Ella? I bet he killed her. I’ll make him pay, but I’ll be patient. 

    I followed him all throughout downtown Houston, he went to the bank, to the car dealership, and now I think he is headed to get some food. 

    He parked along a sidewalk and as I park too I see him walking up to my car. I freeze, trying to hurry and back out of my spot but I am stuck. He’s sprinting at me now.

“Hey! Why have you been following me man? I don’t know who you are. What is your deal?” he is yelling at me.

“What is my deal?” Hearing him ask me that got me angry, he knows what my deal is. “My deal is that you get to do normal things throughout your day like you didn’t ruin mine. How you can just hit someone and run. Who does that?”

He looks at me with such confused eyes, he’s trying to hide that fact that he knows he killed my daughter. If he lies to me, I will kill him right here, right now.

“What are you talking about dude? You sound crazy. I don’t know who you or your family is, leave me alone” he yells back.

    I gave him his chance. He just lied to me, he could have admitted it and I would have spared his life. But no, he sealed his fate. I reach over into my glove back and grab my gun, and look at him. His face turned white, just like the woman’s. He turns to run back to his gold Nissan. That stupid car. He stole my life.

    As he is turning and sprinting away I stick my arm out of my car and aim. To see him running with such franticness gives me so much pleasure, he is feeling what I have felt for 3 weeks now. As soon as my thought is over, I pull the trigger. The bullet hit him right in the back. As I see him fall to the ground, I can’t help but grin. Justice has been served yet again, but as I am putting my gun back and looking around, a crowd is crying and screaming at me. I need to get out of here.

I put my car into reverse and I speed out of downtown, and hurry onto the freeway. Hopefully nobody remembers what I look like, nobody has before so why would they now. Either way, I did what was right and any police officer would agree with me. 

    Speaking of police officers, I hear what sounds like 3 sirens coming up behind me, they must be on their way to catch a bad guy. There are plenty of those around here, trust me, I would know. 

“Sir, pull over now! Do not resist arrest.” A cop is saying this to me over a microphone. 

    What? Why would he be saying this to me? I’m not the bad guy, those other people are. Why aren’t they on my side? This is so du- BAM! A shot has just hit the side of my door. Why are they shooting? They know I’m innocent! Our justice system is so corrupted. I can’t live here anymore, I need to go home, get my family and move countries. 

    I press the gas pedal and begin to head home, they can follow me all they want, but I’m innocent. I start to merge onto the exit towards my exit. As I am pulling up to the stop light I see a row of police officers forming, trying to stop me from seeing my family. They will not stop me. I press even harder on the gas, as I start speeding towards them, a gap forms between them . They must be letting me through, they know I’m not a bad guy. As I am almost past them, I am smiling at them, as a thank you to them for letting me through. Before I know it though, a chain is thrown across the street with spikes all across it.

    My tires all blow out after hitting the spikes, I am spinning in circles. Why would they do this to me? I just need to get home to my family. We need to leave. As I look up from my wheel, all I see is a semi headed right towards me. I hear the screeching of the tires, but I know they’re going to hit me. I hope my family knows I did all of this for them, I am an innocent man. Last thing I see is red, then black, I can’t feel anything. I don’t want to die. 

As my eyes begin to open, all I see around me is white. Where am I? I try to rub my eyes and look at my surroundings. I see a woman, she is wearing a white coat, and she's with a man in a black suit. I think they’re here to help me. 

    I believe she sees me waking up and her and the man walk into my room. 

    “Where am I? Who are you” I ask quickly.

    “Sir, I am Dr. Garcia,” she says then looks over at the man in the suit, “this is detective Morgan.”

I sigh out of relief, “Oh my gosh, are you here about my daughter, Ella? Did you find who killed her?” 

He looks at me with a stern look, “Nor, Mr. Reid,” he says to me, “we are here on the investigation of two murders of people killed in a drive by. Their names were Jennifer Nelson and David Kent.”

“Oh I am sorry Mr. Morgan, but I do not know who those people are,” I say back. 

“Yes you do, Mr. Reid. You killed both of them. You killed Ms. Nelson while she was driving and Mr. Kent during a dispute. There is no connection between the two people other than they drive the same model of car. A 2007 Gold Nissan. The same car that hit your daughter.” He answers back.

I stare at him with wide eyes, he thinks those people were innocent? My facial expression turns angry, and I can see he tells. 

“Do you think those people are innocent? Those people hit and killed my daughter! You have no clue what you’re talking about! I gave my family justice because people like you couldn’t do that for us. Where is my family, bring them in here now. I need to speak to them.” I’m begging him at this point. 

“Sir, do you not realize all that you have done?” Detective Morgan asks me.

“Yes, I killed two people because they both were a part of the killing of my daughter. Now bring me my wife and daughter!” I demand back. 

“Listen to me, Mr. Reid,” the detective says back to me, “your entire family is dead. Your wife and oldest daughter were found shot and killed in their beds. They have been dead for over ten days. The bullets found in their chest match the same bullets within your gun. You not only killed two innocent people, you killed your family as well.”

Why is this man lying to me? Is he trying to frame me? My family is alive.

“You’re a liar,” I spit back to him. “I talked to Leslie and Maddy this morning, they’re at home.”

“Mr. Reid,” Dr. Garcia interrupts me, “Delusions are a common side effect to someone going through a traumatic experience and can make people do things that they aren’t even aware of. Your family has been dead for over a week, you have been hallucinating them. I’m sorry” 

All I can do in that moment is feel my heart drop. I did the right thing though? Didn’t I? Why would I hurt my own family?

“It’s time to take you to another hospital Mr. Reid,” Dr. Garcia says to me.

“Why? Where am I going?” I ask, with tears filling up my eyes.

“You’re going to a Houston Mental Health Center, where you will stay for a very long time. You are sick. You need help, and you’re going to get that now,” she answers back.

After she finishes her sentence, men in police uniforms come in and have a shirt that I have to wear in order to be transported. It will restrict all of my movement. All I can see is Ella, Maddy, and Leslie in my head. Why did I hurt them? 

I need help.