I never thought in a million years I would be prosecuting my partner. Wait, let me back track a little. Hi, I’m Avalanna Chantel, top cop of Brooklyn, New York. A week ago I was working with my partner, Lewis, to bust a drug case we had been working on for quite some time. We finally caught them in the act and began the chase that potentially could’ve ended my 23-year-long life. I passed out during the chase and woke up not remembering what had occurred moments before. I remember seeing the gang in front of me dead and my partner standing with his gun pointed at them. Then I remember getting into a patrol car and then nothing again. The next time I woke up I was in the hospital. Come to find out my partner had tried to kill me over a promotion and then voluntarily turned himself in. Yep, that’s my story. Now, where was I?

“Ms. Chantel, tell me again exactly how much you remember about the 15th of June,” demanded my lawyer.

“I told you, all I remember is chasing the suspects into a sewer, cornering them, a shot being fired, waking up on the ground facing the 3 dead men and seeing Lewis standing a few feet away holding his gun and my gun on the ground near him. Then I remember getting out of the sewer, getting into a squad car, then waking up in the hospital. Lewis was there when I woke up and was really concerned and apologetic, very convincing act I might add, and after awhile I told him to leave so I could sleep…”

“Anything else?”

“Um, oh right! In the morning there were flowers by my bedside with a note from Lewis,”

“What did the note say? Anything concerning or important?”

“Not really just really apologetic, maybe that’s why he turned himself in, he couldn’t handle the guilt. That would explain the flowers, note, him crying seeing me alive in the hospital for the first time…Then he was really angry on the phone when I brought up the promotion. ”

“Yes that would make sense. Now you say you had no suspicions your hospital stay was due to Mr. Foxley until the news report you saw correct?”

“Yes that’s correct. I still don’t know how he did it though. That’s what scares me,”

“Well we still need to have a claim, a jab at how it happened, even though he turned himself in. You know that,”

“I know…” I trailed off trying to remember every detail I could, but having been drugged with something that altered my memory makes it more difficult. “Did you ever get the labs back on what exactly he drugged me with?”

“Oh yes! How did I forget, that was the most important thing I had to tell you today! It was actually mercury. Mercury is known to cause memory loss in large doses and the vial he found and turned in once you woke up in the sewer was about 200mL, unusually big that’s for sure. He must have done his research. The story he told you about how they all tackled you was obviously made up. He probably shot them all and then tackled you taking your gun away and then shooting you with the vile of mercury. That’s what I think happened, logically.”

“That actually makes a lot of sense. Wow, I think we just solved the case sir!”

“I believe we did, now I just have some work to do before the trial which should be a breeze seeing as he already turned himself in. You’re free to go Ms. Chantel.”

“Thank you so much, see you soon!” I say as I grab my purse and head towards the door of the office. My head is spinning. How could he have pulled that off? Was the chase even real? There’s no way he knew we would catch them. This had to be planned. Maybe the druggies weren’t even legitimate…Maybe they were just some guys he hired to help him with his plan…but then why would he actually kill them? I knew they were dead. Boss-Man showed me the report yesterday. This isn’t adding up. Calm down Ave, just go with the story your lawyer gave you. He knows what he’s doing, that should be enough to land that backstabber in prison. But that doesn’t make me feel any better. “Taxi!” I call out and wave my hand the hail one down. I step into the cab as it pulls to the curb in front of me. “Take me to 14-“

“Hey you’re Avalana Chantel! The story is all over the news; you’re supposed to be dead!” The obese, greasy cab driver says as he leans back to look at me.

“Yeah, thanks for the reminder.”

“So how-“ I cut him off not wanting to answer any questions, “just take me to 14 Cheshire Ct. please, and step on it, I’m late.”

“Sorry ma’am’” He replies and that was the rest of the conversation on the way to my mom’s house for dinner.

I was actually happy to be back at home for once. She moved to Brooklyn as soon after I did as she could, she refuses to not live in the same town as me. Usually I hate coming to my mom’s because of the showering of affection I despised but having almost died I have put everything into a whole new perspective. I’m grateful to have such a loving mother and I’m glad just to be alive. Until the court date I was looking forward to spending time with family and just enjoying life. You wouldn’t think almost losing your life would make you a better person but I believe it gave me a wake-up call. As they say you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. So yes, I went in and thoroughly enjoyed my mom’s meatloaf and didn’t even mind all the hugs and kisses. I answered all of her questions about what happened and everything and then we watched what used to be our favorite show when I was a kid, New Girl, and that made me feel a lot better.

“Hey Ave,” My mom called out as she brought us some rocky road ice cream (ironic since my life is on a rocky road right now) from the kitchen.

“Yeah mom?”

“This is just a suggestion, but after all that’s happened…don’t you ever think about just getting away from it all?” She hands me my ice cream and puts hers on the table and sits back down on the couch, “I’m sure everywhere you go you see him, something reminds you of him or…the incident. People are always gonna be talking. I mean-I guess what I’m trying to say is…Why don’t we just move away. Start over. Begin a new life and leave this mess and this sad-town behind us. I was actually looking at places today in London and-“

“MOM! LONDON? Are you insane? I can’t just drop everything and leave, what about the promotion, and my life’s here I-“

“Hunny you’re lucky to have a life right now. Not to be frank, but think about it. You almost,” She stops, eyes welling with tears, and tries to stop herself from crying, “You almost got killed her, I almost lost my baby girl. I don’t want to live in this city anymore. I have nightmares every night since it happened. I just want to leave it all and get away. It’ll be good for you hunny, plus you’ve been dreaming of living in London and all the British boys since you were 16. What do you say hunny? Move to London with me? Start over?”

I sat there for a while, thinking about everything. I guess there was a little part of me that wanted to do it. It would be nice not having to go to work and see the desk and chair of the guy that tried to murder me every day. Plus she was right, even the cab driver had the nerve to bring it up. Maybe it would be good to leave, start over, pretend this never happened; although pretending I didn’t almost die would be quite the challenge. And London has been my dream since I was 16. Am I crazy? I think I’m actually considering it; nope I want to do it. Although it’s not great timing with the trial coming up and all, if we leave now and don’t tell anyone maybe they’ll just arrest him anyway and they won’t need me there. He did turn himself in after all. I don’t think I’d be able to handle seeing his face in court anyway. Before I could stop myself I said, “Okay. When do we leave?”

Four days later I was on a plane somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean. After what was the longest flight of my life the flight attendant comes on the intercom, “Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. If you could please return to your seats and fasten your seatbelts we will be landing shortly. The weather is about 23 degrees Celsius and sunny and the local time is 12:45 pm. We should be on the ground in about 10 minutes and thanks again for choosing British Air as your airline. May we be the first to say, Welcome to London.”