Adrenaline pumps through my veins. My sleek black Charger is speeding past the legal speed limit, rising to 90 mph within seconds. I glance to my right and see my beautiful girlfriend Ezra. I grab her hand tightly and promise her “everything’s going to be alright…” My attention was then grabbed by the roar of the two black BMW’s catching up to my car. I zigzag through the afternoon traffic trying to lose them. All of a sudden my ears start popping and Ezra gives out a loud scream. I turn around and get a quick glance at her face; it’s covered with lines of blood from the shattered glass when the men started shooting at the car.
The car then reached 190 M.P.H. and it was getting tougher and tougher to dodge the traffic on the straight-a-ways and sharp turns on I95. The black BMW’s were still close behind, and I was losing hope of getting out of their sight. A few more shots were fired at the car and some more of Ezra’s screams soared from her mouth. I didn't know what to do at this point. She was silently crying and my mind was focusing on getting her out of this mess alive. The final shot that I heard was the one that ended it all.
When the last shot was out of the nozzle of the gun, everything went into slow motion. I heard the blast of the rear left tire exploding as I began to lose all control of the car. It took only a few seconds for the car to go into a roll, smashing everything in its path. Ezra and I were being thrown from the roof back to our seats as the car seemed to be doing barrel rolls down the highway. Shards of broken glass began disappearing into our sensitive skin. I couldn't hear a thing that was going on because of the puddles of blood in my ears. After the fifth roll the car smashed into the guardrail and threw us against the shattered front of the car, which knocked me out immediately.

I wake up to the sound of sirens roaring down the road and saw the Jaws of Life tearing through the door. When I open my eyes again, I look around a little more; but when I look down at my arms I saw Ezra’s blood-covered hair on my chest. With the last strength I have in my right arm, I push her silky black hair away from her face to see her eyes closed. My stomach starts to drop and my heart feels a thousand times heavier. I put my fingers on her neck to see if there was a pulse but I can’t feel a thing…. With tears rushing down my face I start to shake her aggressively and scream out her name “Ezra… Ezra! EZRA!” In response the paramedics rush in and start to see if I was all right. They asked me a few questions but I didn't have the energy to answer; all I could think about was how I was the reason that Ezra was lying without a heartbeat in my arms…. With Life Star on their way, my eyes start to shut until everything went black.

When I wake up I’m lying in a bed covered in a teal robe. I have all these tubes connected to me and I hear the steady beep of the heart monitor across the room. Within seconds, a man in a white coat walks in the room and says with great depth, “How are you feeling, Julio?” I don’t know how to respond, so I silently say, “Where am I and what happened?” The doctor starts telling me about the crash and that I fell into a coma. When I start to look around I see that it has been a month since the accident. I anxiously ask the man how Ezra is doing. He gives me a quick glance and then sighs. I already know what the answer is and I could feel the waterfall of tears coming down my face. He lays down a tray that has 2% milk, a piece of steamy gravy covered turkey with potatoes and, on the side is a slice of dark chocolate cake. He tells me sadly, “I’m sorry for your loss Julio…” I look out the window at the soft fluffy grey clouds and hear the door creak shut.
Within a month of tests to make sure I am stable again and can get back on my feet, I am discharged from the hospital and given the items that they took from the crash. I take the bag and get into the taxi they called for me to get me home. When I walk outside, it’s cold and the rain is coming down hard on my shaved head as I wait for the cab that they've called for me to get home. When the cab arrives, I take a seat and he starts to drive off. He kindly watches for bumps in the road knowing that I am sore. As he drives me to my place, my mind travels back to the crash. I hear my own voice making the promise to Ezra that everything is going to be okay…. In what felt like no time, we are at my front yard and the driver sympathetically says, “Have a good day.” When I shut the door he speeds off and I walk closer to my house. The neighborhood is quiet except for the splatters of the rain against its own puddles. As I get inside I take of my wet clothes and start up the shower to have it come to a steam so I can just think about everything. I had the house to myself now. Both my parents had passed away two years ago while they were on vacation and left the house to Ezra and me. But now Ezra is also gone... I had too much on my mind but all of a sudden I remembered about school. Tomorrow was Monday and I needed to report back since it was Senior year and I had a lot to get done still. I didn't want to go back but I needed to. After my hot steamy shower I went upstairs, got in my boxers that were Ezra’s favorite, and laid in bed until my eyes came to a close.

The next morning I woke up in sorrow and found it hard to get to my feet. When I finally got up and got dressed, I plugged in my headphones and blasted the music in my ears. I slowly walked to the closest bus stop and when it came to a rolling stop I walked on, put my dollar in the slot and headed to the back where there were a few empty seats. I sat down in the hard, cold chair and couldn't do anything but look out the window.
The people from my school tried saying “hey” and “welcome back”, but I didn't answer. I just stayed to myself and kept quiet. I didn't even say hi back to my best friend Ruben. He came up to me anyways and wrapped his strong muscular arms around me and squeezed me tightly. When he was done he quietly told me “Feel better bro, we’ll get the guys that has done this to you” and walked off. I started to walk a little faster to class so I wouldn't miss the tardy bell.

“Julio… Julio! Get your act together or get out of my classroom. This is a place to learn not a place to sit and think about your feelings.” When my tech teacher, Mr. Andrews snarled this at me I wanted to get up and punch him in the face. I didn't listen to the tall, white, scrawny man; I just let myself drift off in thought again. When I stared out the window all I saw was dark devilish clouds of misery and darkness all around. I kept hearing Ezra’s voice in my head repeatedly saying “Get us out of this mess Julio; I don’t want to go just yet… I want to be with you forever…” with my response of “Everything’s going to be alright.”

The next few months had been rough, seeing that I have been having trouble getting sleep at night and being unable to do my work in class. I usually can’t get my eyes to shut or I just toss and turn the entire night. There was one thing that lifted my heart for a moment. It was a new girl that came down to live in Hartford from Brooklyn. When my eyes got a first glance at her my jaw wanted to drop. She has a body of an angel. Her skin was tan, not too dark and not too light. Her eyes gave off a quick sparkle when she paced by. And I just loved the way her curls bounced with every footstep that she took. She was petite but when I first saw her, for just a moment, I thought I fell in love again. I was lucky enough to have her in my physics class in third block.

Later that night I felt like I had done something wrong, something that wouldn't let go of my empty heart. I didn't know what to think anymore. I still loved Ezra with all of my heart but she was gone. I couldn't feel her soft touch when I was having a bad day or get a kiss from her luscious lips when I needed one. I had no one. I didn't mean to get feelings for the new girl, Georgina, but for a second in my life I felt that I would be able to start new. I felt that I had enough for the day so I clumsily threw myself on my bed and shut my eyes.

As the days pass, I continue calling the local police department. Each time I do I get the same repetitive response, “We will call you as soon as we get some more information.” To them they are just doing their job but to me they are working slower than a snail can cross a street.

When I arrived home from school the next day, I finally took some of the mail out of the mailbox. One of the letters was from the school. I slowly open the sealed envelope to find my report card for the first semester. I threw it down in anger since it reported to me that I was failing each and every one of my classes.

Later that night my buddy Ruben gave me a call to report that he had found the three guys started this whole mess. My eyes start to shed tears as I keep asking him the same question, “Are you sure?” When he proves to me he is sure I throw on my black NorthFace and pick up my Desert Eagle that lies underneath my bed. I soon hear my friend honk his horn in his Mazda 6 so I speed out and hop in the front seat to see two of his buddies in the back seat with Glocks, gasoline, and a lot of rope.

It’s a quiet ride to where we are going since it is around twelve at night, but on the ride my adrenaline starts pumping again… I keep seeing flashes in my head of the car crash and hearing Ezra’s voice over and over. It all stops when the engine of the Mazda starts to cool down from being shut off. I calmly ask Ruben how he knows for sure that these are the guys that did it and all he could reply back with is “people have big mouths when there is a lot of money on the line.” I just give up on asking him how he knows that these are the people. I’m just going to trust his word.

The next thing I know is that I am sitting in a hard and stiff chair looking into the eyes of one of Ezra’s ex’s. I suddenly slide back so fast that you would have thought there was a king cobra in front of me. I then slow down for a second to see that he too is sitting in a chair but he is tied with rope. I look around and see two more people but I do not know who they are. Ruben asks no questions and pulls out is Glock and pulls the trigger at the third guy’s head. His body slumps over as if he was shot from a tranquilizer. Ruben puts my Desert Eagle in my hands and points at Ezra’s ex, John, and tells me to pull the trigger. I take it and point it right between his eyes and start to see him shake. I can sense his fear, and it’s a feeling that I like, so instead of taking him out quickly, I shoot him in his knees to make it so he can’t ever walk right again. For my third shot I took out the center of his dominant hand so he won’t be able to do much of anything anymore. I choose not to take any more shots but to take my anger out on his buddy that was sitting next to him so I unloaded the rest of the clip into his chest to see him fall onto the ground. Ruben’s two buddies cover the place in the gasoline and we drag John just to the end of the door and toss the match in the gasoline. It ignites instantly and takes all my pain and fear with it. As we enter Ruben’s car I glance back to see John making his way out of the door using is only good arm to slowly crawl out of the fire. I decide not to shoot him a fourth time. I figured that I caused him the pain that I felt. He had seen two of his buddies die right in front of him and he lost both his legs and dominant arm from the bullet of a Desert Eagle. I had gotten what I wanted and it felt better than what I thought it would feel like.

When I got home it was around three in the morning. I took off my bloody clothing, threw them in the laundry basket and headed into the steam of the shower. A few minutes later I got dried and headed up to my bed to pass out. After I closed my eyes it was as if I fell asleep immediately and went right into my dream. The room was nothing but white with Ezra standing there with a smile. With her smile on her face she told me, “Julio everything is alright. I am in a better place now but I want you to be too. I want you to go for and love Georgina. It’s okay that your promise was broken; there was no way for you to stop it. You tried your best to protect me and that is why I loved you. I just want you to be happy again and Georgina can do that for you. Sometimes you need to move on and get something new to get anything at all. I love you Julio, and I always will. I will be in your heart forever and I will be watching over you for the rest of your days on Earth.”