Vigilant

“Yes! Come here!”

“I’ll be right back,” she said to Davis.

“What is it?” Ari asked. “I’m in the middle of that group.”

“You won’t believe what’s happening right now.” She led Ari over to her desk.

Ari peered over and saw the computer monitor showing a paused video. “It’s the mystery guy!” He seemed to be in a parking lot, fighting with some men. His motions seemed erratic and especially violent. “What’s he doing? Why is he kicking that guy?”

“I don’t know. Someone with a camera phone caught him fighting some kids and put it up on the internet. It just came across my Facebook feed,” Rebecca said. “I started watching it, but ran to get you before I finished.”

“Kids?”

“Yeah older teens or something. But watch. It gets crazier.”

Ari watched as a guy rushed to the Vigilante, stopping his attack. The new guy had on gray sweats and a black jacket. His baseball cap fell to the ground as he challenged the Vigilante, revealing short cropped hair. His motions were fluid. Skilled. For a moment the kid might have had the upper hand, but the Vigilante did something totally out of character. He reached his hand inside his jacket.

“Oh my god, is that a gun?” Ari cried.

He leveled the gun at the man in the sweats, who stood before him with his hands up. He’d surrendered. What was the Vigilante doing? Why did he have a gun? “He never caries a gun,” she said. The man glanced upward he looked directly at the camera. His movement was enough for Ari to see his face. She gasped.

“I know him. He’s from the GYC.” Raising her voice she called, “Davis! Come here! Davis!”

“What?” Rebecca asked.

Before she could answer Davis stood by her side and also asked, “What’s wrong?”

“It’s Alvarez,” she told him, pointing at the screen.

He didn’t reply but felt his body stiffen. They stood silently and watched the screen as the Vigilante ordered Alvarez down on his knees.

“What is he doing? What’s he doing?” Ari asked.

The Vigilante lifted his gun and held it to the boys head. Ari shifted her body toward Davis but couldn’t stop watching as the Vigilante fired the gun. Alvarez’s body rocked from the bullet and dropped to the ground. The screen went black.

“Oh!” she cried, pressing her face into Davis’s shirt. Rebecca ran from the room, slamming the door to the bathroom down the hall. The sound of her retching echoed down the hallway.

Davis gently pushed Ari back and walked away.

“Wait! Davis, where are you going?” Ari asked, following him.

Without responding, he walked out the front door, slamming it shut behind him. The glass shattered from the force, sending pieces down to the ground like hail.

* * *

“What happened here?” Nick stepped over the pile of swept up glass. The maintenance guy was in the middle of replacing the door. “Did the kids get in a fight?”

“Valid assumption,” Ari said. “But no. It just broke when someone closed it. The glass must have been faulty or something.”

Ari didn’t follow Davis the night before. The group was still in process and she couldn’t just leave. Holding back tears, she thanked the men from the GYC for coming. None of them realized one of their members had been just been executed on camera.

“Let’s

go to my office,” Ari said to Nick.

Once the door was shut, Nick pulled her into a tight hug. “I’m sure you saw the news last night. About that kid from the Youth Center?”

Nodding into his chest, feeling uncomfortable with their closeness. “Yeah, I saw it.”