The blonde boy walked down the darkening street while the lamps began to flicker on, starting the night shift. His pale hair was easily seen against the dark buildings. He wore a charcoal gray jacket which only made his light hair even more noticeable. His face was expressionless as he walked, glancing at everything he passed. He turned the corner onto where the street rolled down the sloping hill and the buildings fell away with it. A small smile came to his face as he looked out at the slowly falling sun. The distant building cut into the bright ball, but it would not be covered without a fight. It shot out rays of light, staining the sky red and orange. The boy stared at the beautiful scene before him then took his hands out of the pockets of his jacket. He raised his small hands up, so they were level with the disappearing sun. His hands looked as if he held a camera; he even twitched his right pointer finger to “click” the shutter. People passing by glanced at the odd boy taking pictures with no camera, but only a few recognized him. Many in this small city knew of the boy who took pictures with his mind, the boy who could draw anything he had seen, the boy with a photographic memory named Nathan Kents.

A Witness
Nathan walked down the sidewalk throwing a glance to everyone and everything he passed, looking for a good photo subject. He shifted the book bag on his back as he walked. It was the last day of school, summer had begun and Nathan finally had time to do all the drawing he wanted. He looked up at the bright sun that started to sink in the sky and cast small shadows. Nathan stared up ahead and saw the entrance to one of Cherry Street's allys. A dark brown cat slipped into the alley. Nathan kept his gaze locked forward as he approached where the cat disappeared.
He peeked around a building corner and down to where the cat had curled up next to a sleeping golden dog, or at least it would be a gold color if it wasn't so dirty. They both were skinny and dirty. Their ribs were visible and their bones jutted out sharply. The dog lifted its head to look at Nathan with its brown eyes. The cat opened its party closed yellow eyes to stare at Nathan as if he had rudely intruded on her territory. The dog was calm and quiet while the cat was rambunctious and playful. Even though they were opposites, they were always together and looked out for each other. This was one reason they were one of Nathan's favorite subjects. They didn't belong with each other but they still were. It was different.
He went down and sat on his heels. He lifted his hands and took a 'picture'. After his hands dropped he pulled his backpack off his shoulders and dug in it. He lifted a plastic bag out then opened it. He took out the slices of ham he had bought from the deli on his walk home and laid them in front of the odd pair of friends who quickly ate the meat. The cat stood up and rubbed her head against his knee. After petting the cat he reached out and rubbed the dog's neck. He stood, slung his bag onto his back and continued on his walk after a final look down at the stray animals.
Nathan ended his walk from school at the stoop of his apartment. He took a second to look up at the slightly weathered, yellow building. He sighed as he turned his blue gaze to the hot, gray, and dull pavement. He didn’t feel like going home right at the moment. It wasn’t like he had a problem with his home, he loved his mom and his quaint, two story apartment, but he just wanted to keep walking. He walked up the cracked steps and placed his book bag against the stone wall. Nathan took his sketch book out of his bag then walked back down the steps. He had only gone a few feet before he heard the front door creak open. He turned his head to look up at his mother who stood in the doorway. Her blonde bangs fell across her face but she pushed the strands behind her ear. The ponytail she wore wasn’t enough to keep her long hair from falling out of place.
“Nathan?” she asked as she looked down towards him. A kind smile brightened her face. “Going for a walk?” She asked.
Nathan nodded as he smiled slightly at his mom.
“Yeah, I wanted to get some good pictures when the sun is setting.” His mother knew all about his passion and ‘special skills’.
“Can you come back before dark please?”
“Mom, it’s the last day of school.” He said teasingly.
“Oh, alright,” She rolled her eyes in return of his light teasing. “Don't stay out too late. Be careful, love you.” She smiled wider as she waved at him. He gave a small wave as he walked away.
Nathan went to the nearby park and sat down on one of the old wooden benches. It was too soon before the sun was going to set so he decided to draw one of his past ‘pictures’. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and entered into his ‘Mind Storage’. He knew it was a dumb name for the space created in his head but coming up with good names was not his strong suit. Well, anything with words wasn’t his strong suit, he prefered to draw rather than to speak or write. Most people assumed he was very literate because of his great memory. Nathan didn’t care for remembering anything other than things he wanted to draw. But that doesn’t mean that he can’t remember everything else he has seen.
His ‘Mind Storage’ was a mentally created area in his mind where he stored away and organized his ‘pictures.’ It was an exact copy of his apartment but slightly different. Everything in this apartment was completely white. In his real apartment the upstairs only had two bedrooms which were his and his mother’s. And there was a long hallway between the two rooms. Although, in his ‘Mind Storage’, the hallway was filled with different doors, each leading to a different room containing and filing different ‘pictures’. The different rooms were for people, landscapes, animals, and so on. He had never told anyone but his mom about this place he had created, knowing he would sound crazy.
He entered his ‘Mind Storage’. He stood at the white apartment’s entrance. He reached out and slowly pushed open the wooden door. Nathan walked over the welcome mat and into the plain home. He looked over the couch that sat in the open living room and at the coffee table. On the table were the roses in the vase his mother had put out this morning. But these flowers weren’t crimson red but simple white, as was the vase that held them. If anything in his real apartment was added or changed so would his ‘Mind Storage’, but still remaining completely white. He looked straight ahead to the staircase that led to the second floor. Nathan walked to the foot of the stairs and began to ascend upwards. Halfway up he stopped and looked at the picture frame on the wall. This was the only item in the entire apartment that was colored. The white frame held a picture of his father. The man stared out of the frame smiling, his sandy blonde hair fell slightly into his kind face. His blue eyes even held a smile. Nathan’s lips quivered with a smile as he looked at his father’s picture. He gently touched the picture then after a moment he continued up the stairs.
He reached the landing, walked down the hall and to the door labeled ‘Animals’. He turned the knob of the door and entered the room whose walls were lined with filing cabinets. Nathan went to the cabinet directly to his right and pulled out the drawer labeled ‘Recent’. He reached into the back of the drawer and pulled out the picture of the stray cat and dog. He then left the ‘Mind Storage’. In reality, this process would only take a few seconds but to Nathan it was like he was escaping time.
He opened his sketch book and took the pencil out of his pocket. He tuned out everything around him as he slipped into the drawing. His mind lost within the white that gradually became gray. His hand danced across the paper. The sound of the pencil was the only thing that he could hear.
It was a few hours later that he pulled back from his own little world and examined the drawing. He smiled at the two stray animals that looked up at him from the paper. He noticed the sudden darkness around him. Nathan lifted his head to glance around at the empty park he sat in, alone. Night had fallen without him even knowing it. I didn’t even get a picture of the sunset like I planned to. He thought, annoyed at himself for losing track of time.
The lamp next to his bench seemed to be the only bit of light left in the park. He wouldn’t of admitted it, but he was scared. He stood stiffly, stretching, trying to shake off the fear that had creeped over him. He closed his sketch book and slid the pencil back into his pocket. His eyes adjusted to the night as he trotted down the side walk, back towards his home. Crap, hopefully I’m not out too late, he thought to himself. He was about a street away from his block and he quickly turned a corner into an alleyway that would take him directly there.
He stopped at he saw two men, one was on the ground leaning back onto his elbows and the other stood there, with his back towards Nathan, in a long trench coat and a hat. In the trench coat man’s hand was a glistening silver gun pointed at the man on the ground. The scene before him was bathed in the faint white light of the street lamp that stood at the alley end. Nathan’s blood froze, his breathing stopped, and his heart skipped a beat. The man on the ground turned his eyes on Nathan. Fear, anger and slight hope huddled in his brown eyes. He turned his terrified gaze back to the man standing over him who c***ed the handgun. There was suddenly two loud bangs as light erupted from the silver weapon and the man on the ground grunted in pain as flying metal ripped into his chest. Nathan clearly saw the light leave the man’s eyes as blood leaped into the air and splattered onto the pavement. After the sound of the blood landing on the concrete and body of the man thumping onto the same ground, there was nothing.
The man with the gun looked down at the dead man as the blood seeped from his wounds onto the dull, gray concrete. The crimson was slipping into any cracks it could reach and rolled away from its former vessel. Nathan went cold as he lost feeling in his limbs and the book slipped from his fingers. The soft thump onto the ground sounded like a bomb in the quiet. The killer turned around quickly and shakily. Another burst of light filled up the dim space and a bang accompanied it. A burning pain tore into the right side of Nathan’s stomach. He screamed as he fell back from the force of the bullet and onto the hard pavement. His hands had instinctively grasped at the pain in his side as he fell back. Cold hands trembled against the warm liquid that spilled from his pain racked body. He let out another scream in agony. He heard a single footstep. Oh please, no. Don’t kill me. God, no. Thoughts raced through his mind as he feared that the man would come over and finish the job. Instead there were sudden, panicked footsteps as the man ran away. Nathan heard the footfalls stop and the sound of the killer tripping and falling but quickly getting up and running. Nathan lifted his head, curious and straining to see what happened. The dead man still laid on the ground but the pool of blood around him was disturbed. The blood was smeared farther out and red shoe prints left a trail out of the ally.
Nathan laid his head back down and felt tears slip from his eyes that closed tightly in fear and pain. The pavement he had fallen to, still held warmth from the hot day that had been here only an hour before. He felt cold. He opened his eyes slightly as he looked at the night sky above him. The stars were strewn across the deep, deep blue sky like diamonds sinking into the depths of the ocean. Nathan even saw a single star dash across the sky. Sadly, a childish wish couldn’t save him. Why must I die under a sky this beautiful? A sky I won’t even be able to draw? He thought sadly to himself in despair as his hands began to slip from his red stained shirt.
Faintly, in the distance there were sirens. Hope flicked in his heart that was slowing and growing quieter. He even heard a creaky wooden door open and a woman's fearful voice call out, “Nathan?” on the other side of the street.
His vision grew dark as the sirens grew closer and he fell away into the darkness of unconsciousness.

Slipping
What is this darkness? Nathan wondered. He was surrounded by black. The black seemed to lift him up as he laid in nothingness. Strangely, the darkness seemed to put pressure on him. Breathing was slow and slightly restricted. Am I dead? He thought curiously. Oddly, he wasn’t alarmed at the depressing thought. What about mom? His eyebrows furrowed as he thought about his mother worriedly, if eyebrows could even furrow in death. While Nathan drifted in the heavy gloom he became aware of a noise. There was an indistinct upset conversation somewhere in the darkness but Nathan could not pinpoint it as words floated around him. Behind the conversation there was an alarm of some sort and the sound of a machine. He strained his ears to make it out but right then a pain shattered the dark he drifted through, an incredible shock slammed into his relaxed body. He gasped, now aware of a rounded cup around his mouth. The stifling darkness was ripped away, exposing Nathan to a space of noise, bright light and pain. His eyes flew open and were quickly closed after looking into a blinding overhead light. The engine roared and the alarm screamed. A man and a woman were speaking very loudly, saying things Nathan couldn’t understand as their hands moved about his aching, weak body. The female was cutting through his shirt with a large pair of scissors and the man was applying gauze to his side. Nathan tried to lift his arms but the medic laid her hands carefully on them to keep him from moving very much. “Honey, I need you to lay still.” She said. He gave up trying to move, his arms felt like lead anyway.
“Patient has awakened, still in critical condition. Bleeding has been slowed. He needs blood now. Drive faster.” The man shouted towards the cab of the speeding vehicle as he applied pressure to Nathan’s wound. To the woman he said irritably, “Of course the kid is O positive and we just took that supply out.” She didn’t reply as she kept her eyes on Nathan.
The woman’s voice was much softer than the man’s as she spoke to Nathan, “What’s your name?” She hadn’t looked into his eyes but once as she looked over his wounded body.
Nathan strained to speak, “Nay…” He gasped for air, he felt very light headed. He was suddenly terrified that he was going to die and no one would know his name. He tried again, “Nay-Nathan.”
“It’s going to be okay, Nathan.” She said, looking at him with scared but kind eyes as slipped her gloved hand into his. The woman was accustomed to seeing dying people but this case got to her. She had a brother close to Nathan’s age and when she looked at Nathan she thought of her brother, bleeding and hurt. She squeezed his hand.
Nathan was very grateful for that small act of comfort even if her words were said not to be truthful but to ease his fear. He gripped her hand tightly, clutching it as if her small hand was a life line. Nathan couldn’t keep the tears from seeping from his eyes. He was overwhelmed with fear, pain and realization that he could die, here and now.
The next hour was frightening and blurry for Nathan. He was rushed to the hospital where he was instantly given blood and taken into a room where the doctor told Nathan about the surgery soon to be performed. The doctor informed Nathan of his injuries but it went in one ear and out the other. He didn’t understand most of what they were telling him and he didn’t really want to hear the scientific terms about the bullet hole in his stomach or his loss of blood. He only nodded and didn’t say anything except to ask, “Where is my mom?” The nurse strapping a heart monitor to him simply said, “No one has arrived yet.” Without another word the nurse rolled Nathan out into the hall and towards the operation room.
They turned a corner and the doors down the hall bursted open. A woman in pale blue nightclothes with her blonde hair in messy bun ran down the hall, looking fearful at everyone she passed. She almost stopped when her panic stricken eyes fell on Nathan who lay on the gurney. The distraught and crying woman was Ellen Kents. Nathan’s mother began running, shouting, “Nathan! Nathan!” She reached his gurney which the nurse had stopped moving at the sight of the hysterical mother. She reached out to hug her injured child but froze suddenly as she realized that touching him might hurt her son. Instead she put her palms to his cheeks, Nathan stretched his hand up to lay it over her quivering hand. Ellen leaned forward to put her trembling lips to his forehead. A few of her salty, warm, tears dripped from her chin to fall onto Nathan’s cheek.
Nathan was deeply troubled by his mother’s actions and expression. It wasn’t that he was afraid of her, he was scared of how much she had changed. She is normally calm and relaxed, to see her breaking down and … Nathan searched for a word that could possibly describe his mother at this moment. He settled on ‘distraught’.
He tried to comfort her by whispering, “I’ll be okay, mom,” as he gently took her hand in his and squeezed it lightly. Nathan wanted to relieve her of fear. He wanted to comfort his mother like the medic in the ambulance did for him. Her small gesture had helped Nathan and he did the same for his own mother. She looked into his eyes, her body shaking as she nodded, not saying anything as tears continued to stream down her cheeks. The nurse glanced to the doctor who stood at the front of the gurney. The doctor spoke to Mrs. Kents, “Excuse me, ma’am, but we need to get Nathan to surgery.” She looked at the doctor, alarmed at the mention of surgery. She nodded, kissed Nathan’s forehead again and ran her fingers through his hair before stepping back to let the gurney carry away her son.
Nathan watched the white walls slip by as he lay on the cushioned mobile bed. As they passed a window to a waiting room Nathan saw a boy laying on a gurney. The boy’s gauze wrapped side was covered in blood. His blonde hair was darkened from sweat. Blood was smeared at the corner of his mouth. Blue eyes were dull, bloodshot and glistening with tears. They turned a corner leaving the window and the reflection. Nathan studied the boy in his mind using his memory to recall the sight he had seen. He thought about the image, scared by it and now understanding how he looked to his mother. Do my eyes really look like that? He thought to himself. It reminded him of someone who had survived a war, like his grandfather. Nathan knew the look all too well. Their eyes were void of light and didn’t seem to find joy in anything around them.
His thoughts were cut short when they entered a new room. Another needle was added to his arm, instead of blood this one pumped fluids into his dehydrated body. Nathan watched the nurses and doctor busily preparing for surgery, his stomach feeling uneasy, not just because of the hole in it.
The fluid tube was injected with a new substance and Nathan’s world began to grow dark for a second time that terrifying night. He tried to keep his eyes open as he watched the nurses transfer him from the gurney to the surgery table. A green, thin, paper like, blanket was placed over his torso. Nathan stared into the bright lights above him. The brightness was dimming as his eyes were slipping closed. He listened to the lulling sound of the slowing beeping of the monitor.
There was a gunshot and a flash of red. Blood. I’ve been shot. I’m going to die. Nathan sat up, he had to run away. He had to. A nurse yelped, shocked by his sudden movement. The doctor yelled, “What the heck?!” There was strong pain in his side again. He gasped from the pain almost falling over. He gripped the side of the table, trying to steady himself. He looked down at the floor. Behind the frightened nurse was that man. He laid on the floor, bleeding out. He turned his dying gaze on Nathan. Nathan looked to the door. I have to get out of here. He heard the heart monitor jump then stop for a second. Standing there was the murderer. His head was down so his hat covered his face. How was this possible? Is this a trick created by his mind? Was his grip on reality slipping?
The people around Nathan recovered from their shock and began to move. They grabbed Nathan, trying to restrain him. The doctor’s voice was loud in Nathan’s ear as he shouted, “Rinsfeld! Inject another dose! Put him under. Now!” Nathan watched the man by the door as he raised his head. Nathan stared in horror at the man with no face.
Blackness swamped him as he went under and fell back onto the table

So much blood. I can’t remember. I’m so cold.
These thoughts relentlessly attacked Nathan as he slept, still under the effects of the anesthesia.
The nightmare he had lived through constantly replayed in his mind. It always started with him turning into the alley and ending with his vision going black as he bled out onto the pavement. He could remember the title of the newspaper that was discarded in the alley, the small mole on the dead man’s jaw, the exact color of the murderer's coat, even the brand of shoe both men wore. He remembered everything down to the last detail. Everything except for the face of the murderer.