Bleak Order

"Bleak Order"

Lewis Batemen, now a former police comissioner, left the tall city
building and immediately gripped his box tightly while peering up to
the night snow which was falling crisply. He had a new personal loss
but in return he had now been granted a new sense of personal order.
His expression was indifferent but his soul was glimmering as he walked
to his car.

Lewis Batemen had been the city's police commissioner for almost six
years. He had always believed that people should be aware that the
sacrifice of few was the only way to truly fight crime and ensure
proper punishment in the end. It frustrated him when an illegal act was
pursued and put to an end before it was actually executed leaving the
wrongful never to be properly taught that what they were about to do
was against the law. In turn they would be brandishing the city beats
with in months. Batemen was respected by many and in reflection hated
with a passion by others. His methods of fighting crime, he knew, would
not be recognized as the systematic genius he felt they were. Instead,
he knew in his own bleary heart, that in the future, he would only be
commended by all for solving the ultimate case, and the ultimate fight
against crime in the city. Only after it was too late would he behold
the logic of his distrusting public that crime was to be stopped and
not uprooted.

It was out of revenge for the extreme jail time he once received, Leon
Boggs kidnapped Batemen's daughter and without ransom or warning,
killed her. Sorrow for the young girl was presented by the public,
however no sympathy was passed on to Batemen and his now obsolete views
of justice. At least that is how Batemen understood it at the
time.

Batemen saw through what he was to practice and pondered nothing but
hatred for the cold-blooded killer. Perhaps Batemen did require a new
design of order. It was through vengeance that his daughter was killed
and so it would be through vengeance for his retribution. His
freshly-spawned obsession then denied him his duties as the
comissioner, and he morally assigned himself to find this man and gaze
into his identity. Batemen would cut no corners and leave no stone
unturned. He had even already hired lawyers for his day in court, a day
where his old methods would then truly be of warrant.

The new year had passed without one flinch in Batemen's intensity to
avenge. Crime now was indeed rising through blatant neglect and it had
seemed he was no longer the conservative, snooty, and firm man who
protected the city but now Batemen was only but a shadow of his
outer-self. This alter ego would not seek city leadership at the end
this term but that was a penalty Batemen surely accepted. After all he
still fashioned that a punishment was to fit a crime even if no crime
was committed. Batemen could only

04
laugh at the irony that he would get what HE deserved, only his current
job replaced.
Then, after months, Leon Boggs was apprehended in the underbelly of
the city. He had returned from hiding for various reasons but was
overwhelmed in regards to Batemen's still-existing persistence. It was
two days after a hearing that Batemen received the predictable but
still glorifying news that Boggs would see trail and inevitably be
sentenced. Batemen however would not enjoy this personal victory as the
City's police commissioner, but he would see it, again ironically, as a
regular citizen. He would see it through the eyes of public, a place
Batemen thought couldn't be more fitting.

The rise in crime was massive and Batemen was blamed through
incredible amounts of public mouth and salty media. Once again, Batemen
tossed the idea of regret out the window of his conscience. This was
not his problem anymore and besides now in replacement of his
undoubtful loss of employment would be invisible of the public eye of
interest. In other news, Leon Boggs would see 15 years of prison for
the murder of former police commissioner Lewis Batemen's
daughter.

Utter glee filled the retracted soul of Lewis Batemen, he had a box of
his personal items he carried from his old office to his car on the
dark snow-riddled night. This included a picture of his lost daughter
and now the photo seemed more valuable than his existence. It was a bad
picture and Batemen had always tried to remember to have

05
another one taken. This was only a Polaroid and she wasn't in a very
good pose for the
picture. It was taken at her summer camp of which she loved but did not
attend that
summer. Now he didn't feel forgetful about not getting another picture
for his office, he felt almost sick to his stomach that even though he
could always get a better picture from his home, it could not sit high
and proud upon the gleaming corner of Batemen's valiant desk. The
picture sat lightly on top of the pile of items in the cardboard box.
Batmen stopped to stare at it for a moment but it must have been more
of a moment for it was covered in snow when he stopped. Batemen had now
found what he truly was, he was not the grey public official or the
shattered image of just that, he was something else that he could not
label, he had now become himself. Walking briskly through the cold air
Batemen put the box on top of his black Mercedes and rooted his coat
pockets for his keys. He had found them but felt a dark presence out of
his vision, it was close so it must have been behind him. A chilled
hand reached into his pocket and before Batemen could react to this he
instinctively reacted to the deep cut which now became barren in his
neck. He wasn't sure if he was choking but it seemed unlikely that he
would start choking just as he was getting mugged. The sting had now
surged his body and the dankness of the night became the darkness of
eternity. The simple and newly self-manifested mugger ran off with
Batemen's watch and wallet. Crime had never been so high as until the
murder of the young girl of its chief defender.