GINGER PHOENIX a novel by M. Cairol Yakup

Chapter 2

 THE BLOND BOY WITH THE ELECTRIC BLUE EYES

It was really bad. Azzim had an uneasy sleep. The image of his dead friend he saw this early morning was really disturbing. It kept coming into his head whenever he dropped off for every ten minutes. He was shivering, scared to even think about it.

Sam died in the most terrible way. A horrifying thing had happened. Azzim didn't know why. Why did he have to die that way? Sam was killed; brutally murdered. Azzim wondered if Sam got himself killed on his way back home hours after they said goodbye to each other last night.

Seeing a friend died that way made Azzim thought twice about death. For all this time, he wished he was dead so he could see his wife and their baby. But he had just found out this morning, that he was a coward. He was scared to die but unwillingly to live on this earth, pathetic!

There were too many things going around inside his mind right now. He wanted was to sleep. He was so tired. But every time he closed his eyes, the dead Sam's face kept reappearing in his mind.

He had no idea why he was so scared last night, as if he knew that he wouldn't be seeing Sam ever again. He felt the moment Sam was about to leave the club, right? He knew that something was going to happen,

'Don't be stupid Azzim', he said to himself. It was just a coincidence, not more than a coincidence. He took out his last cigarette and smoked. Even the cigarette couldn't take his mind off thinking about Sam.

The poor bloke's house was only two blocks away. Azzim took the same path like Sam for every other night from his apartment to the club. The thought that he could be the next victim was terrifying. It felt like if somebody wanted to kill him, just do it quickly. He didn't have to be frightened like this.

Azzim knew he was not going to get enough sleep for today. He had no interest to watch the news on television, not even listening to the radio. He knew that he would be watching and listening about Sam's death.

He had uneasy sleep until 9:00 in the evening. He was still shaking from head to toes. Hands were cold and legs felt numb. He swore under his breath just to pull himself together. He tried hard not to think about it.

He felt awkward walking tonight. Everything felt wrong. Maybe he should be seeing Zoey later on and take some night-off from work.

No, that wasn't helping. What was he supposed to do, lock himself up in the apartment? It was not going to make him feel any better.

He had nowhere to go. He had only been here for two weeks. Not much that he knew about this place. The only closest friend he had was found dead this morning.

Stop, Azzim. Stop it. Okay, taking some night-off working was not a good idea. What was he thinking? It took him a couple of months to accept the fact that he lost his wife and baby. What made him think that he could get this over in a day or two?

It was Saturday night. The road was busy and youngsters came out to have some fun. It was less scary compared to this morning.

It was some sort of impulsive reaction when Azzim automatically stopped three feet away from the spot Sam's body was found. Blood was all over the place this morning but now it was already cleaned. His eyes transfixed to the spot as his legs were crammed and refused to budge. This was the place where Sam was found dead.

A pair of legs appeared from the spot and when Azzim looked up to it, he saw a boy smiling at him. There he was again, the same long blond-haired boy he saw in the club last night. He blinked. No, he was just imagining things. There was no one standing in front of him.