I Watched Him Die

Chapter 1

 

 

-20 Years Later-

 

She was beautiful, her crisp blond hair hung over her slim shoulders and rested close to her perfect breasts. Her figure was that of a model, small and petite but with a hint of power and strenght. Her eyes, the most wonderful shade of green, sparkling perfectly in any light.

Angela Royal was the envy of all the women on the street, her husband Jason, a good looking man, with a thick head of black hair and brown eyes that remained cold but with a shard of life, illuminating any room he walked into. He was a tall man, wide too due to the hours he'd spend in the gym. He had an amazing set of teeth that he was often complimented on.

The pair met in a courtroom, fourteen years ago. Angela was stenographer, a young woman with no experience in the real world, the only thing she knew how to do was type and that's what she was doing. Jason was training to be a lawyer, he sat in the third row with another man, wearing his best suit and looking quite nervous. He was doing work experience, trying to get the hang of how the courtroom worked.

He surveyed the typist as she sat there, fingers dancing around the keys, her eyes fixated on the piece of paper rolling out the top. There eyes met, just for a second, and they went back to doing what they where there for.

It happened again throughout the case and at one stage they both smiled.

Jason managed to slip her his number when leaving the courtroom, hoping he'd gotten the right message off the young woman.

He waited for a day or two before coming to the conclusion that there would be no phone call and he'd be thrown back into the world of sitting at a bar on his own.

At eighteen years of age, Jason knew that his lifestyle was wrong. He should have been out with friends, at clubs or parties not sitting in bars on his own or lying in his bed with a bottle of vodka.

The phone rang, an unknown number popped up, Jason usually ignored those who he didn't know and more often than that, those whom he did, but he put the phone to his ear and listened as an uneasy, nervous woman spoke.

They arranged to meet, everything went uphill from there. They married young, only a few months after they met and three months later she revealed something that Jason thought would never happen.

She was pregnant.

Times wern't easy, they had little money to support themselves never mind a child. Angela was still a stenographer in the courts and Jason hadn't really made any progress in his quest to become a lawyer. But that didn't curb their enthusiasm of having a pair of little feet bouncing around their small apartment.

Reece Daly was born on the fourteenth of August 1998 to proud parents Angela and Jason. He was amazing. His wrinkled little forehead scrunching up as he made the journey from the comfort of his mother to the harsh world. His tiny fists clenching as the doctor handed Angela her child. Jason had never felt anything like the feeling running through him at that moment. The icing on the cake was when the doctor announced the sex of the child. Angela had of course wanted a girl and Jason, like most men, had wanted a little boy. And that's exactly what he got. An eight pound, healthy baby boy.

Life wasn't easy after that. Jason had to work harder then ever to get where he wanted, he wanted to be at the top but it was no easy feat.

Angela had to take up another, part-time job just to keep the roof over their heads.

Reece was progressing at an incredible speed, he was walking and talking before Jason and Angela had expected and the older he got, the bolder he got.

Everything worked out well and the pair were pleased that they had given Reece a good childhood, a part from the occasional slip, nothing was ever too bad.

When Reece turned twelve, they decided to re-locate to a quieter, nicer town. One that Angela had known all her life. One that Jason had only heard off.

It was beautiful, the scenery, the area even the people where friendly. It's just what they'd been looking for. A quiet place to bring up their, nearly, teenage son. A place where they didn't have to worry about him getting mixed up in the wrong crowd or having to go down to the local police station to bring him home. Even Reece admitted that the area was great.

He started school, Angela accepted an offer, working in a library and Jason had reached the top. He was a big-shot lawyer, working on cases of murder, rape, drugs and weapons.

He loved it, the thrill off helping people send their son or daughter, wife or husbands murderers to prison. What he didn't like, was having to defend the scum of the earth. Helping drug dealers, murderers, rapists and paedophiles walk free. He was good at what he done, if he was hired to save someone from prison, ninety percent of the time he would do so. If he was hired to send someone to prison, the rate was even higher.

He remembered one case.

A high ranking member of a well known gang. He'd been arrested on charges of murder and gang-land offences and with the money he was so easily able to access had hired Jason. The trial lasted two days and by day two, Jason had decided that he couldn't help someone like Mr. Golding. He purposley blew the trial. Sending Golding down for three years. Jason was happy with the outcome but could not believe that the man would serve only three years, less if he wanted to.

That was his profession, he didn't always like it, but it paid the bills and kept the clothes on his familys back, and at the end of the day, thats all he cared about.

It had been twelve years since the murder of Conner and not a day went by where the images didn't take over some part of his thoughts, but Jason had learned how to block it out. Learned to leave it at the back of his head, letting it peak out only whilst slurping on an alcohol of some sort. Something which he had given up a long time ago.

His wife knew about it, he'd told her on a drunken night when they where young, told her everything. She had seen the story on the news and was blown away when she had realised it was her fiancé who was forced to watch his friends murder.

She knew not to talk about it whilst sober, she'd tried it once with disastrous results. Jason had walked out on his heavily pregnant wife, leaving her in a small apartment for the night. Coming back the next day to apologise but never speaking of the matter again.

And that's the way Jason liked it, no one speaking or thinking about it, especilly not him.

It was over,

It had been forgotten about,

No one remembered the headlines of the newspapers,

No one remembered it was twelve year old Jason Daly who had been put through the horrific experience.

No one.

Except Jason.