Paying the price by Lubna (short books to read TXT) 📖

Chapter 1

The phone rang 6:15 am Saturday on the dot; James shuffled in his bed and reached out to the side table grabbing his phone.

“Hello,” said James coughing a few times.

“James it’s Scott, get down here now it’s urgent!” Scott, his best friend, said desperately.

“What do you think you’re playing at mate, it’s 6 in the morning?” James exclaimed looking at the time.

“Look just listen, get down here now! It’s your granddad…I think he’s in trouble…” James could imagine Scott’s worried eyes and messy black hair; he shook his head and sighed.

Sliding the phone shut James thought, whatever it was he wasn’t going to take the risk, if his granddad was in trouble he wasn’t going to let it pass. As quietly as he could, making sure not to wake his mum, he crept to the bathroom and washed his face waking himself up from the heavy sleep. Staring into the mirror, he thought to himself, he didn’t look that bad for a 15 year old guy, his blue eyes were just like his dads (who was in a place where no one could bring him back from) and his brown hair was just like his mums.

Wiping the thoughts out of his mind he silently, slowly trudged back into his room, changing into a black t-shirt and blue baggy jeans. He made his way downstairs and grabbed a banana and slipped like a ghost out the front door. His ancient bike was just outside the door, shovelling the banana into his mouth he jumped onto it and made his way to Scott’s house which was just a couple of minutes away.

Reaching the top of Scott’s street James could feel something was not at all right. Just seconds from his destination, James then noticed what was wrong. His granddad’s front door was wide open, no life or light could be seen within the house. His heart started hammering against his chest; dropping his bike he ran towards the open door. All he could see in the darkness was mess all over the floor, papers and books were sprawled across the carpet and his granddad’s prized possessions, the boat models, were broken into a million pieces and were scattered around. A thought struck James confused mind if this was the state of his granddad’s belongings what would have happened to him? …

His granddad had been ill ever since his son, Brian, James’s father, had died. He had forgotten everything then and didn’t do anything but sit still watching a specific spot and saying “Brian” over and over again. His son’s death had hit him hard. But it was just recently that his Granddad had started coming back to his old self. Just a couple of days ago James’s granddad had talked to him for the first time about his father and how he, James, had the same eyes as him. Which was the exact same thing as his mum said to him.

His heart had sunk thinking about his dad but he pushed the thought to the back of his mind and started up the stairs as silently as he could. Getting to top he heard slight whispers coming from the first room, his granddad’s bedroom, he couldn’t make out who it was but he knew for definite it wasn’t his granddad. Tip-toeing to the door he put his ear on the surface of the door, close enough to hear slight words of the hushed conversation.

“Look, what do we do wid him, he jus cryin in da corner, why don’t he die already?” a rough but worried voice asked.

“Be patient my boy, ‘es old, he’ll have snuffed it by the time the feds get here and we’ll be long gone all we need to do is…” the second voice stopped and nothing else was heard. James backed away as slowly as he could, trying to slip into the other room, but the door opened and before he could run a tight hand was round his throat. He was gasping for every small breath. Everything was spinning around him. Close to unconsciousness the grip, luckily for James, loosened and a face came into his blurred view, it was a large faced man with a baldhead looking right into James’s face. The man’s eyes only said one thing and that one thing was murder.

“Didn’t mummy ever tell you its rude to listen to other people conversations?” spat the disturbingly large man onto James’s face.

“Get off me,” James gasped trying to run.

“Haha, try it son and you wont get passed the stairs without a bullet in your head!” laughed the bulky man. James was pushed into his Granddad’s room and what he saw in front of him made his blood drain from his face, making him stone cold.

There in front of him was his granddad, laying on the bed his eyes open and searching for help, his whole body limp not moving at all, but still alive, blood was oozing out of his head staining the pearl white pillows. All James could hear was his granddad whimpering, trying to ask for help. He just couldn’t take the sight anymore.

“WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM? JUST GET OFF ME!” James screamed at the top of his voice shoving and pushing the man.

“You cant do anything now sonny, nobody can,” the enormous man holding him snickered. This made James want to fight more so he used all his strength and released himself from the man’s grip and punched him. He fell to the floor covering his stomach and groaning in pain, and that’s when James noticed, the man’s phone had fallen out onto the floor. So as quick as lightning before the other partner could get hold of him, James grabbed it and shoved it away in his front jeans pocket and made a run for it. He was close to the top of the stairs when the other partner came dashing and grabbed hold of James by the arm, trying to restrain him. James tried as hard as he could, punching and thumping the man but he knew himself he was no match for a big guy like him and just gave up. He allowed himself to be dragged back into the room without protest.

James looked at his granddad who was now still, never to move again, tears filled James’s eyes, he felt helpless. Both the men had got hold of James now and were trying to push him to the floor but a faint sound of sirens was heard beyond the windows. The largest of the men walked across to the window and stared out of it.

“Damn we gotta go, leave the kid and run Riley!” he yelled looking backwards and forwards at the window.

“NO WE CANT RAY. He’ll tell someone!” the man named Riley replied tightening his grip round James more and more.

“Will he?” growled the man named as Ray as he came striding across the room, grabbing James and pushing him with all his force against the full length mirror. James fell with a thud and was sprawled across the floor unconscious with shattered mirror pieces scattered on the floor around him. “Now he won’t will he. NOW RUN!” He yelled louder.

They both ran out the room taking one last look at the dead old man on the bed and the still body of the boy on the floor. The sirens got louder and they ran. They disappeared into the darkness of the night silently and quietly as they had appeared.

Chapter 2

Sunday

1 day and hours later

His eyes flickered open. Pain seared into James’s back it was as though a million knives were being struck into his body. It took him a few minutes to remember what had happened, looking around his room everything looked the same, but he knew himself…things had changed. James tried sitting up but with every movement he made the throbbing became more painful making him flinch each time he attempted to move.

It took minutes for him to be able to sit up and get off the bed; he went across to his mirror and pulled up his shirt looking at his back. It wasn’t a pretty sight, his skin looked as though it had been beaten with a thousand stones, the bruises were purple and there were a few cuts here and there but nothing seemed to be visually painful. Pulling down his t-shirt he walked out his bedroom trying to stay upright. Walking down the stairs he could hear a bunch of voices, stepping further down he could also hear sobs coming from the kitchen. Going down the rest of the stairs he took a deep breath and walked into the kitchen. There he saw two policemen in black and white uniform and his mum, her eyes red and puffy.

“What are they doing here?” James said looking at the policemen sitting at the kitchen table.

“James how are you? We wanted to talk to you if that’s ok?” One of the policemen said politely.

“What do you mean by ‘how are you’ Huh? What’s the point in doing or saying anything now? Why are you even here? You should have been here earlier yesterday, maybe none of us would have had to be in this situation!” James exclaimed.

“We didn’t know anything about the situation until we got a call from a young teenage boy worried about a break in at Mr Daims, your granddad’s, house. I know whatever happened yesterday must have been very stressful for you but we are here to help. We need you to work with us and help identify those men who killed your granddad and harmed you?” the policeman asked.

“How do you know I’m hurt?” James asked raising an eyebrow.

“Who do you think brought you here?” James’s mother said looking at James. “You could say thank you James, anything else could have happened if they hadn’t come!” She said breaking into another sob.

“Yeh, well thank you, and I’m sorry but I don’t know how any of the men looked, it was dark, all I know is they were big and they killed my granddad an have given me a good amount of bruises!” James huffed.

“James at least try,” his mother urged.

“I bloody am. I’m sorry mum, I was too busy being beaten up to notice what colour eyes the pretty man must have had!” James said through gritted teeth. Both James and his mother stared at each other for a few minutes, the atmosphere turned from uncomfortable to icy, which the policeman noticed.

“Ok, it looks like we should leave you for the time being and let you pull yourself together, we’ll stay in touch, if you do remember anything you know where we are,” the police man forced a smiled and with that they both got up and showed themselves out. Even when they had gone James’s mum was still glaring at him.

“What?” James said shrugging.

“James you could have tried, why do you have to be so hard to figure out?” she said her tone becoming stronger and angry.

“Look mum just forget it I don’t need this, I just saw my granddad fight for every breath yesterday and you expect me to be all woopii about it and work with the police, what are they gonna do? Nothing at all I tell you, so