James Walker : Life Lessons

PART 3 : MURDER

My day started just like always. The alarm bell was ringing like crazy. I got up and switched off the alarm. It was 8 in the morning and I was getting ready for the last day of my school. I got ready and went downstairs to have my breakfast. I went out to go to school. It was the last day of school so everyone was excited and were discussing the possibilities of going to college. When I reached school I found my best friend Ryan standing at the gate waiting for me.

I walked over to him and noticed that he was avoiding making eye contact with me and was looking sad which was unusual for him. Usually, he is very talkative and always smiling but today he was looking differently at me like he was afraid of me and was reluctant to talk to me." Hey! " I called out to him. He looked at me and returned " h...h..hey ".I walked towards him but was restrained from doing so by the massive arm of a person whom I knew too well. The arm restraining me was the arm of one of my worst enemies and a fearsome bully, Charles Jackson, better known as Charlie. " Leave me alone for once! " I shouted at him. " Hey, tough guy! I just want to ask you a question which will probably be asked to you by the police. "

" The police !! Why would the police ask me any question? I haven't done anything criminal. " I answered. " Oh! Haven't you heard about it? Would you like to hear it from me or your wimpy best friend? " He chuckled. I pulled away from him and went to Ryan. " What's going on? " I asked him. He stammered and said three words which I regret every time I think about it. He sighed and answered " Reyna is dead. "

"What did you say ?" I asked him to repeat. " Reyna is dead. I came to know just now. And you are the number one suspect because you just had a break-up with her. You have to leave here. Your parents have already been taken into custody. " He said so fast that I almost didn't hear him.

Suddenly, a piercing whistle cut through the air and reached my ears. The police were here. Their guns were raised and were pointed at me. There were at least twenty policemen surrounding me. " Hands behind your head or I'll blow your head off. You are being taken into custody for the murder of Reyna Ramirez, daughter of a business tycoon, Domovoi Ramirez. " Came a voice from a speaker. I stood there in a trance.

They took me to a separate cell and interrogated me for an hour. They asked me if I had killed Reyna or had organised a group to kill her. They told me that she had been found in the school swimming pool with her throat slit clean and claw marks on her face. " Her dad suspects you in killing her so you had better confess. Admit your crime and we'll go easy on you."

" But I didn't do anything. How can I take the blame if I didn't do something? " I replied. But they were not interested in anything else that I said.

My parents tried to free me by arguing with the police officers to give me bail but they had strict orders from their superiors that I had to be kept in custody unless I confessed to my crime. As for me, I was totally shocked by the news of Reyna's death. I pledged to myself that I ever got free, I would definitely go in the pursuit of her killer and would take her revenge.

They kept me there for at least three weeks and then shifted me to some other building. I could not contain my anger. I took out my frustration on the cell wall ( not the one used in biology ) and broke off the plaster.

I cried all day to let me out but to no avail. And then, they sent me a cellmate. He was a rough-looking man. I was told that he had been convicted of twenty murders. He looked as if he had been fighting for ten years and had been continuously losing.

" What's your name? " I asked him one day when he was sitting very quietly. " Gilly," he said roughly. His voice was the sound of nails on a blackboard.

A week passed without any progress. I was treated just like a normal thug by the guards. One day a guard approached me and told me that my presence was needed at the office of the superintendent of the correctional facility. I went with him to the warden.
" I have some bad news for you. Sit down before you hear it. It may be heartbreaking for you. " he said. I sat down and waited anxiously for him to tell me whatever he was about to tell me. " I hate to break it to you but your parents are dead," he said pausing to emphasize his words. I was shocked. " My parents are dead? But how? " I asked him in a distraught voice. " They were killed in custody by a man named Kraven Hart who posed as a cop and shot them dead. He is still at large," he said. I had a sinking feeling as I realized who had hired that character to kill them.

I was escorted back to my cell. I sat there and cried. I cried for at least two days and then stopped. I decided to escape from my cell and make Domovoi Ramirez pay for the pain he had caused me by killing my parents.

That night I sat on the floor in silent prayer for my parent's soul to go to heaven. And then I went to sleep early because the next day would be an exciting one as I would formulate a plan to escape this hell of a place.