Authors Note:

Hey guys! This is my first attempt at writing anything and I know that my general grammar, punctuation and sentence structure probably blows but i hope you'll give me time to adapt and improve before shooting me down :)

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Chapter 0: Prolouge

James Mullin was a good man, if somewhat unlucky; he had been born into a poor working class family in the north of England, not that his family had ever really done much in the way of work. His mother had died in childbirth giving birth to him and the loss his father had suffered drove the man to drink, James had watched as the broken man pretended to look for work all the while sponging off the government and spending all he could spare on cheap alcohol to fuel his addiction, despite this however James’s father had never done him wrong, he had never so much as raised a hand to the boy and had ensured he was always fed and clothed all the while never looking him in the eye, for most children this obvious avoidance might have caused them to believe their father hated them causing them to rebel or act out in some fashion, however James for the few years he had been alive understood, he knew his father loved him, why else would he have stayed and provided for him after-all? Why not simply abandon him? No James knew better, he could see the pain in his father’s eyes every time he averted his gaze… seeing his wife, James’s mother in him whenever their eyes met was simply too painful, so his father never looked at him, rarely spoke and drowned his feelings in alcohol, and this is how things continued, day after day until the man eventually succumbed to his addiction and died just days before James graduated from high school at the age of 16. After the death of his father, James had little time to grieve as his life suddenly fell further into turmoil. He needed to quickly find work and a place to stay as everything was in his father’s name and he knew he would soon be turned out onto the street, he was too young to claim job seekers like his father had and James had no desire to be homeless, acting swiftly James found himself a job paying minimal wage at a local super market and a small one bed room flat not far from the store, it was enough to stabilize his life for a time although each day was a struggle, despite this James attempted to remain positive and worked hard with the intent on one day improving his fortunes so that he could live a comfortable life, he had no aspirations for anything greater.

Four years passed since then and he steadily moved up the ladder until he was the local branch manager, it was nothing big but James enjoyed the stability, that is, until one day…

The knife glinted in the light from the stores florescent lighting as it was pointed at James’s face, the person holding it was shouting at two other men who were currently shoving hands full of cash in to bin liners, it was evening and a handful of staff, James included; had been going through the process of shutting down the store for the night when three men, all wearing black balaclava’s had rushed into the store, immediately taking one of the staff girls who had been counting cash from one the cash registers hostage, a large knife to her throat. James who should have been in back finishing up paperwork had been out front with the rest of the staff assisting with the cleaning duties immediately intervened but had succeeded in little more than exchanging himself for the girl as the man’s hostage, the few remaining staff in the store were terrified and didn’t dare move and the girl who had moments ago had the blade of the burglars knife at her throat was sobbing her heart out as she hid behind James.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

For James this was a first, no one had ever attempted to rob the store in this fashion before, sure there had been sneak thieves and the place had once been robbed at night when all the staff had all gone home for the evening, there had been no cash but they had made off with the stores entire stock of cigarettes and batteries, small and easy to carry and pound for pound they sold for quite a bit, this particular situation however had never occurred before, or at least not in his four years of having worked here and he had no idea how to behave or what to do, his heart pounded and his mind raced a mile a second trying to figure out some way to stop what was happening but he could think of nothing, every possible solution he could imagine had the chance of resulting in death, be it his own or one of the staff and that was something he could not allow, raising his hands in resignation James had decided simply to let the men finish, once they had what they wanted they would leave and everybody would be safe, there was no need to act the hero. He met the man’s eyes who was holding the knife in front of him and went to speak, when suddenly he couldn’t! His heart which had been beating so hard he swore everybody within the store could hear it began to get faster and faster and his surroundings began to turn a piercing white, he felt dizzy and knew he would fall if he didn’t steady himself, reaching out for the counter that was to his right hand side James attempted to steady himself, the man in front of him however seeing his sudden movement shouted at him not to move! But James couldn’t hear anything but the beating of his own heart, the man then waved the knife closer in an attempt to make him comply… then it happened, James simply collapsed like puppet with its strings cut, he hit the ground hard, hitting his head on the counter on way down.

Shocked the man with the knife could do little but stare and James, he hadn’t touched him but James had simply collapsed, quickly glancing at the counter and seeing a small amount of blood there, the man began to panic and screamed at James to stand up, when there was no response he in turned screamed to the girl that had been hiding behind James to get him up or else, quickly she moved towards him and tried to lift him to his feet but he was unmoving and to heavy, the girls eyes went wide. “NO!” she shouted, grief evident in her voice, she attempted to feel for his pulse but never having done it before and only seeing it done on TV she didn’t know what she was doing, so she immediately lowered her ear to his mouth in an attempt to hear James’s shallow breaths… nothing, he wasn’t breathing, panicking the girl began to beat his chest and breath into his mouth, again and again she tried but in the end to no avail

“NO! NO! NO!” she shouted beating on his chest

“I TOLD YOU TO GET HIM UP! NOW DO IT OR I SWEAR I’LL STICK YOU!” The man screamed at the girl waving his knife

“I CAN’T!” she cried

“I SAID DO IT!” the man moved to grab the girl

“I CAN’T!” She cried once again “HE’S DEAD!”

The man immediately stopped and turned to stare at James’s lifeless body as the girls quiet sobs echoed throughout the store.