Here's the 12th story in my series. If you haven't read the other stories, then I advise you to not proceed until you do. This is a series. It runs in sequence. To understand certain things (especially where Jamie came from), it's best to just start at the beginning. This series is kind of like my very own NCIS season 4. As of this point, the series consists of: story 1 A Link to the Past (comes in 3 parts)… story 2 Wrong Place, Wrong Time… story 3 Second Job… story 4 Daughters… story 5 A Personal Vendetta… story 6 Bless the Children… story 7 Eyes of the Condemned… story 8 Disturbing Affection… story 9 No Man Left Behind (story that introduces Chioke; aka Kid)… story 10 Finger Swap… story 11 Imperfect Heist… story 12 The Color of Skin (current story). Hope you enjoy it.

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Author's note: This particular story deals with racial discrimination/hate crime, so anything that is possibly said or expressed in this story which offends you for some reason, then I do apologize in advance.

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Tuesday

Chapter 1

Sometime during the early hours of Tuesday morning, a young, African-American Naval Seaman named Jamar Wilkinson is walking down a long road in his home town in the Eastern part of West Virginia. The night is calm and clear. As the only source of light, the moon illuminates the area as best as it can. There are no houses in the distance and no signs of life in the vicinity. Jamar Wilkinson is all alone on this seemingly abandoned road.

As Seaman Jamar Wilkinson continues walking down the road, a truck is driving up behind him. The truck is moving at a normal speed that coincides with the speed limit of the road. Jamar turns around to see who is driving in his direction. The man in the truck turns the high beams on. The intense light forces Jamar to squint his eyes. He turns back around and walks to the side of the road for the truck to pass. Jamar keeps walking.

The truck slows down and pulls slightly to the side of the road where Jamar is walking. The truck approaches Jamar from behind and bumps him. Jamar turns to face the truck.

"What's your problem?!" Seaman Jamar Wilkinson exclaimed. "Go around me. There's enough room."

The truck bumps him again. Jamar, who can't see who is in the driver's seat, slams his hand onto the hood of the truck.

"I'm not in the mood for this bullshit!" Seaman Jamar Wilkinson yelled.

The truck completely stops, but keeps the high beam lights on. Jamar stands there in the illumination of the high beams. He shakes his head, turns around and continues walking. Jamar reaches into his pocket. He pulls out a switch blade because he feels whoever this person is, may possibly be a threat. Jamar holds the switch blade in front of him to conceal it from the driver. He finally hears the truck door slam. Jamar knows whoever is it, has finally got out of the truck and is walking toward him.

As Seaman Jamar Wilkinson turns around to view the person and to swing his switch blade, he hears the sound of a chain right before it smacks him across the face and side of the head. With the side of his head cut open and bleeding, he falls to the ground. The blood drips down Jamar's face. A small puddle of blood begins to form on the ground as Jamar lies there hurting.

The man walks back to the truck. He puts the chain away and gets in the truck. He turns the truck fully on and begins to slowly drive. He drives around Jamar and pulls up in the front. With the truck still running, the man gets out. He grabs a rope from the back of the truck. He walks over to Jamar who is lying helplessly on the ground. The man ties the rope around Jamar's ankles. He checks to make sure the rope is tied tightly. With what little strength Jamar has, he jolts upward in order to fight the man off. There's a brief struggle before the man hits Jamar over the head with a rock that he grabbed from close-by. The struggle is quickly over as Jamar lies dazed on the ground, barely conscious. He walks away and ties the other end of rope to the bumper of the truck. He checks to make sure it's tied securely to the bumper. The man gets back into the truck.

The truck starts moving away from Jamar. As the truck is moving, the rope begins pulling further and further. After a couple seconds, the rope finally jerks Jamar. His body swings around as the rope drags him. Jamar is now being dragged down the road.

With his legs slightly elevated from the pulling, Seaman Jamar Wilkinson's shirt is pushed up toward his shoulder area, exposing his body to the road as he's being dragged along. His arms and head also suffer the same scraping against the road. The skin on Jamar's body, arms and head begin to tear as each part is scraping along the surface of the road. From each wound, blood flows out.

The truck finally turns onto an old dirt road. With the truck making the turn, Jamar is pulled into the corner of the joining roads. As Jamar is dragged over the corner, his arm collides into a rock and cuts him, deeply. Blood from his arm begins gushing out. Jamar continues being dragged down the dirt road as his body, arms and head continue scraping against it.

After a little while, the truck finally stops near an old tree. Seaman Jamar Wilkinson is a bloody mess at this point. His body, arms and head have suffered severe wounds inflicted by being dragged.

The man gets out of the truck, unties the rope from the back bumper and drags Jamar to the old tree. The man begins untying the rope from around Jamar's ankles.

The man is careful to avoid stepping in Jamar's blood as he continues doing what he's doing. After finally getting the rope untied from Jamar's ankles, he begins making a hangman's knot. After securing the knot, he puts the rope down. He grabs Jamar and sits him upright. With sitting upright, Jamar's head and body slightly falls forward. The man grabs the rope and places the loop of the hangman's knot around Jamar's neck.

"Please…" Seaman Jamar Wilkinson tries begging for mercy.

The man doesn't listen. He just tosses the other end of the rope over a thick tree limb. He then grabs the rope and begins pulling.

The rope quickly moves over the tree limb. After a certain point, the rope begins jerking at Jamar's neck. The rope knot slides down and tightly squeezes Jamar's neck as he's hoisted into the air. With Jamar struggling to breathe as the rope squeezes his neck, he tries to use his hands to loosen it. The man jerks the rope one more time and begins tying it around the tree.

After tying the rope around the tree, the man walks away as Jamar continues to struggle. The man walks to his truck. He grabs a garden rake from the back in order to whisk away all of his footprints from the area. Seaman Jamar Wilkinson is left hanging from the tree by his neck.

Finally, after a couple more seconds, Jamar's hands drop to his side and his legs stop shaking. Seaman Jamar Wilkinson is now dead.