Chapter 1

Jason Parkes

I awoke slowly, drifting in and out of my dream world for a good half an hour, and it was only when the bright sunshine hit my face that I truly awoke. Squinting and looking over at the clock I saw that it was 9:30am. I sighed and rolled over, gently bumping into my girlfriend and waking her up. "I'm sorry." I whispered ever so quietly, just in case she was still asleep but she wasn't. She hummed instead of speaking, she was obviously too tired to do so. I rolled back over onto my back and studied the ceiling, putting my hands behind my head, resting them into my short black hair. A moth was carefully creeping over us, heading straight for the slightly ajar window. I was too tired to move and kill it, so I just let it carry on, it would be gone in the next few minutes anyway, fly away somewhere. About ten minutes later I decided it was time to get up, I needed to get up for work, but was more hungry to be honest. My girlfriend always complained that I ate too much, which in fairness I probably do, but it's not affecting my shape in anyway so there's no point eating less. I got dressed pretty sharp and cleaned myself up. As I looked in the mirror I could see my untidy hair, sticking out at all angles, so I grabbed the gel and smoothed it down but keeping the front bit slightly messy. This is how I preferred to look. My olive skin looked almost orange in the sun, the reason why my girlfriend accused me of using fake tan so many times. She soon realised it was real after I moved in, she wouldn't let me anywhere near fake tan and checked my toiletries for it, felt good when she had to apologize for me having naturally great skin! I made my way to the wardrobe and chose a close fitted white t-shirt and a nice pair of jeans, with a black leather jacket of course. I love those things; I have so many its unreal. I then made my way to the kitchen, my stomach begging for food. Opening the fridge I saw a nice pack of bacon. `Bacon butties` I thought to myself, but just as I was about to grab it, Lindsay, my girlfriend, stopped me. I smiled at her, trying to make her give me the bacon back but she wouldn't have it.

"That's for tea with my parents tonight Jay!" she half told me off, waggling the bacon in front of me.

"Fine," I said, "But two bowls of cereals it is then!" and with that I shut the fridge door and grabbed two bowls. She smiled and shook her head; she's obviously used to my eating habits now. She put the bacon back in the fridge then walked over to me. I put my hand through her long dark brown hair, beautifully shiny and soft, she always looks beautiful. Her gorgeous green eyes bored into my bright blue ones as she grabbed my hand and pulled me closer, kissing me ever so softly. We were interrupted by the phone, and I answered unwillingly. "Hello." I said in a bored tone.

"Hey Jason!" a man's voice, quite soft but sounded a bit pushed for time. "Where are you man its ten o'clock already! You have a meeting in about..." he paused for a moment, probably to check his watch. "Five minutes. So get your ass down here boyo." And with that he put the phone down.

Those damn meetings, I would do almost anything to get out of them. I put the phone back where it came from and turned to face Lindsay. "I gotta go I'm sorry. It's one of those damn meetings again, I mean, there's no point in them anyway!" She looked at me very sympathetically and half smiled.

"Yeah but if you don't go, you'll get in trouble like you did the last time you didn't show up for one of these things."

I suppose that women do talk sense, we men can just never see it until it's been messed up. "Well I'm already late so I better get going, I'll see you later!" I blew her a kiss, picked up a few biscuits and ran out of the door, jumping into my brand new BMW. A man of style, or maybe that's being too big headed, more like someone with too much money rattling around. I started the car up and made the short journey to work, eating the biscuits in a matter of seconds. A few miles up ahead, and three sets of traffic lights later, all on red by the way, I noticed a car. Never seen the thing before but it's followed me all the way from where I live. I kept taking quick glances into the rear-view mirror, and every time I looked it was there. I'm not one to get suspicious, it's most likely a coincidence, but you never know in this day and age. I knew a back way into work, down some very quiet streets, somewhere no-one would go unless they knew the area or were up to no good, and just as I thought, they followed me. I was unsure whether to stop the car or carry on. I kept on driving through the grimy backstreets of London, suppose it was a nice change from the busy traffic roads, but for a car like the one behind, this wouldn't have even been an option. It was brand new, black, tinted windows and looked like a car someone famous would travel in. It had no logo on it so I couldn't tell what make it was, but it looked like a Mercedes or a Bentleys to me. I waited until I was further down the road and parked in a car park around one of the many tight corners. I sat in my car and waited for the car to pull around the corner, but it never did. `I must have just been paranoid, they're not here` I kept repeating to myself, if I did it enough surely I'd believe it right? Wrong. I started the car engine up again and looked out the back window to reverse, when I saw a man standing there. He was well dressed; smart suit and tie with polished shoes you could see a mile off. He smiled kindly at me and started to walk towards the car. I put the car back into neutral and turned off the engine, rolling down the window a bit. `I bet he's been travelling in the car that followed me, but what does he want? ` My thoughts were racing as I watched him approach my car through my mirrors, but never expected what came next. He got in the backseat of my car and just as I turned around to tell him to get the hell out he put a gun to my head. I turned back around and eyed him through the mirror as he smiled at me.

"Jason Parkes I believe." Very questionable tone, but it was as if he knew exactly who I was.

I nodded.

"Good," that smile playing on his lips again as he lowered the weapon, "Welcome to the company."

I felt a sharp pain on the back of my neck and with that, everything went black.