The FAYZ Trials – Chapter 13
Felicity Wishman lived in a nice, trendy apartment in the city. It had a designer fitted kitchen, a large open plan living area with amazing views of the park, a great bedroom with a double bed and an ensuite bathroom with his and her sinks. It had everything a newly engaged couple would need – only she lived alone in the too big, too expensive flat.
She'd planned to find somewhere else to live, somewhere smaller and closer to work but for whatever reason she couldn't bring herself to cancel her rent and look for somewhere new. Even after the last box of Karim's junk had left from under the bed and the smell of his aftershave had finally left the bathroom she still couldn't bring herself to do it. It was like there was something holding her back and stopping her, as if there was a chance Karim would come back if she stayed.
That night she had returned home at around two o'clock, tired and slightly worse for wear after her encounters with both Karim and her brother Freddy. Despite feeling rough she knew she wouldn't be able to sleep so she made herself a coffee and went to check her twitter account. She had twelve new interactions which she dealt with and three new followers, Freddy was still trending worldwide and he and Karim were both still the most talked about people on the internet. More so than any of the FAYZ kids, even more than Caine who had always been the most popular kid since the FAYZ came down. Reading all the reports made her feel sick, she couldn't deal with all the pictures of Karim in his suits in court and in and around the city – it made her heart ache. She snapped her laptop closed and drank her coffee in silence. Then she picked up her phone and scrolled through her contacts until she landed on one name: Karim. She didn't even have his surname next to his name – why would she need his surname? It was going to be her surname.
Felicity took a breath and dialled...
That night around the city three phone calls were made all at the exact same time, only two calls connected and only one call was answered.
Freddy Wishman was upside down. He opened his eyes and everything was upside down – upside down and red. He blinked and it was still red and still upside down. He licked his lips which were dry and tasted of salt. Why was he upside down? Why did his mouth taste like iron? Why was his shoulder suddenly beginning to throb with excruciating pain?
Slowly, Freddy began to remember what had happened – yes – he had been in his car when he saw the lights. Panic hit Freddy as he realised what had happened and why he was upside down and covered in blood – the lorry had smashed headfirst into his car.
Freddy tried to move but the pain in his shoulder made it impossible for him to even turn slightly. He called out for help but there was no reply. Where was the lorry driver? Had he gone to get help? Had anyone called the police? But to his dismay everything around him was silent.
Freddy had to get out of the car – he knew that much – so he figured he would have to endure the pain in his shoulder and fight his way out of the car.
He fumbled at his seatbelt and once unbuckled he slumped back into the chair suddenly, banging his head in the process. He had to bite his cheeks to stop himself from crying out from the pain in his shoulder as he twisted his body around towards the door. It took his five painful shoves to push it open and crawl out of the wreckage. Outside he managed to get to his feet, his suit was covered in shards of glass and when he glanced at his shoulder he saw that it had fallen out of the socket. He nearly threw up on the spot – he'd never ever had an injury like this before and had no idea how to deal with it, the worst he'd ever had was a broken finger from playing baseball in college. He felt the side of his head where a stream of blood was slowly ebbing from his right temple and flinched at the touch.
He turned back to his car to inspect the damage. It was a miracle he was still alive – the lorry had slammed headlong into the car and they'd rolled several feet down the highway before finally coming to a stop with the lorry only meters behind them.
Suddenly, Freddy remembered Karim – of course! Karim had been in the car with him! Freddy ducked down back into the car and looked over to the passenger seat. Karim was lying out cold, slumped in his chair with blood all over his head and face. Most worryingly of all, his neck was at a terribly odd angle. Freddy clambered onto his own seat and carefully gave Karim's arm a shake
"Karim – can you hear me?" he shook him a little harder but Karim didn't budge. Freddy felt his chest tighten with panic. He reached into his pocket for his phone but it had been crushed beyond recognition, angrily he tossed it aside and looked around for Karim's. It was in his jacket pocket; Freddy pulled it out and called for the police,
"Yeah I need the police and an ambulance right away!" he said his voice shaking "It's Freddy Wishman, we've been in a crash, a bad crash and my friend is uh – like he's unconscious! We're about a mile south from junction 22!"
"Alright sir," replied the operator "we'll be with you as soon as possible -"
"You need to get here right away!" Freddy interrupted and he leaned closer to Karim and hovered his hand over his mouth "he's not breathing!" He pocketed the phone aside before the operator could answer and felt around for a pulse on Karim's neck.
"I've got to get him out," he muttered to himself "Come on Karim! Talk to me!" He undid Karim's belt then rushed outside and opened Karim's door from the outside so that he could pull him out. He had gotten Karim halfway out when he heard a gruff voice calling out to him;
"Hey! Don't do that!" Freddy saw a tall bearded man with a face full of blood running towards him "don't move him it might injure him more!"
"Who the hell are you?" Freddy asked ignoring his pleas to stop
"It was my van that hit you – I've called for help from the payphone down the road! What the hell happened?"
"You tell me!" Freddy replied angrily "you drove straight into us!"
"I didn't see you until it was too late!" the guy shouted "your lights were off!"
Freddy didn't have time to argue and he went back to pulling Karim out of the wreckage.
"You shouldn't do that!"
"He's not breathing okay?" Freddy snapped at the guy "I have to help him before the police get here or it might be too late!" he tugged at Karim and he was free, in the distance he could hear the sound of sirens.
"Come on K," he said looking at his bloodstained friend whose neck was lying at an impossible angle. Freddy bent down and tried to resuscitate Karim's lifeless body "come on Karim!" he gasped fighting back the tears in his eyes as Karim's chest failed to rise or fall. "COME ON!"
"I'm sorry," the lorry driver said placing his hand on Freddy's back
"Don't be!" Freddy said shaking his hand away "don't be sorry, he's fine! He's going to be okay!" Freddy's voice broke; he held Karim in his arms and refused to believe what was happening.
He was suddenly pulled aside by three paramedics who had finally arrived. Freddy stood back covered in his own and Karim's blood and watched as the three of them hurriedly unbuttoned Karim's shirt and slammed a defibrillator onto his chest. Karim's body didn't respond the first time nor the second nor the third or fourth and finally one of the paramedics spoke into his radio;
"There's nothing more we can do – dead on arrival"
Inside Freddy's pocket, Karim's phone began to ring. It was Felicity.
Caine held his breath as he waited for the sound of the phone being picked up on the other end of the line.
"Hello?" the voice rang like bells in Caine's ear.
"Astrid is that you?" he asked
"Yes, it is," there was a pause "who is this?"
"It's uh...Caine, Caine Soren," he replied , he heard Astrid catch her breath on the other line. "Please don't hang up on me! He begged
"Give me one good reason," she replied haughtily
"Look Astrid," Caine said "I know you don't like me in fact you hate me ok? I know that alright? But I need to you help me,"
"HELP YOU?!" came Astrid's voice and Caine knew how stupid it sounded "why on earth would I help you after everything you've done?!"
"Because I am about to go to prison okay!? Look, I know that the stuff I did in the FAYZ was unforgivable okay but I just can't do this – I can't go to jail I just can't Astrid! Not because I would have lost or been seen as weak but because I'm scared, please, just say you'll help me!"
Astrid was silent on the other line for a second or two and Caine could practically hear the cogs in her head whirring, finally she responded;
"What do you want?" she asked, Caine could hardly believe what he was hearing it had been a long shot but was she seriously agreeing to help him out?!
"I need you to make a statement defending me at my re-trial." He said
"Re-trail?"
Caine scoffed "Look Astrid you're the genius here but it doesn't take one to realise that tomorrow that jury is going to find me guilty so I've already got the papers sorted for a re-trial, I've just got to send them to Karim, look, I've seen you defend Sam and it's amazing – you must be the only person who can put Freddy Wishman in his place, it's incredible!"
"Stop it please, I'm blushing," Astrid said with so much snark that for a second Caine thought she'd hung up and he was talking to Diana.
"Please Astrid, you don't want to see any FAYZ kid in jail, you've said so before!"
"Well, you'd be the exception." She replied coldly, Caine could feel the deal slipping from his grasp:
"Look if it makes any difference I'll do the same for you if needs be, I heard they're going to open the whole Pete case soon."
"Are you blackmailing me?!" Astrid's voice was shrill and he knew he'd hit a nerve
"No. But I'll consider it now you've brought it up," he replied half serious "please Astrid," he waited for her reply but what Caine heard next was chilling
"Oh my God!" Astrid breathed
"What? What's the matter?" he asked
"Turn – turn on the TV," she gasped.
Why wasn't Freddy's phone on? Diana wondered as she redialled for the fourth time in a feeble attempt to call him, at first she thought she had the wrong number but it was printed on the front page of the newspaper in her room.
"Piece of junk," she snapped slamming the receiver down impatiently. She went and sat on the sofa too irritated to think of sleep and flicked on the TV. The news channel came on and as usual Freddy and Karim's faces were plastered all over the screen, Diana sighed and went to switch channel when she read the headline and froze, it read:
BREAKING NEWS: 'FAYZ TRIALS' LAWYER DIES IN CAR ACCIDENT
Freddy was rushed to hospital along with Karim. What was the point? He thought as he sat numbly in the ambulance, there was nothing they could do, he was gone – dead. He didn't even know why he was going to hospital one of the paramedics had given him morphine and popped his shoulder back into place.
"We need to check you for internal bleeding Mr Wishman," the female paramedic had explained "you were in a very serious accident."
"I know how serious it was." Freddy snapped.
When they reached the hospital the place was crawling with the press and the media as if it were Oscar night which made Freddy sick. He was wheeled inside by the paramedics even though he had assured them he could walk.
Once inside Freddy stood up and waited for a doctor but before he could be seen he spotted the one face he didn't want to see: Felicity
"Freddy!" she gasped when she saw him and ran to embrace him "Oh my God are you alright? What happened? Thank God you're okay!" she hugged him but Freddy couldn't move, she didn't know that much was obvious from the smile on her face, how was he supposed to tell her?
"I've was so worried when you answered Karim's phone, you sounded awful but at least you're okay now!" she wiped away tears from her eyes and gave a nervous giggle.
"Fliss," Freddy said
"I've called Mom and Dad and they're on their way, Mom was having a fit when I told her-"
"Fliss!"
"Oh my God, I'm sorry I'm just so relieved you're okay and Karim is als-"
"FELICITY!" Freddy shouted shutting her up before she could finish, she stared at him in surprise, her big blue eyes innocently naive.
"What's wrong?" she asked giving his arm a squeeze
"It's Karim," Freddy said unable to look her in the eye – in an instant her smile vanished and her face went pale
"What about him?" she whispered, Freddy looked at his sister but couldn't speak "Freddy what's wrong with Karim?!" she demanded her voice rising an octave
"I'm sorry," Freddy said with strain and she shook her head, her mouth dropping open
"No – no, don't say it!" she cried "please don't say it!"
"He's gone Fliss," Freddy said "he didn't make it."
"No, no, no, no, no!" she gasped clutching at Freddy's arms
"He's dead Fliss, he was dead before they even got to us,"
Felicity's knees buckled and Freddy had to catch her from falling, she knelt on the ground and sobbed into her brothers chest.
Caine watched in disbelief as the news channel repeated the same news over and over until he was watching the morning news.
How could Karim be dead?! He was his lawyer! What was he going to do now?
Diana was all cried out – only hours ago had Karim driven her to the very hotel she was staying in with the promise of collecting her the next morning and now he was dead. According to the news he'd died instantly as soon as the lorry hit Freddy Wishman's car. Why was he in a car with him? They hated each other – didn't they?