Friendship (standard:other, 3290 words)
Author: Durk	Added: Apr 15 2002	Views/Reads: 3308/2287	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
A friendship between two men is tested to the limit resulting in a devestating climax.

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

intervene and made half-hearted attempts to stop fights if there were a 
chance of somebody being killed. There were times when Jack was sent to 
lock up and there he would stay for up to a month on occasions.  He did 
feel it was a better choice than to have your life threatened every day 
you were mixed with the other inmates. 

Drugs were a big business in the jail and one could say they are more
available inside than out on the streets. Substances like heroine and 
cocaine could be bartered for if you knew the right people. The big 
dealers never touched the drugs themselves. They know what consequences 
come with them. It was easy to get the stuff inside. All you needed was 
a few crooked Prison Officers and as long as they were getting a cut of 
the deals they did not mind at all if someone was found dead from a 
drugs overdose. 

The worst thing about jail is losing all contact with the outside world.
Jack went in as an unlucky boy whose world had collapsed around him. 
Now being released he did not recognise the world, which was again 
before him. The sentence had been just four years yet so much had 
happened in that time. 

His mother had died while he had been in prison and he had not even been
allowed to go to the funeral. The only other family was his sister and 
he had not spoken to her in a long time. Even before he'd went to jail 
they'd had their differences. On one occasion Jack arrived home 
extremely drunk and beat her severely. While he had been in jail she 
had left the country to seek a better life and as a result he would 
never see her again. Jack did not blame her for wanting to get away 
from him. 

Back in his hometown not one person wanted to give him another chance.
Who would employ a drug addict with a criminal record? His sister had 
not even wanted to know him. After all that had happened to him Paul 
still lived in the town. However Jack refused to go to him for help. 
They had not talked in nearly five years and he was very much afraid of 
what he would think of him if he were to show his face and ask for 
help. 

What would Paul have thought of him if he had seen him now? It was best
to leave him alone. All Jack wanted now was for a final resting-place 
to die. Placing his tired head on a park bench he used his torn old 
jacket to cover his body and keep himself warm 

People hurried by him quickly wanting to leave him behind and out of
their lives. Just one man stopped to talk to him. A young priest by the 
name of Father Callaghan. Jack reluctantly explained his situation to 
the man and expected the priest to quickly be off on his way not 
wanting to have anything to do with him like the others. The priest 
simply placed his arm around him and brought him to his home offering 
to give him a bed to sleep and food to eat and would help Jack until he 
got his feet back on the ground again. 

Jack was very thankful to the Priest but while he was off the streets he
still had a big drug problem. Without the proper medication it would be 
next to impossible to stay off them. Cold turkey on your own was 
dangerous and this scared Jack. He thought that if only he had some 
money then he could calm the habit for a few days. 

Taking to the streets one night he spotted a young woman proceeding up
to a bank link to take out money. Jack was in a bad way and not 
thinking straight. Advancing up to the lady he produced a tarnished old 
Gun and demanded she give him all the money she had. The lady simply 
stood there completely terrified for her life. Jack became very 
agitated and struck her across the face with the weapon. She fell to 
the ground in screams of pain. Ripping the money from her hand, he then 
began to strike her in the chest with his feet. All the pain he had 
suffered was coming out in this rage of his. A non-existent childhood 
and the lose of his family. It was too much to take. His strikes became 
more and more aggressive. 

A voice shouted over. Looking over his shoulder he noticed a young man
running towards them. Quickly looking down at the girl he noticed that 
she remained completely still. Her face was badly bruised and there 
were many bloodstains on the ground and on his shoes. Jack became 
frightened. She was not moving and it did not seem the girl was 
conscious. Without wasting any more time Jack ran for his life leaving 
her for dead. Jack didn't care; he had the money he needed. Everything 
would be all right he thought to himself. 

Two days had passed when he began to feel the urge to feed his habit
again. He did not fancy going out to steal. He needed to get away from 
the town. Taking the car belonging to the priest he quickly drove off. 
He knew he couldn't go on living like this or he would end up dead. He 
needed to get off the drugs and fast but to do that he would need money 
to pay for the treatment. Looking over on the passenger seat he noticed 
a diary presumably belonging to the priest lying on top of a newspaper. 
As Jack opened the diary a bundle of cards fell from inside. Picking 
them up one at a time he studied them carefully. Only one of them 
looked halfway important. A bank card. Since it was only a small town 
it meant this was not a particularly busy place and if a person were 
quick enough, they could get away with a lot of money. 

Of course it would have to be well planned out. With nobody to help him
it would be a quick operation. But with only a Gun, that contained no 
bullets to protect him with, how could he pull off such a thing? His 
craving for heroine was getting very strong and it rushed him into 
making a decision. He would strike early tomorrow. 

* * * 

The time was now approaching eight-o clock and the building was just
about to open. Looking around him he decided that he had better act now 
while public activity was minimal. Before getting out of the car he 
placed a balaclava over his head in case somebody was to recognise him. 
This was his hometown after all and police were on the lookout after 
the assault on the girl a few nights ago. Walking up to the door he 
went inside and strode up to the woman who was turning on the lights. 

‘Sorry sir but we are not open quite just yet. If could you wait outside
for a few minutes' 

Jack continued to walk up and producing the Gun asked the girl to put
all the money in a bag. The girl being fearful of her life did as she 
was told. As she was doing this two other people walked into the 
building. One female and a male. Jack turned around and demanded they 
close the door. Once again he began to get agitated. 

Turning around he noticed that the man wore some sort of uniform under
his jacket, which was half zipped. The man looked as though he were a 
police officer. Turning to the women he walked up and quickly grabbed 
her around the neck with his left hand placed the handgun to the side 
of her head. She was only smallish girl in her thirties and a very easy 
target. Now that Jack had some sort of insurance for a way to escape he 
turned his attention to the police officer. 

‘Stay the hell back!' 

Quickly, Jack tried grabbing the back from the teller and also tried not
to loosen his grip upon his hostage. However, as he was attempting 
this, the girl tried desperately to get away from him. Before she could 
get away from him he caught her by her long black hair and pulled her 
back. Increasing his grip on the girl's throat he quickly turned back 
towards the officer whom Jack anticipated might try to intervene. He 
began to slowly try and make it to the door. 

‘Stay away from me you hear or I'll shoot this bitch. Understand!' 

Jack was not beginning to feel very well. He could hear his heart
pounding and the blood raced around his body at a furious rate causing 
him to sweat precariously. The people around him had a terrified look 
in their eyes. With so many people to concentrate on Jack was beginning 
to get nervous himself. The presence of the officer made it more 
difficult to come up with a solution to escape. He had a gun but no 
ammo. The chances of him surviving would be slim. The officer took one 
step towards Jack causing him to take on step backwards. Slowly raising 
his hand the officer began to speak for the first time. 

‘May I ask you sir how you're going to get away with this? My partner is
outside in the car waiting for me and if I'm not out soon, then you'll 
be in a lot of trouble. You don't stand a chance of getting away so why 
don't you let the girl go and we can sort this out.' 

‘Yeah like that's really gonna happen buddy. As soon as I let her go I'm
gonna have a couple of bullet holes in me.' You must think I'm stupid.' 


But the fact was that this was Jacks only choice. To give up or face the
consequences of trying to get out of the building alive. The room had 
become silent again for a moment before being interrupted by the Banks 
telephone system. Jacks nerves were now on the edge. His hands were 
beginning to sweat and it was increasingly difficult to maintain a grip 
on the handgun 

‘Who the hell could that be?' 

He could not stand much more. He roars to the Teller and asks her to
ignore it. Eventually the phone ceases to ring. However the sounds of 
police sirens can clearly be heard outside of the building. The police 
were surly outside and any chance of an escape was now clearly dashed. 
Letting go of the lady Jack turned on the bank teller and grabbing her 
by the neck pointed the gun directly in her face. 

‘You hit the panic button didn't you...you bitch I'll kill you.' 

The officer spoke quickly sensing that Jack was about to snap. 

‘Hey man calm down...you can still get outta here alive if you just put
the gun away.Come on you can't win. You've got nowhere to run. You step 
out of the door and you'll lose a head...they mean business...come on 
give me the gun that's all you gotta do let me take care of the rest.' 

Realising the truth Jack puts the gun down by his side. The only thing
he could hope for now was to go back to jail and if he was lucky never 
to be released. The jail he had lived in for the past three years had 
become his home and the world which existed outside of those walls he 
did not know how to live in. 

Jack looked up to see a friendly smile in an otherwise terrified room.
The other people had now got behind the Officer and were crying on the 
floor. Looking down at the people, they reminded him of his sister and 
the night he had attacked her. He only now realised the damage he had 
caused to her and to these people. He had become a person whom he did 
not recognise anymore. He felt he deserved to go back to jail. No, he 
felt he deserved to die. 

Suddenly the door broke open and one armed Police Officer rushed inside.
Seeing Jack holding the gun and his hostages lying on the ground the 
gunman turned to him and open fired. Two shots tore through his body 
and he collapsed to the floor in a pool of blood. 

At this sight the remaining people fled the building outside to where a
large group of people were now standing. An ambulance crew brought them 
off for an examination.Jack lay on the ground. Everything was numb. 
Moments before he was sweating where as now he was feeling stone cold. 
Blood flowed from his body and with it he could feel his life ebbing 
away. The voice of the Officer whom Jack had been speaking to could be 
heard. 

‘Good job Paul I thought he was going to crack there for a moment. Right
get somebody in here to drag out this piece of scum. I for one ain't, I 
just had this uniform dry cleaned.' 

Staring up to the ceiling Jack could spot in the corner of his eye the
face of a person whom he knew instantly. A face which reminded him of 
his happier days of childhood. He was staring into the face of his High 
School friend Paul Bennett. Unable to speak, Jack tried to move his 
right hand. It was difficult but he just had enough energy to do so. 
Suddenly the sound of another gunshot could be heard in the bank. 
Everything was silent for a moment and when Paul opened his eyes he 
looked down at the body of Jack. He had taken a bullet straight in the 
head. 

‘Jesus, that was a close one. The bastard was still alive. He was going
for his gun. Good thing I spotted it in time.' 

Paul bent down to examine the body and searched it for identification.
Paul noticed that the body concealed an object of some sort. It had 
only been a wallet and not the gun, which his partner had said he was 
reaching for. Upon opening the wallet the only thing to be found inside 
was a torn and faded picture of a group of people gathered around a 
barbecue. Written on the back of the photograph were the words 
‘Happiest Day of my life!' 

Crushing the picture in his hand he dropped it on top of the body and
began to walk out of the room. An officer looked at Paul as they were 
taking the mask off of the body. Paul just stood there with his back to 
it. The officer remained looking at Paul trying to understand why he 
was acting like this. Acting in a way, which looked like he almost, 
knew whom to expect. 

‘What's wrong with you sir, you should be proud we disposed of another
scumbag. It's not as if the guy will be missed. It seems to me that you 
already know what face to expect behind the mask.' 

‘Oh I will recognise the face, but as for the person behind that
face.................................' 


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