Ugly Beautiful (20 page)

'That's it Jason. Pull me up now like a good little boy. Don't you fucking dare let me go you hear. Pull me up.'

'NO. NO HALEY…HALEY NOOOO.' Jason cried in utter emotional hurt and turmoil. 'Come back to me Haley. Please come back to me. You can beat her. You can beat this.'

'Pull me up you fucker. Pull me up now. PULL HARDER.' screamed Haley's sister. She clawed desperately with her feet now, trying to get a good grip upon the cliff face. 'No. Get out of my head you little whore. Get out.' raged her sister again. 'Noooooo.'

Haley's facial expression changed again and Haley came back to Jason.

'Jason, Jason Please. You have to let me go. You have to let me go now. It's the only way.' Haley spoke with all the love and emotion she could muster. 'I can't do this anymore. I can't live like this any longer. You have to end this Jason. You have to be strong and brave. You have to end this right here and now.'

Jason continued to hold Haley over the cliff edge. He was struggling drastically for breath and strength.

'You have to kill her Jason. You have to kill her for both of us. There is no other way. She's too strong. She was always going to win this fight Jason, always. And if you pull me up now…Then she wins.'

Jason sobbed uncontrollably. He continued to hold onto Haley with everything he had, heart, body and soul.

'I'm so, so tired Jason. I am so, so tired of fighting.' whispered Haley. 'I promise you that we'll see each other again one day. One day… But not like this. Not like this.'

'NOOO.' Jason cried with more frustration and anger than he'd ever felt before.

'Jason please.' Pleaded Haley. 'Do this for me, please... Let me go. Just please…let me go.'

There was a timeless and ageless beat as they shared a long, loving and lingering last gaze into each others eyes. The sound of the crashing sea waves below and the rough breezy sea air above, faded into a distant background hum.

'Let me go Jason. Please... let me go...' whispered Haley.

The fading sound of the crashing sea waves and the breezy sea air came to one grinding halt. For a few timeless seconds there was nothing but complete and absolute stunning silence.

Then Jason released his firm grip of Haley.

Haley smiled warmly as she fell towards the patiently awaiting sea waves below.

'Thank you.' Was her final whispering words as she closed her eyes for the final time. Jason roared the most deafening and emotional, agonising, raging roar the sea and wind had ever heard in its long and vast existence. He turned and rolled away from the cliff's edge, refusing to watch Haley fall to her peaceful doom.

He sobbed where he lay with a broken heart and a shattered soul, glancing up at the great blue sky above then towards where it joined with the great blue sea on the distant horizon. For as long as he lived and wherever he ended up in life, he knew that whenever he looked out to that wonderful horizon bed, right where the great soft blue sky pressed tenderly down upon the deep blue, rugged edged sea. This was where he'd always look to remember his beautiful Haley.

***

The broken Jason hobbled his way back down towards the burning farmhouse at the bottom of the hill. He had no idea what the hell he was going to do anymore. His only thoughts were to keep moving, no matter how painful it both physically and emotionally was. He just had to feel something else other than the utter devastation of loss which had completely lampooned him.

It could've been because of the drifting thick smoke coming from the farmhouse, which had smothered the entire area now with the help of a low wind, or the fact that Jason had completely zoned out from reality, that he didn't even notice, or perhaps didn't want to notice, the new car, a large black BMW, which had just pulled up into the smoking farm.

Jason reached the bottom of the hill, only a few yards away from the iron gate where Haley had left him, bound and handcuffed like a fool, before fleeing to her doom.

The BMW kept slowly rolling towards him. Whomever was driving had definitely seen his ragged and badly beaten figure coming down the cliff top hill and decided to keep on driving, at a crawling pace, towards him.

The defeated Jason came to a halt and glanced up with a morbid glare at the approaching car. He breathed deeply and closed his eyes for an overly long moment. He had nothing else left to give. Emotionally and physically drained he crumbled down onto his knees. The car came to a halt just a few yards in front of him. The engine switched off. There was a harrowing silence, broken by all four doors swinging opening in unison.

Two huge and hardened men, exited from the front driver and passenger side of the vehicle. Another, even rougher looking man exited from the back along with a small and weasel looking skinny man, who happened to look the oldest of the four, perhaps in his mid forties. He was dressed in a slick black suit, probably tailor made.

The three larger men remained standing beside the car. The short, skinny, weasel unleashed a sinister grin as he walked over towards the defeated Jason.

'Well, well, well Jase.' the Weasel said with a cockney accent. 'I guess it's true what they say huh? There is no smoke without a fire.' the Weasel continued, sniggering hard at his own joke. Nobody else was laughing though.

Jason was still very quiet and unnervingly calm. His eyes were only half open, but he wasn't looking at the Weasel man or even paying that much attention to him.

'Been looking for you for a good week or so now Jase my boy. And I must say that I am fucking gobsmacked that you're still in the bloody country. In fact, I was just having that exact little discussion with my boys here. You remember Steve, Smithy and Ronster, don't you Jase? You've all done a few jobs together for your father at some point in the past.'

Jason remained silent. His mind and thoughts were very much elsewhere. He imagined he was back up on that cliff top again and falling... falling with Haley. Holding each other in their arms and falling to their inevitable doom, but at least they were together. That was all that mattered in his mind.

The Weasel took this opportunity to study Jason's entire body. The blood, the cuts, the bruises, the flesh wounds, his broken wrist. The Weasel even side steeped around the kneeling Jason to take a quick peek at his bloodied and shredded feet. The Weasel chuckled nervously.

'What the fuck happened to your feet mate? Fuck me.' the Weasel said, still laughing. 'Jesus Christ you look worse that a Soho whore after a Saturday night double shift during the cup final.' the Weasel shook his head. 'What the fuck happened to you Jase? You been in a fight with a T-Rex. Look at the fucking state of this cunt.'

The other three men by the car did have a good chuckle at the Weasel's remarks that time.

'I was just saying yesterday to Brad that you must be fucking long gone by now. Australia, Canada, fucking Mars. Especially with the head start you got on us. But fuck me with a barge pole... here you bloody are eh? Safe and sound as a pound. A little worse for ware right enough, but yeah, still in one piece. Brad will be chuffed to bits.' continued the Weasel as he made a slow glance around the entire farmland. 'Christ we even drove past this place a few hours ago and thought nothing of it. Well, not until we saw the thick black smoke from way up yonder and up beyond those mountains over there.'

The Weasel stopped talking. He stared hard at Jason like he were waiting for him to say something, anything.

'What's the matter Jase? You got nothing to say? Well I've got something to say to you, you murdering, thieving fuck.'

Suddenly the Weasel was right up into Jason's face, leaning right into him.

'Brad and the rest of the gang don't give a flying fuck what you did to your Father, you hear me, even what you did to that bloody whore of a wife and bastard unborn child of yours, you sick, twisted, fucking savage. Although I reckon the police might have one or two things to say about it. Anyhow, all we want to know is where our fucking money and gear is? Comprende? So come on then? Where is it you fuck?'

More silence from Jason. He hadn't even flinched the whole time he'd been on his knees. He looked to be in a deep, meditative trance-like state. He'd actually spotted a lone tree a while back, similar to the one up on the very top of his hill. It was rooted along the neighbouring fields behind the Weasel, and for the past few minutes Jason had focussed all of his remaining attention upon it.

When no answer still came from Jason's lips, the Weasel let out a frustrated and impatient sigh. Then he roared right into Jason's face.

'Well come on then.' he freaked. 'Where the fuck is it you fuck?'

Still Jason never flinched and remained silent as ever. Out of nowhere the Weasel slapped him violently hard, half a dozen times, back and forth, furiously across both sides of his face until Jason stumbled back, bleeding from the sides of his mouth and cheeks. The other three men looked a little startled with the unexpected violence. Yet Jason never fell or backed away from the blows. He remained firmly rooted on his knees the entire time.

When Jason finally composed himself and gathered his thoughts, he returned his calm, silent gaze, back to the same spot, upon the same tree, in the same nearby field. The Weasel breathed deep and hard. He ran his fingers through his thin, greasy hair.

'Will you at least tell me if you've seen Gary? Cunt's been missing for days now too. Did he find you? Did you kill him? Is he in this with you? Does the fucker have Brad's money?'

Still nothing from Jason, not even a blink, twitch or sniff. The Weasel raised his hand, ready to strike Jason hard again, yet strangely he refrained. He sensed something distant about Jason, something unreachable inside of him. It was like he was already dead in there and just waiting for the rest of his body to catch up.

The Weasel turned and signalled for the three guys to take Jason away. Without hesitation they did what they were told. They lifted Jason underneath his armpits, hauled him up from off his knees and carried him almost effortlessly to the back of the BMW. They bundled him into the boot. Jason didn't even put up the slightest struggle or protest. He just let them get on with it.

'We'll take you back to Brad. See what the fuck he wants to do with you. I dare say he'll give you two options Jase. Strapped to a cast iron bath and thrown off the Forth Road Bridge or handed over to the pigs for a nice wee life long stretch in cell block H.'

Jason closed his eyes, still quiet. Oblivious to everything around him. Whatever was coming his way, he'd take it. He deserved whatever was going to be served up to him. The men shut the boot. The Weasel and the large rough driver both stepped back into the car. The other two thugs were about to climb into the back seats when the Weasel gave them a look of daggers.

'What the fuck are you two numb nuts doing?'

'Going home.' the larger thug replied. 'Jobs done here no? We got Jase.'

'Did we get the money? Huh? Did we get the fucking money and the drugs you thick Jock fucks?

Both thugs fell silent and glanced away from the Weasel's steely glare.

'No we did not. But obviously it's around here somewhere. If we found Jase here, the money's here. Now I want you two knob jockey fuckwits scouring this entire fucking landscape for that bloody money, all right. Check the house, the fields, the cliffs, the fucking sea for all I care. Just look everywhere. Leave no rock or stinking piece of cow shit unturned.'

The two men glanced at each other absolutely deflated. They gently shook their heads, yet dared not answer the Weasel back. They liked their cheeks and lips very much bloodless and un-bruised.

'I'll send a car for you two ‘Lord of the Rings' extras in a few hours. I'll even send a couple of big Macs too for all your efforts. I'll even make it a Burger King if you find the gear.'

The Weasel sat back in the car grinning from ear to ear before slamming the door shut. Within sixty seconds the BMW had disappeared all together from the farm, speeding into the distance, right down the nearest B road and towards Scotland's central belt.

The two large thugs didn't hang around either. They made their way towards the burning farmhouse. They had a long day of searching ahead of them. Needle in a haystack was the most appropriate phrase that came to their minds.

The End

Thank you for downloading my Novella 'Ugly Beautiful'