Ping!
Jax chimed the 'staff only' bell once, to get his shift manager's attention, who was attending a customer at his designated position, at the end of this long serving counter top, where various tools and drinks required for bartending were neatly yet intricately arranged.
He was working as a bartender in one of the most popular night bars, "A Night at the Galaxy", the most crowded night hub in Aerowyn city.
When the aforementioned shift manager finally turned around to face him asking what he was calling him for, Jax lifted his wrist and pointed at his watch indicating it was time for him to step down from the counter.
Mr. Holder, the shift manager walked to him before saying, "Jax, you were needed an hour early tomorrow. Be on time."
With that being said, Mr. Holder turned around to leave before dismissing Jax from his duties.
The twenty year old fair boy could only grumble to himself but couldn't possibly retort his superior.
He wanted to threw a snarky remark right in the face of this unreasonable human being; 'Why don't you
just make me work 24 hours a day, instead of asking me to come an hour or two early every day?'
But, he refrained himself from saying anything. He removed his bow tie and walked toward the 'staff only' area.
He went back to the changing rooms meant for staff and changed back from his crisp white shirt and khakis to his normal trousers and a hoodie. He folded the clothes he removed neatly before placing them in the locker he was provided with and walked outside after locking it securely.
He came out through the back door and was immediately greeted with chilling wind of this freezing winter slapping him right in the face.
He pulled his hoodie over his head after wrapping a warm scarf around his neck. He started walking briskly toward his apartment buildings, two miles from his working place, and would take at least ten minutes on his bike, on a normal day.
But today, his bike chose to present him with a failed brake along with a flat tire, making him walk to and fro all the way between his apartment and his work place.
While walking, he remembered his phone, so he pulled the rectangular gadget out of his trouser's pocket. He saw that it was turned off and immediately turned it back on.
It was already late midnight, yet when he finally turned on his phone after a full evening, he didn't even got a single notification indicating someone was looking for him.
It was nothing new for him though. He was an orphan who ran from his foster parents house way before he turned eighteen.
The only contact in his phone, whom he could call a friend would be asleep by now, as it was nearly two in the morning.
Finally, after a full twenty five minutes walk, he reached the gates of his apartment buildings, located in this district 11.
He walked past the gates, headed toward block A, swiftly reached the elevator and pushed the button for 8th floor and waited for the box to take him to his floor.
Ping!
When the elevator stopped on his floor, he walked to the end of the corridor, to his flat's door, which showed the number 810A.
He could finally have some peaceful rest after taking a nice and warm shower. With this thought in mind, he quickly searched for his keys in his pants pockets. When he found them, he shoved them in the key hole and tried to twist the knob.
However, to his surprise, he found that the door was easily pushed open when he placed his hand on the door knob.
At first, he thought that he didn't lock it properly before leaving in the afternoon, when he left for work yesterday. And, his already exhausted mind didn't bother to take this as something serious.
He pushed open the door completely to enter his flat, but just as he lifted his eyes after switching the light on in the living room, the young man got the shock of his life.
In the middle of his living room, he saw a man being butchered with a knife by a masked man, who was now staring daggers at him for god knows why.
Was he furious because Jax had interrupted him or was he thinking of killing Jax to cover up his crime?
Jax immediately wanted to turn around and run from this place, as he wasn't very capable when it came to fighting someone, that too a well built killer.
But his intentions were easily noticed by the intruder, who then pounced upon Jax, who was just about to turn around and flee.
The man quickly grabbed hold of his shoulder before throwing a punch right in the face of the latter. Jax dodged his fist in reflex but ended up pushing the metal shoe rack, placed right at the side of the door, on to the floor abruptly.
As a result, a loud crashing sound echoed through the entire corridor, since Jax didn't get to close the door when he entered his apartment earlier.
This commotion forced his attacker to flee the crime scene as soon as possible, thus the man chose to knock him out to shut him up.
Meanwhile, Jax tried to struggle free from the man's grasp, who had smartly got hold of his neck, rendering him unable to make any sound.
When the youngster pulled the man's hand away from his neck, his attacker immediately gave him a blow at the back of his head with the other so strong, that the young man immediately collapsed on to the ground unconscious.
But before he lost consciousness fully, he noticed that the man who attacked him lacked a finger on his left hand.
His pinky finger was missing!
That was the last thought, before Jax slipped into the world of darkness.
***
Jax woke up with an excruciating pain in his neck when he heard some voices speaking in distance, along with some loud hooters.
Were they sirens?
He could hear more than two types of them. One of them, he recognized as the blaring buzzer of an ambulance, and the other one he was sure that it belonged to police cars.
The young man tried to open his eyes, to see what exactly was going on around him.
But when he tried to lift his head while attempting to open his eyelids, he felt the searing pain in his neck intensify, rendering him unable to move even an inch.
His entire body felt very lethargic, as if he just ran a marathon.
He soon felt people carrying him onto a stretcher, then into an ambulance. He thought that he was being rescued and soon slipped into a much needed slumber.
It seemed that even for his young body, the blow he recieved on his neck was quite powerful.
---------
The sound of active medical machinery surrounding him, woke up the twenty year old young man from his seemingly deep slumber.
Jax struggled to open his eyes yet again, when he regained his consciousness fully. Only now was he able to do so, much smoother than the last time.
A blaring white light greeted his eyes, making him shut his eyes abruptly before they could adjust to the sudden brightness.
The first thing that greeted him after he opened his eyes were white and brightly lit walls. He frowned and scanned his surroundings and found some medical equipment, which indicated that he was in an hospital ward.
But why?
Then he remembered all the things happened to him, when he returned to his apartment on Wednesday night.
He remembered that he witnessed a murder in his own apartment and the intruder tried to kill him too.
But why would someone kill a person in his apartment? He was clearly a nobody, who didn't even have anything valuable to his name.
Why would someone chose to kill a person in his apartment of all places, and then tried to kill him too?
Then he recalled that he didn't even get to see how his attacker looked like. It would be definitely troublesome for him, if he was attacked by that unknown killer again.
Jax's inner reverie was abruptly interrupted by the sudden entry of two men in grey uniform, into his hospital ward.
His now slow working brain took sometime to recognize the uniform was usually used by police officers in this country.
One of them, looked fierce with a towering height of six something foot and the other was comparatively much shorter than the former duke.
The taller one came forward and pressed a button, which was actually within Jax's reach.
Soon a doctor in white joined them, who first nodded his greetings to the men in grey uniform before walking toward the now awake Jax.
The doctor came and asked him how he was feeling, and when Jax told her that everything is normal except for some pain in his neck, the doctor replaced the medicinal patch and soon left Jax alone with the two police officers.
After the doctor left the room, the taller duke sat beside Jax's bed on a stool, while the shorter one who seemed to be the former's subordinate, stood close to the first man, holding a note pad and pen, one in both of his hands.
Jax patiently waited for the police officer to settle in his seat before he could ask the question that had been drilling his head from the time he regained his consciousness;
Who was the man that was killed? He wanted to know who was the real victim of this incident...
However, the officer beat him to it, asking what was his name.
"I'm Jax," Jax replied before correcting himself. "Jax Black, sir," he answered the officer politely in his hoarse voice.
The officer immediately handed him a glass of water, which was placed on the table nearby his bed. Jax drank some water before turning to the police officer and thanked him genuinely.
"So Mr. Black, do you remember what happened in your apartment on Wednesday night?" asked the officer.
Jax rearranged his thoughts before truthfully answering the officer sitting in front of him.
"I came back from my work place around two in the morning. But when I used my keys, I found that the door was already open. At first I thought I didn't lock the flat before leaving for work...
"However when I pushed open the door and turned on the lights, I saw a masked man killing a person on the floor of my living room."
He paused for a moment to calm his frightened heart, which started beating faster when he remembered the shocking scene he witnessed in his own living room.
"When the intruder saw that I have caught him in the act, he tried to get rid of me too. But I struggled which left him with no choice but to knock me out," He touched his neck, which was still aching from that one heavy blow from the masked man.
Jax turned to look at the police officer who remained silent during his entire monologue. He saw that the latter was frowning hard.
Jax couldn't understand what made the police officer frown so deeply.
He then saw the seemingly superior standing before walking toward his subordinate.
The two officers discussed something in hushed voices, their expressions turned grim at the end of their conversation.
'Surely they are here to collect my testimony, right? Or maybe they thought that he could provide some useful details of the killer,' thought Jax
But soon all his doubts were thrown out of the window when he heard the officer speaking again.
"Mr. Black, it is wise of you to surrender yourself to the law and it would make things easy for all, especially you and us. Moreover you will get a lighter sentence, if you willingly plead guilty for your crime," said the police officer calmly.
What did he just hear? Maybe, he heard it wrongly? Why would he be pleading guilty when he was a victim himself?
Yes, he should have heard it wrongly....
But when he tried to lift his left hand, he found that it was cuffed to the bed's side railing.
WHAT THE HELL!!!???