I will never forget the first time I encountered mr Jones. He was leaning nonchalantly against the lonely streetlamp his arms crossed in a sense of restrained expectation you’d only notice if you knew him well.

I didn’t, and the revelation sent a stubborn thrill down my spine subduing my every effort to oppress it mercilessly.

Not a single harsh movement disturbed his state of perfect equilibrium as he slowly turned his head. Through his carelessly worn black sunglasses he sent me a discomforting penetrating gaze.

“Mr Jones” I inquired hesitantly with the resilient smirk I so often practiced in my younger days.

He nodded apocalypsically.

With a swift snort I elaborated:

“I’ve come to bring you in”

A sincere shadow of disgust passed over his time-worn face before it vanished leaving only a solemn spark in the right eye.

“I concluded that much from your slobbery approach” he stated with a self-righteous stare above the edge of the sunglasses.

Obliviant to his frantic insult I frivolously attempted to continue but he silently cut me off with candid expression of anxiety.

“I won’t be leaving” he mumbled with a hint of bitterness, almost spitting the words in my face.

It dawned upon me that I had come in vain and I turned to leave this desolate spot in time and space behind me.

It was in that moment I heard the shot as a distant echo from within my own skull. All turned dark as my consciousness left my body helpless behind.

I woke up on the bottom of the well.