Chapter 24
Game Over
A threat to society simply because I'm different
Well if it's a threat you want then a threat you'll get
And I'll show you my inner dissident
You wanted to categorize the hell I live in
But in a dimension of chaos there is no organization
Because insanity is unbiased on who suffers
Seeing only my demons watching with sinister grins
So now you'll have a peek inside the mind of this madman
A much darker reality than that of your normality
So I now grin and welcome you to my twisted wonderland
You have to learn the rules of the game ~ And then you have to play better than anyone else ~
Albert Einstein
Astha had eaten up all the fruits and drank the milk to her
heart's content. She had been starving, but now she felt so full it was like
she was never hungry. As her stomach was sated now, so her mind begun to work...
She pondered over how to escape and what to do in order to escape, she was
so jumbled up with a combination of so many thoughts and emotions that her head had begun
to ache...
The door connecting her and his bedroom had a lock and that
too on his side, so he could seal or open the door at his wish. She was truly in a hopeless
situation...
Giving up, she went back to her bed. Someone
had changed the bed sheets, while she was in the bathroom, well good for her as the old one's were reminding
her of him and his scent, she thought...
But after sometime, when sleep didn't come to her, she grew
restless, twisting and turning, in order to get some sleep. Irritated she got
up from the bed and after pacing a long time, thinking about her past, her
present and how her future will be, she grew so frustrated with her helpless
state that she kicked at the closed door, cursing that b*****d Mafioso...
To her astonishment, the connecting door, opened up with a
creaking sound. Maybe he had left it open by mistake. Without pausing to think, she
rushed inside, but to her disappointment, found the exit door of his bedroom,
locked.
"What the heck?", she muttered angrily and banged on it,
calling for help. But after half an hour later when her voice grew hoarse and
her hands ached from banging continuously on the door, she gave up the struggle
and leaned her back to the door to catch her breath...
She felt a sinking sensation in her middle, when she
realized that there was no way out. Maybe that Mafioso won't ever let her
escape and maybe she won't ever see her parent's faces or feel herself engulfed by their warm embrace, ever. Utterly defeated, she slid down the door, and sat
on the floor with a thud...
"You", Avdhoot's face
leached of all color. The man standing in the doorway was covered all in black,
from head to toe, looking like a powerful figure from some ancient mythology.
Avdhoot squinted his
eyes to see his face properly, which was still in the shadows.
But he didn't have to squint in the dark for long, as that
powerful figure chose that moment to cross the threshold and step inside,
closing the door with a foot.
His face came into relief, his cheekbones, looked sculpted
in the dim lightning, his aristocratic nose more defined and his dark eyes
glittering like some polished black onyx. A cold smile completed his dark
visage...
His gait of a big jungle cat, slowly and steadily stalking his
prey...
Avdhoot froze, the man looked somewhat familiar, but he
couldn't name where he had seen him before.
"Know me", the man
gave a short dark laugh, coming near Avdhoot. "Who are you and what are you
doing here?", Avdhoot said suspiciously, he had steadied himself by then, and
now he was looking calculatingly at the new apparition. "I should be asking the
same question from you?", the man's voice was chillingly cold. "It's none of
your business", Avdhoot delivered rudely...
Prabakhar Joshi and his whole family had stilled, at seeing
the new entry and now they were watching the spectacle unfolding in front of
them, with fearful eyes, their mouths hanging open...
"Well I am making it my business", he was coming nearer,
slowly. "Stay where you are", Avdhoot suddenly took out a pistol from his
pocket and pointed it at him, but the man infront of him didn't backdown, he
kept coming near, his stride fearless, a dark smile twisting his mouth...
Avdhoot, put a trembling finger on the trigger, the
stranger's confidence and fearless attitude was making him nervous. All his
life he had confronted men who had cowered before him and had pleaded for their
lives. But the stranger didn't look like someone who had or would beg for mercy,
in his life. How would you put fear of death in someone's heart? in whose eyes, the death resides...
Astha sat there, gazing in an empty space, her mind totally
numb and out of ideas. She had spent her quota of tears, just a moment before,
and now she was feeling as if her soul was floating in midair. A leftover tear
escaped the corner of her eyes, making a salty path on her cheek. She raised a
hand to wipe her cheek, and quite accidently something caught her gaze. It was
a piece of paper, or a card poking out from under the mattress. It looked like
someone had tried to put it under the mattress in a hurry, but couldn't hide it
properly...
Wiping her face from the back of her hand, sniffling, she
got up from the floor, and hurried towards the bed. She pulled it out. It was
the cutting of a picture...
There must be three people in the picture as someone had cut
off the part that showed the woman, just keeping the important part and that of
a man and the child sitting on his lap. Only the woman's arm was visible, lying
on the child's thigh, the rest of the torso and face was not there. The child
was about 5 yrz old, his hair a dark brown, his chubby face rosy with glee and
his dark brown eyes dancing with mischief. Astha's eyes slid slowly across the child towards the man and got stuck
on his face, with astonishment...
It was that Mafioso and
he was smiling at the camera, laughter lines crinkling the corner of his eyes...
Avdhoot tried to push the trigger, but not before he felt
something scalding hot grazing the side of his hand, and felt something warm
trickle down his fingers. Then came the muffled sound of a shot being fired. The
sound was muffled because of the silencer...
Avdhoot felt an acute crippling pain in his hand which made
him crumple on the floor, screaming, holding his injured hand between his knees...
Ramlal had fired on his hand...
The stranger whistled
sharply and four burly men came charging inside. "How did the mission went?",
the stranger asked them...
"Boss we did everything just the way you wanted, killed his
three men, and now there is no one outside", one of them, who was built like a
hulk, answered him in a gravelly voice. "Did you checked properly, and what
about the dead bodies?", he asked sternly. "Yes boss checked everywhere he only
brought three men with him, and Abhinav had gone to get rid of the dead bodies,
the hulk said obediently...
"Okay you go and wait outside, I'll bring him with me in a
minute", he nodded towards Avdhoot, who was still lying on the floor, groaning
with pain...
The men nodded their head obediently and went outside...
Still groaning, Avdhoot turned his shocked and pain-filled gaze
towards Ramlal, who was pointing the pistol at him and then at Shyam. Their
faces emotionless, unreachable, just like a cold statue...
In his shocked state, Avdhoot had quite forgotten about them.
"Why Ramlal? Why Shyam", he asked brokenly, still dizzy with the revelation
that he had been dealt the worst hand of his life...
"Don't ask why, ask how?", the stranger gave a soft but
dangerous laugh. "Poor Avdhoot lying so helpless before me now, where is your
famous attitude and composure, hah? Bring on your mask now", the stranger jeered...
"Who are you?", Avdhoot whispered through clenched teeth,
his jaw working soundlessly in an effort to control the pain, flowing through
his hand. "Still not know me?", the stranger mocked, bending down, to look into
Avdhoot's face...
Avdhoot's gaze caught his face, which was now more prominent
at such close distance, and got stuck on his features, taking him back to 24
yrz in the past. The stranger was the same and yet not the same, those eyes
were the same, that had pleaded with him to leave his family alone, that mouth
was the same that had begged him not to take his father away and those hands
were the same that he had clasped infront of him, while he and his men had been
laughing on his pitiless state...
He was a child then, the innocent eyes wide open with fear,
lips trembling with misery, his legs and arms bloodied and grazed from being
dragged on the floor and the cherubic face streaked with dirt and tears...
The picture fell from Astha's nerveless fingers, his smiling
face had given quite a shock to her system. But the man she had met and laid
with had never given such expressions, other than giving such cold glances,
which would freeze anyone in the vicinity...
But he still smiles, her heart said. Yeah if you can call the
twisting of his lips, a smile, really, she thought mocking her heart. Who was
real? The man in the picture or the man whom she knew. But she didn't know him
really, did she? She gave a soft mocking laugh at her thought. Other than you
call the mating of bodies, really knowing each other, she made a disgusted
noise in her throat...
What did she care who he was? and what was his story? for
her he was only her kidnapper and her seducer, no seducer was a too lenient
word for him, a rapist was a better choice for that person, who had forced
himself on her. But he hadn't really raped her, had he? she was all the way with him too, she thought
chewing her lips...
"To hell with him and his thoughts", she muttered angrily
and was about to put the picture back under the mattress when her gaze caught sight
of something written on the back of the picture. She narrowed her eyes, and
read it. Some names were written across it in a bold scrawl, Abhinandan
Agnihotri, Shlok Agnihotri and...and who, she thought quite irritated, the
woman's name was struck off with a black marker. Someone had crossed it off
with such vigor, that the marker had dug in the surface, taking away a chunk of
hard paper with it...
"Please leave my Baba alone, don't take him, take me instead", the
child was pleading, his tiny and chubby hands clasped together infront of him...
"Don't my son don't you dare beg for me", Niranjan shouted,
struggling in the clutches of the goons, who were dragging him away...
"You've got to be strong my son, don't ever bow your head
infront of these rascals", Niranjan was still shouting, while being dragged outside...
"Yeah yeah son, get up, be strong like a dog", Avdhoot
jeered, crouching down beside the child to drag his face towards him...
The child spat in his face. Avdhoot gave a snarl and pushed
him away. Getting up on his feet he gave a vicious kick to him in the ribs. The
child, doubled up in pain, but still didn't scream. Infact he was laughing in
Avdhoot's face, mocking him...
Just like the stranger infront of him was doing, but he wasn't
laughing at him, instead his eyes were, laughing at him, mocking him...
"I don't know son, who are you?", Avdhoot swallowed, his
gaze had caught sight of his pistol, lying not far away from him, and now the trembling
fingers of his good hand were moving slowly towards it.
"Don't you dare call me son, you b****d", the stranger
snarled, grabbing his shirt collar, and shaking him hard. Avdhoot's fingers had
caught the pistol, they curled around it. But before he could raise his hand to shoot,
the stranger put down his foot on his injured hand, grinding it on the floor.
Avdhoot gave a shrill scream, the pistol fell from his other hand, and the stranger
kicked it aside...
"Game Over Avdhoot Kirloskar", the stranger declared in a venomous voice.
Avdhoot felt the trap door closing on himself, Ramlal and Shyam
were flanking the stranger's sides, their heads bent obediently...
"Now still don't know me?", the stranger jeered. Avdhoot
again glanced helplessly at the stranger, his eyes pleading for mercy, but the
child was gone forever, and in it's place was the monster and that too his own creation,
his own reflection...
The eyes were the same, but the harshness had taken away the
innocence, the face was the same, but bitter experience could be seen etched in
each hard angle and plane, the lips were the same, but now they were not
trembling with misery, infact a cruel smile was curling around their corners. He
was Avdhoot and Avdhoot was him...
"You are Niranjan's son", Avdhoot whispered defeatedly, through
cracked lips. "Got it right on the first chance have you", he jeered. "Yes I am
Shlok Agnihotri, or should I say your Karma coming back to haunt you", Shlok
gave a mocking laugh...
"Ramlal and Shyam, they were always your men", Avdhoot swallowed
the bitter bile, forming in his throat. "Yes Avdhoot Kirloskar, they were
always my men, you've truly beaten at your own game", his lips curled
sardonically.
Avdhoot gazed at him for silently for some seconds then heaving a sigh he put his head down on the floor, finally defeat
spreading through each and every pore of his body like cancer...
Then Astha's smiling face, appeared on the periphery of his vision...
"Where is my daughter? You've got her right. What have you
done to her?", suddenly scared to his wits, he tried to get up from
the floor. "Ohh so anxious to meet her don't worry I am taking you to meet her, she
will be very delightful to see saintly daddy's true face", Shlok mocked...
Avdhoot's face paled. Before he could utter a single no,
pain exploded at the back of his head, making him dizzy and he felt himself
falling in a dark, bottomless pit, his insides swirling sickeningly, his last
thought was of his daughter and then he knew no more...
P.S: Do Like And Comment Dearies If You Liked The Chapter! 😳
comment:
p_commentcount