Chapter 28

•••Sid's Mansion••• 

"Are you crazy?" Jatin was speechless as he watched two persons who laid down unconsciously on the floor. 

"You are doing this in the house?" He turned to Sid, or to be precise, Aryan, as he looked at him in disbelief. 

"It's my house. I can do whatever I want here" Aryan replied as he sat down in a chair and played with his sword that still had bloodstains. 

"Of course, you can. But, remember Roli too is staying in this house. What if she saw this?" Jatin tried to make Aryan understand the consequences. 

Aryan stopped playing with the sword and looked up at Jatin. His face was as usual had no emotions and it was hard to know what he was thinking in his mind. 

Throwing the sword in his hands to the side, Aryan stood up and left the cellar, leaving Jatin with no other choice than to follow him behind. 

When Aryan entered the hall, he bumped into Roli, who just returned from the hospital. 

"You returned home early today?" Roli looked surprised as she realised that Sid would usually be in his office at this time. 

Aryan froze at his spot as he stared at Roli. Apparently, he wasn't expecting her to return so soon. When she told him this morning that she wanted to go out, he wasn't Sid but, Aryan. Aryan had to deal with some things and he obviously couldn't do it in Roli's presence. So, he let her go out to meet her friend. He was careful while pretending like Sid and didn't reveal himself to Roli. 

"Are you alright?" Roli queried as she sensed something was off with Sid. 

Jatin, who was equally shocked to find Roli, glanced at Aryan, wondering what he would do now.  

Aryan nodded his head and tried to avoid looking at her. Jatin was surprised at his calmness as it's not his style. He then realized that Aryan might be trying to act like Sid in front of Roli. 

Roli took a few forward steps and stopped just before Aryan. "Why do you look a bit strange today?" She probed as she scanned his face for a few seconds.    

Aryan's eyes met Roli's eyes as he heard her words. For a split second, he forgot everything around him. However, it wasn't too late till he regained his senses and looked away from her. 

"I have a conference meeting to attend now" saying that, Aryan almost jogged into the study room. 

"What's wrong with him?" Roli frowned at his actions and found it abnormal of him. She actually wanted to talk to him about taking over the Dwivedi Enterprises. But, he didn't give her the chance. 

"Maybe.. he is just busy" Jatin made an excuse for Sid. Roli nodded at him slightly and left to her room, taking a glance at the study room's door that was shut tight. 

After she left, Jatin let out a sigh and went to see Aryan in the study room. 

"I thought you would reveal yourself to Roli just now" Jatin spoke as he locked the door and turned to Aryan, who was seated near the desk. 

"Sid doesn't want her to know about it yet" Aryan replied, thoughtfully. Jatin smiled at his answer as he realized how much Aryan would care about Sid. 

Being a psychiatrist himself, Jatin knew better to differentiate Sid and Aryan. Though they both live in the same body, they both were like twins with identical physical features but different personalities altogether.  

Sid was calm and composed while Aryan was impulsive and could be evil when his bottom line was crossed. Sid would consider a lot of things before deciding anything whereas Aryan couldn't care less about anything so far he gets what he wanted. However, the only thing that Aryan would care about was Sid's happiness. He could go to any extent to retain Sid's happiness. And Jatin knew that very well. 

"Sid should tell Roli about it soon. She deserves to know it. It's not good to keep her in dark for long. But, he is just scared of her leaving him after knowing about you" Jatin said, recalling Sid's words where he expressed his worries for not telling Roli about Aryan. 

"If Roli leaves Sid then I will kill her" Jatin's heart sunk as Aryan's words reached his ears. He knew how Aryan was and what he could do but it still gave him chills when he said he would kill Roli so casually.  

"No.. You can't do that" Jatin stammered as he tried to respond. 

"I can" Aryan leaned back on his chair as his lips slowly curled up into an evil smirk. "And the persons you saw back in the cellar, one of them is dead. So, yeah, I can kill". 

Jatin grew anxious as he listened to Aryan. As per his knowledge about Aryan, he would only harm people in the worst way possible and had never actually killed anyone. But, after what he just heard, he didn't know how to react. He even thought that Aryan was joking around. But, if it's not then it's going to be worse. 

It couldn't get any more dreadful than Aryan actually killing people! 

"But, Sid loves Roli" Jatin couldn't understand why would Aryan want to kill her. 

"That's why I will kill her if she leaves Sid just because he has an evil side to him. She should stay with him no matter what" Aryan's words sounded demonic. 

Jatin could feel the shiver in his body as he heard Aryan. This was really getting drastic. Then he slowly asked, "Who are the people in the cellar?". 

"One is the driver, who is still alive. And the other person is an ally of Vikram. He told me whatever he knew about Vikram's plans and there is no need for me to keep him alive. So, I killed him" Aryan informed coolly as if killing a person wasn't a big deal. 

"You could have let him go. What's the purpose of killing?" Being a doctor by profession, Jatin felt really terrible when he realized Aryan killed a person. 

"I could have let him go back to my enemy and help him to plot against me. Would that be a wise thing to do?" Aryan stared at Jatin, questioningly. 

Jatin sighed, not knowing what to say. Aryan told him about Vikram and he knew that Vikram was not a good person. But, if he compared Vikram with Aryan then it's nearly impossible for Vikram to be a match of Aryan in being evil. Jatin just thought it in his mind and couldn't dare to say out.  

"You knew Vikram is your enemy and you also knew that he is the one who kidnapped Roli but why are you not punishing him yet?" Jatin couldn't understand why Aryan was not making a move against Vikram. 

"Vikram challenged me to snatch my everything. I thought it would be fun to see what he would do. So, I'm just playing along. When I'm bored with this game then I'll kill him as well. It's just a matter of time" Aryan smiled, devilishly. 

Jatin suddenly realised that things were taking an unpleasant turn and he should do something to control Aryan before it's too late. 

"And do you remember the police said that someone called them to inform about Roli's kidnapping?" Aryan questioned, breaking Jatin's chain of thoughts. He then nodded at Aryan.  

"Not just Sid, but Vikram has targeted someone else too on that day. Whoever Vikram's other target is, they are related to Roli and tried to save her with police help" Aryan analysed the situation. 

"That makes sense" Jatin agreed with Aryan's conclusion. While Aryan decided to find out the other target of Vikram. 

"You leave now. Tell Roli that Sid is busy and not to disturb him till he comes out of this room" Aryan ordered. 

"What are you going to do now? Roli is at home and I think it would be better if you leave and let Sid awake" Jatin said carefully not to agitate him. It's been many hours since Aryan was switched and he didn't know why he wasn't switched back to Sid yet. It wasn't usual and that made Jatin worried and he already started to have a bad feeling about it. 

"Just do as I said" Aryan stared at Jatin. His gaze was calm yet terrifying at the same time. Jatin could only follow his orders and did as he was told to. 

Roli was perplexed at Sid's weird behaviour. But, also thought not to disturb his work as Jatin said he was busy. 

The door of the study room hadn't opened even at the time of dinner. Roli didn't have an appetite to have food without Sid. Jatin persuaded her to at least accompanying him for dinner and she couldn't deny it. After dinner, Jatin had to leave for the hospital due to an emergency. Roli couldn't sleep as she waited for Sid in their room. 

Around 2 at midnight, it started raining heavily. Roli, who fell asleep on the couch, jerked at the sounds of sudden thunderstorms. 

Roli rubbed her eyes and glanced at the clock and realized it was past 2 already but still Sid hadn't returned to the room. She got up and walked out of the room. 

However, to her surprise, the study room was empty. Roli looked around the room and went out to search for Sid. She looked around the whole house but found him nowhere. Even his phone was switched off, making her more worried. 

Jatin was still in the hospital so she couldn't reach him for help either. Roli went out to search for him in the garden. It was raining heavily outside and she got drenched instantly. 

While searching for Sid in the garden, Roli suddenly stepped on something. She took the thing from the ground and recognized it as Sid's watch. 

Roli felt restless as she found his watch on the ground but couldn't find him around. 

"Sid!" Roli called out his name as she continued to search for Sid. When she reached near the parking area, her feet got hooked to the ground as if her legs had lost movement at what she saw. 

Roli saw a person, who made her feel terrified like no one else could. When she saw him back at the kidnapping spot, she thought of it as a nightmare that would fade away from her memory soon. But, seemingly, the nightmare started playing right before her, yet again. 

She couldn't believe she was seeing the hoodie person in Sid's house. She clearly remembered his frame that she couldn't think of the possibility of misunderstanding him as someone else. He was facing his back at her, just like how she saw him earlier. She could still feel shivering all over her body when she recalled how he slaughtered people over there.  

But, what is he doing here? And where is Sid? She felt anxious as she stared at his back. She found him retrieving a huge cloth bag that seemed to have something heavy in it and dumping it into the car trunk. 

Gathering her courage, Roli walked up to him and asked "Who are you?". 

Aryan, who was about to close the trunk, froze as he heard Roli's voice. His jaw tightened at the disturbance. He slowly turned around to find Roli with a frown. 

Roli was expecting to finally see his face when he turned to her. But, she couldn't see him as he was wearing a black Fawkes mask with red highlights. 

"Who are you?" Roli repeated the question. Aryan remained quiet, rising her uneasiness.  

"Where is Sid?" She asked as she felt her heart unsettling at his calm demeanour. "I can't find him anywhere. What did you do to him?". Her voice picked up as she inquired him.

Roli continued to question but got no response from him. While Aryan's fist curled into a ball as he tried to maintain his calm. It was really a test of his patience. Had it been someone else in Roli's place, he would have knocked that person to death by now for messing with his workflow.   

"I'm talking to you. Who are you? What are doing here? And where is Sid?" Roli continued to shoot an array of questions.

At last, losing his composure, Aryan slid the hoodie down from upon his head and slowly took the mask off, revealing his face. 

Roli was taken aback at the revelation while her heart gradually felt at ease to see the person she was searching for. Yet, there was still a strange feeling that crept over her mind. She felt like the person before her was not the one she's familiar with. It was a weird feeling that she couldn't just comprehend. 

"Sid.." She slowly called out, still having an unfamiliar feeling when she looked into his eyes. 

There was an eerie silence around them with only sounds of thunderstorms and rain. And they both were completely drenched in rain. 

"What are you doing here, Sid?" Roli asked as she glanced at the bag in the car trunk. 

"Aryan" Roli turned to him with a frown, wondering what he's talking about. 

"I'm Aryan, not Sid" Aryan spoke, emphasizing each word. His eyes looked dead without any emotions and his face was as usual stern.