Mirage #3 Check note on pg 149 for next thread! - Page 39

Khushi dropped down on her bed after a long tiring afternoon of her second day of work at the clinic. It was as if somehow all of Akash's patients had decided to get ill today and drop by at the clinic. And now with all the hectic work, her eyes were completely strained and a slight annoying ache was rippling at the back of her head.

Lying down on her chest, with her head turned sideways, she glanced at her bedroom door and beyond, the empty living room filled with absolute silence. Was this going to be her sight for the rest of her life? Would she only be greeted with absolute silence and empty walls?

She heard her stomach growl with hunger. But she didn't feel like walking to the kitchen and preparing any dinner. How could she? There was absolutely no joy in cooking for oneself. All her life, she had only cooked for others and never for herself. Not to forget her disastrous cooking skills that always ended up in her eating either burnt or bland food.

Completely drained of energy, she closed her eyes and suddenly, found herself thinking about the memories when Arnav used to prepare breakfast for her or when he used to massage her forehead, even though it used to be ineffective most of the time. But still, the feeling of his warm hands used to be enough to release out all the tension within her.

Opening her eyes, she looked at the table right next to her and her eyes focussed on the yellow Pikachu that was lying on top of it. Memories, fond and happy flooded her mind of the times she had spent with him, her eyes brimming with tears. Grabbing it with her hand, she pulled the soft toy closer to her.

"I hate you." She heard her own muffled sobs as she buried her face in that toy. "Arnav, I hate you." She desperately cried, holding the toy even more close to her. "Why did you have to come into my life? Why did you show me false hopes of a better life with you?"

Hoisting herself up from her bed, she sat down and crawled towards the table and opening the drawer, she retrieved out the bullet, the very first bullet that had linked Arnav to her life.

She placed it her palm and covered her warm fingers over the cold metal. Folding her knees towards her chest, she buried her head on it, as she sobbed uncontrollably. "Why did you do this to me? Why couldn't you just be a simple normal guy who loved me?"

She remembered all those previous memories with him. The first time she had met him, how she had been moved by his pain. Then the next time that they had met in the woods, how he had rescued her out of it. The day she had spent with him at the amusement park, those bike rides in the evening with him, the long walks that she shared with him.

The first time he had kissed her virgin lips, the excitement that he created in her body whenever he was around her, the way he huskily whispered her name into her ears sending goosebumps all over her body.

The way he made love to her, rightfully claiming her as his own, the sheer intensity of his passion blinding her senses, the way he made her call out his name in absolute pleasure.

Finally, the way he provided her comfort and shelter when she was all alone and devastated, the way he made her feel secure.

Irony, wasn't it? He was the same person who had given her everything she had needed in her life and yet snatched it away in one moment of lie.

Had all those moments been deception? She couldn't accept that there was not an ounce of genuine love from his side. No, she had felt his love. It was very real.

But what was love if he couldn't trust to share his secrets with her? Could his love be this selfish?

"Arnav..." she whispered into the cold night, letting her voice draft towards the unknown that lay amidst the darkness.

Exhausted with herself, she finally laid down her head on the pillow and cuddling the Pikachu, she closed her eyes, slumbering into another night of her mundane life without Arnav in it, hoping that maybe tomorrow would be better than today.

o0o

Arnav stood on the terrace of an abandoned house which lay a few metres away from his target's house. It was pitch dark all around him with most of the neighbourhood already settled for the bed. He had been given information that the man who was supposed to be shot down would arrive to his house in another few minutes. He only had a couple of seconds to get a range of his target before the man disappeared into his house. And it had to be done with perfect precision so that the man wouldn't survive.

Arranging the tripod stand, he looked through the rifle scope, adjusting the lens to make sure that he had a perfect view of the target spot. Everything was ready, the cartridge was loaded and now, all he had to do was wait patiently.

He sat on the edge of the terrace, glancing at the injuries of his hand. There were tiny blood clots all over his palm, a slight pain still coursing through his hand.

Sighing, he looked up at the sky and noticed that no stars were visible to him.

"Did you also abandon me Mumma?" he asked, looking above, feeling sad and lonely, as if the whole world had abandoned him.

"Arnav..." he suddenly felt like someone called out his name and turned around reflexively, feeling a shiver run down his spine. It sounded like as if she had called out his name. Looking back, he realised that there was no one around him. His ears perked up waiting for that same voice once again. But he didn't hear it again.

Maybe it was just his imagination fooling around with his mind, he decided and chided away the matter.

Suddenly, he heard a car come to stop in that street. Turning around to resume his position, he noticed that the car had stopped right next to the target's house and knew that his target had arrived. Inhaling a deep breath, he waited for the man to step out.

But to his utter surprise, the man didn't step out. Arnav patiently waited wondering what was going on. Had the person become suspicious about him? No, that man couldn't possibly see him as a huge tree was covering him and securing his position.

Five minutes passed and there was still no sign of anyone stepping out of the car. Completely frustrated, Arnav fished out his phone from the pocket and started dialling the man's number who had given him the information.

"Hello, that man is not getting out of his car. Are you sure they have no suspicions on us?" he asked and before he could receive an answer, he saw the door of the car opening. "Wait, I think he is coming out." He said and disconnected the call.

And then, he saw not one, but two of them getting out of the car.

Shit! He cursed himself. How was he supposed to know who was his target? It was too dark to recognise their faces. What was he going to do now? And he didn't have time on his side too. Any second from now, they would disappear into the gate and his mission would be foiled. No, he had to take a chance. Maybe he could shoot down both of them. How was it going to matter anyway? If the other man was talking to this person, then it definitely meant that the other person too was part of his gang.

Arnav stood behind the rifle and focussing through the lens, he prepared himself and then, counting three in his mind, he pulled off the trigger and the bullet just zoomed through the cold night. He knew he had hit the right mark when one of the men collapsed dead onto the ground.

Instantly, the other man looked into the direction from where the bullet had emerged and before he could make out, Arnav pulled the trigger once again. But somehow, luck wasn't on his side this time and the other man ducked just as the bullet whizzed above his head.

F*ck! Arnav swore loudly as he saw the man running towards his direction. And now, he couldn't even get a proper aim due to all the trees that were blocking his view. He knew that the man would be here any minute and before that he had to make a dash out of there. Swiftly putting the rifle and the tripod stand inside the golf bag, Arnav looked around him searching for an exit. If he took the stairs, the man would catch up with him. No, he needed another way out.

Suddenly, he saw the roof of the neighbour's house and an idea instantly flashed his mind. He saw the distance between the two houses. It was around eight feet away, but since the other roof was at a lower level than his, he decided he could make it through if he sprinted towards it.

It was now or never. The other man's footfalls could be heard clearly from downstairs.

Taking a few steps backwards, Arnav inhaled a sudden rush of cold air and building up momentum, he sprinted like an animal towards the edge of the terrace and found himself flying in the air, the adrenaline kicking hard into his system and the next second, he landed with a loud thud on the cemented terrace. Turning around, he saw the man reach the entrance of the terrace in search of him and without wasting any more time, he jumped down twelve feet to land on the muddy ground and ran towards the compound wall, hoisting himself up with the help of his one hand and ran into the dark aisle that disappeared at the corner.

After running for a few seconds, he turned around, pausing for a second to see if that man was still following him. But to his surprise, there was no sign of him. Turning back, he was about to heave a sigh of relief when suddenly, he felt a powerful blow on his face.

"Who are you?" the voice growled and Arnav instantly identified him as the man who was following him and even something more. "Who sent you here? Why did you kill Madan?" the man asked gripping Arnav's collar.

And as if they were both struck by enlightenment all of a sudden, they recognised each other simultaneously. He was one of the men who had been sent after him at the bar when he was shot down miserably. Arnav instantly remembered Khalid Bhai telling him that those men were Ramcharan's men.

"You son of a B*tch!" Arnav growled dangerously and in one swift moment, kicked the man right in his gut, causing the other man to wince out in pain at the unexpected attack.

His night couldn't get any better than this, could it? He could now exact the perfect revenge on him. Even though he had a pistol in his bag, he decided that it would lot more fun to fight him one on one. Throwing aside the golf bag, Arnav steadied himself and prepared to land the death kick on that man's head. But that man was fast and surprisingly, he too seemed to be efficiently trained in kickboxing, coz he successfully defended himself against the blow, catching hold of Arnav's leg and inturn, twisted it causing Arnav to collapse down flat on the ground.

"You think you are smart boy? Try this!" the man roared and attempted to kick Arnav on his abdomen. But right at the last second, Arnav rolled away and in a second, was up on his feet.

Arnav closed his eyes, as memories of ten years ago lit up his mind.

A determined young boy went on delivering kicks after kicks onto the opponent's face to knock him unconscious, only to be blocked successfully by his strong opponent. He tried all the variations possible, but somehow the elder man opposite to him seem to knew what was going to come and was ruining his offenses.

"Argghh... I will never be able to defeat you." The sixteen year old Arnav exclaimed with frustration, on the verge of giving up. "You are blocking my every move. I will never be a successful kickboxer." He sighed, stopping his attacks.

"Arnav, let's do it once again. This time, I'll try to attack you and you will have to defend it." Khalid replied, a bit amused to see this boy give up so easily. "And I'll make sure you become the best kickboxer ever. You cannot be weak. You have to be strong and not let any man hurt you without getting himself knocked down. You cannot let this happen to you again. Got it?" he continued, patting his back indicating the huge scar slashed across it.

And with that Khalid started to deliver kicks onto Arnav's face and using all the knowledge that he had acquired from the past two years, Arnav successfully defended himself.

"So does that mean, even you can't knock me down?" Arnav asked letting out a chuckle while Khalid continued attacking him.

"You spoke a bit too early." Khalid smirked at the young boy and without any preamble, punched Arnav right on his nose and he instantly felt the world spinning around him as he saw stars in broad daylight.

"And this." Khalid exclaimed landing his foot just an inch away from Arnav's face. "is how you bring down an opponent who is a better kickboxer than you." While the young boy helplessly stared at Khalid's face, holding his bleeding nose with an outrageous expression on his face. "The nose is one delicate part of a human body and a powerful blow over there will be enough to distract your opponent for a whole of fifteen seconds and he would be lying on the ground, before he knew what was happening to him."

Arnav snapped back into the present, his eyes immediately focussing on his opponent who was sneering at him. He looked down at his injured palm. It was going to bleed a bit and pain immensely. But it was worth it, he concluded.

And then, as fast as the lightening, he punched the other man's nose, who was the least bit prepared for it and in the next second, delivered his most powerful death kick ever and the man landed flat on the ground, dislocating his jaw.

Shrieks of horror tore into the night as the man lay paralysed on the ground, unable to budge even an inch from his place.

"I would have liked to torture you even more. But the people in the vicinity might wake up hearing you. So it is better I bring you out of this misery. Goodbye! It was nice knowing you." Arnav growled into his ears and then with one swift move, twisted the man's neck, snapping out the life from the body.

Oh F*ck! He exclaimed out, seeing his palm bleeding with the impact of the blow on that man's nose. He raised his hand above the level of his heart to stop the flow of blood and to some extent, it seemed to work out.

Taking out the phone in his other hand, he dialled the same number he had called earlier. "Yeah, work is done, except there are two dead bodies. The other one is in the small lane behind the main road. Yeah, I'll leave then." He said and disconnecting the call, he picked up his bag and disappeared into the darkness.

Now only two more men remained to be hunted down.

o0o

Aman lit up his cigarette and stood outside, allowing the nicotine to calm down his body. It had been four days since he had left Arnav's house. After living at the headquarters for two days, he had decided to take shelter at one of the other gang member's house while that person was away for some work.

Creasing his forehead, he wondered about the situation in front of him. There are been no news about his family. Whenever he had tried to contact him to know about his family, he wasn't picking up the phone. It looked like they were purposefully avoiding him.

And on the other side, there was no news about Arnav too. Afterall, how could he expect a stubborn man like Arnav to reconcile first?

As days started to fly by, he wondered whether he was doing the right thing. In a way he was trapped in a huge maze that had no way out built in it.

Completely lost in his own thoughts, he didn't realise when someone had come and stood beside him. It was only when he heard that person clearing his throat, he realised his presence.

"You? How did you know I was here and why were you not picking up my calls? I need to make sure that my family is safe. Listen, you know very well that what you are doing is not correct." Aman stammered, shocked to see that man who had held his family hostage standing beside him.

"Oh Aman! You worry too much. Your family is perfectly alright for now. You needn't worry about them and your sister, she's fine too. Such a good girl she is." Aman saw him sneer the last bit of his statement.

"Don't you dare do anything to her!" Aman warned in a dangerous voice, feeling helpless and enraged with himself at the same time.

"Hmm... so I heard that you have shifted your base over here. Why, what happened? Arnav threw you out of his house? Aww..." Aman heard him mock, letting out an evil laugh. "Maybe it was high time you realised what a b*stard your dear friend is."

"If Guddi is my sister, Arnav is my brother too. So don't you talk like that about him. It is only because of you that I have to choose my blood over him, because of a TRAITOR like you." Aman roared like a wounded tiger, defeated but not dead, purposefully stressing on the word 'traitor'.

"Calm down my boy! You are really blind aren't you? Are you still supporting that Arnav inspite of all that he has done to you? Look carefully and you will realise that he doesn't give a damn about you. You have been used by him all these years. You have helped him out in every single mission and yet, what do you get in return? Just a quarter of the share of what he earns. Think about it. The house that you lived in, the car that you drove, who does it all belong to? Arnav Singh. Not you. He owns every single thing."

"That's not true!" Aman retorted back. "All the money that I have is because of him. It is because of him that my family lives in a proper house today. It is..." Aman stopped midway, as the other man's words pierced right through him.

"Yeah, right! A small three bedroom house in the outskirts of Rohtak, while you should have owned a Mansion."

"You can ask anybody in the Underworld mafia. If you ask them who Arnav Singh is, everyone knows about him. But if you go and ask about Aman Singh, only a handful will know something about you. And it is only because you have been overshadowed by him in every single step of your life. You do all the hard work and he steals away your success every single time. Who is known as the right hand of Khalid Malik? Arnav Singh, not Aman Singh. Who has to do all the cleaning up at the crime scene? You. Not him. As if you were a low caste servant of his."

"Instead it should have been you who should have had control over him. See, what you have. You have a family, your parents. You know your origin. But what does he have? Nothing. No one. You hail from a respectable family. He grew up on the streets. He doesn't even know who his father his. And do you know what society calls people like him? A b*stard. Arnav is nothing but a B*STARD!"

"I don't care about his past!" Aman screamed out loudly this time, trying to control his anger that was spiralling out of control. He felt like giving one tight slap across the face of the man standing in front of him. But he controlled because he knew that this sick man had control over the lives of his family. "I never have."

"You should start caring about it now, coz you friend is nothing but a dual faced man who only uses innocent people like you for his gains. If he really was your best friend, then why did he never get suspicious that you were in trouble? Why did he never ask you once if something is bothering you? Why are you staying here in this stranger's house instead of his house? It is time you change your equations Aman Singh! It is time you show him your power. It is time to get that B*stard down on his knees and let him know his true status."

The questions that he asked were quite disturbing. But somewhere Aman couldn't deny the presence of a tiny thought that nudged the back of his mind. There was atleast some truth to those words. Arnav, whom he claimed to be his brother, had never really bothered asking him about this problem of his even though he had managed to conceal his worry everytime with a false smile. Had the thought that he was in danger never struck Arnav's mind? And he had never even tried to stop him while he left the house.

"I'm right, aren't I?" Aman saw him ask with an evil smirk on his face. "You have so much talent within you Aman. You are the master of disguising your emotions. Have you ever wondered why did I choose you to do this task? It wasn't only about you being closer to Arnav. It was because I knew you are the only man who could successfully hide such a secret for so long and deceive your friend into believing you. Why only him? Anyone can believe your word and get fooled easily. You are one of the most valuable men in the gang and yet, you are treated like a piece of dirt."

After pausing for a while, he continued. "I have a plan. Why don't we become friends instead and join our hands? You won't reach anywhere if you work for Khalid Malik. He is doomed to be finished. Instead, work along with me while you have the golden chance because once Khalid Malik goes down, none of his men would be spared. If you decide to shift your allegiance to our side, you will not only earn your rightful share, but also find yourself amongst the top. And then, you will be famous too. Other people will be working under you. Think of the possibilities. Every dream of yours will be fulfilled. I will offer you the deal. You accept it and work for me and in return your family will be handed over back to you without any scratch."

Aman stared at him in utter confusion at the words hurled at his face. It was as if his mind had entirely stopped working at that moment.

"Are you still in confusion?" he asked, knowing very well that his plan was working. He had successfully sown the first poisonous seeds in Aman's mind and he knew that plant would soon grow at an enormous speed. And like pouring kerosene over the first flames of poison, he continued in a ghastly whisper. "If you still don't believe my words, then tell my why Arnav never taught you how to sharp shoot inspite of you working under him for the last ten years? Have you ever thought about it? The answer is crystal clear. Because Arnav never wanted you to rise above him. He was scared that he would lose his importance in the gang if you learnt his skills."

And with those words, he turned around and walked away with a satisfied smirk on his face, leaving a completely dazed Aman behind him. He knew that whatever he had come here for was successfully completed. Now all he had to do was wait and he knew that the sheep would automatically walk into the hungry wolf's mouth.

CHAPTER 46

And Lily205, I will prefer not to answer your q's this time and let the secrets unfold in the forthcoming chapters and answer them only after it .😃