1 Chapter 1 :Death

'The water was freezing cold but he didn't sense it or .....to say it clearly he was not able to sense that, in that condition.He was drowning while processing his final thoughts , His shirt that was white colored before now turned red,The blood that was leaking from his body , just like how sand slips from closed fist , It was leaking from  where he was shot multiple times , Now the water also in which he was drowning , started to change it's color to red.Sometimes I still wonder , what he could be thinking at that time ?!'

The old wrinkled hand stopped writing any further , The nib of the pen placed still on the letter E of the word time.

*********

**********

[present day]

A tiny and shabby house located in the outskirts of the city .After making breakfast, The old man left the kitchen while looking at the clock ,It was exactly 10 am now! the old man sighed in relief , As if he caught the bus he could have missed , the man then turned on the TV and sat on the chair , Then started glaring at the screen, the sound of TV was too loud that( In the room that was attached to where the man was watching the TV) the man who was sleeping soundly till now frowned and tried to cover his ears with pillows , So he could sleep some more , but this too disturbed by the ringing of his phone ,

*TRING-TRING*

Unwillingly he picked up the phone .

"Hello!!"

As he heard a male voice from the other side of the phone call ,His eyes shrank down and his face became pale as if he heard something he didn't want to hear 

"wha ---- what!?"

 he raised his upper body from the bed hurriedly , Sitting down on the bed , He looked around the room while holding the phone near his ear he asked again , This time more desperately .

"what are you talking about ... now ?....but that was supposed to be on Tuesday " 

the man on the call said " it's today idiot check the date "

"what?"

he looked at the phone screen from his sleepy eyes 

" today's date .....oh no!! it's today, I am sorry,   I was up late last night ...."

While grabbing his forehead with his hand he then started talking.

 "If they had agreed to this, I wouldn't have to go along with your plan but now... that  I have  failed to get the chance, then I don't have a choice, I will do your job today but promise me this will be the last!"

"Yeah, Promise - promise because you know today's job might be last job even for me ,So Listen carefully , Ritesh . "

Ritesh paused for a moment to process his thoughts and then replied.

 " yeah I am listening "

"The targets are meeting at THD . You have to record Videos of their conversation and click some pictures of them together , Send them to me and your work will be done" 

While scratching the back of his head Ritesh asked in a monotone voice.

"You know, that..... I was going to abandon you midway through this plan, That we have been working on , but still you are believing me..... why?"

"Can't say why ? but you believed me before , and helped me in this case already , So many times that I have lost count ,So I can believe in you in return , right?!"

Ritesh facial expressions became serious.

"Okay, where do you say they are going?"

********

Ritesh then looked around him at the room that looked like it was in ruins, The room was small and there were two beds. It seemed the boy and the old man always slept in the same room.

 Of course they slept together here because the house was too small. There's only one room for sleeping, a kitchen and a small hall type room .

 Ritesh stood up and changed his clothes into a plain white shirt then took a bag that looked like a school bag , then he silently walked to the door and opened it with extreme caution ,when the door opened, He took out his neck and looked around. In the other room the old man was still watching the TV, Ritesh steps out of the room and slowly and cautiously started walking towards the wall that was behind the chair that the old man was sitting on ,On the wall some clothes was hanging with the support of pegs that were drilled in the wall, Ritesh reached out to the clothes and start searching the pockets of the pants.

 Behind him from the TV voices of the characters echoed throughout the tiny house, one of the characters sounded desperate and by the sound of it , it seemed that the character was out of breath and coughing blood.

"Wh-- why did you do that!?..... I didn't do any harm to nor you or your people then why? uhh .... I thought you of all people not attack someone so cowardly ....answer me why R-----"

Ritesh checked one pants pocket , then the next one and then the next one , but he found nothing in all of them . they all were empty , Then he proceed to the last pant in the lines of clothes .He found something in the back pocket of the pant it was a wallet Ritesh smiled now his eyes were flashing with happiness.

Then the another character from the TV show started talking .

"You are asking why the answer would be obvious think what you have done .... drunken in power and lust you stole -------"

Ritesh took out the wallet and insert in his pockets , hanging the bag on his shoulder , he started walking to the main door of the house , that was just past the chair that the old man was sitting on , It seemed the hall type room was also the entrance of the house and the main door was too attached to this room.

When Ritesh reached the entrance of the house and placed his hand on the door-latch to open it ,He looked towards the old man and shouted so the man could hear what he was going to say .

"grandpa I am leaving this house for good, enjoy your remaining life in this shabby house bye bye" 

Ritesh waved his hand while showing a smug face

The old man was shocked to hear what Ritesh just said. He was going to stand up from the chair and was going to run toward Ritesh , but it was too late , by the time the old man's body moved a little bit, The boy had already left the house.

"But Ritesh you just came back in the morning ,where are you going?"

Behind the man the TV that was still On, voices of the characters still echoing throughout the house.

"I know I used a cowardly method to kill you but there was no other choice for me because you are the mightiest being that no can rival in all the three worlds but you were deviated from the path and done atrocious things and that's why you punished accordingly,  may your soul rest in peace O! Great Bali "

******

When he stepped outside of the house the surrounding was somewhat foggy and Ritesh felt the cold wind passing through his weak and slim body, It must be very cold for him because he was just wearing a white shirt and a black pant that looked good on him but this was the month of December and the temperature was quite low, while folding his arms under his armpits he started walking.

'haa... looks like today too I will be freezing '

After walking for a while he found a taxi passing by, He extended his arm to stop it.

"Where to son?,"  Asked the taxi driver 

"THD office ,sir"

Sitting on the backseat of the taxi Ritesh was counting the money he took from the pants , It was only 4000 rs (around $ 51.24 USD)  not too much , but enough for him to get an entrance in the hotel , when he done counting the money he gave 100 Rs. to the driver in advance because it was going to took 40 minutes until he reach his destination , and he was already late so he already took care all of this in advance. He placed his head back on the seat to relax and turned his gaze outside the window.

'finally this will be the last task I will be doing after this,  finally I have the money to move outside from this country'

He turned his gazes to his bag and grabbed its lace.

'My original plan was to go along with a newly married couple , but at the last moment they denied ....Haa... now I have to spy on some old politicians and the Mafia group that I was a part of .... why Sanjiv don't do this type of work himself , I understand I can go between them but he is a Spy, Wasn't his job is to spy other why make me do it!?'

Ritesh remembers the time , when he was an active member of a Mafia gang , that was doing all the illegal works but Sanjiv gave him a choice to not fall more in this dark pit , He offered Ritesh that if he help him to get the goons locked up , he would make a way for him to go out from this country and provide him a stable job in foreign , For past two years he was doing fine with providing evidences against the members of his gang.But the more he collected evidences the more its became a big task, he found that not only the people who had illegal businesses but also the corrupt officers , politicians and social workers and more high level peoples are in this together ,He was starting to feel that his life might be in danger , if he got caught or found out ,So he just wanted to go away from this place as soon as possible ,but he had to do this last job because today was the meeting between all the corrupt people that he was spying on and this was the jackpot he and Sanjiv needed.

When all the memories and thoughts were crossing his mind then his phone rang ,

*TRING-TRING*

It was Sanjiv he quickly picked up the call.

*TAP*

"Hello"

"So are you prepared...you have all the stuff right?"

"Yeah.. I have everything in my bag," Ritesh said while still holding the lace of the bag

"Okay , don't freak out, I am in the building that is in front of that hotel.... If anything goes wrong sent me message I will be there"

"Okay"

After awhile the taxi arrived in front of a tall building that had almost 10 floors, he looked at the building from inside the taxi and swallowed his saliva , it seemed he was afraid today more than ever before, after calming down himself , he stepped outside of the taxi and started walking toward the building,

There were men around the hotel in black clothes that were stopping people from entering in, After looking at all of them , He waved at one of them and with a big smile he opened his mouth ,

"hello , brother"

The man looked around the age of 30 and he had a huge body , He just walked toward Ritesh normally , but it looked as if he was coming to crush him.

"You ..... Why are you here?....  I thought only old members are called today, What are you doing here? "

With an awkward smile he Ritesh replied in a low tone ,

"You forgot ,Remember yesterday when we partying you said I should come here too"

The man laughed a little and just put his big hand around Ritesh's shoulders.

"I said something like that!?...Okay must have said that , but now you are here let's go inside , you know there's some really special guest are here today, You will be surprised"

Ritesh thought ' Yeah , I had the list of all the guest that's why I'm more surprised to know that how many people are involved in this'

As he entered in , all he could see was people everywhere ,The crowd was so big that it was impossible to see the other end.But he had not came here for the peoples so he slipped silently between the huge congregation and went in a corner to find a way to go up in the building , He found stairs in that same spot than he start climbing the stairs , When he reached the third floor he stopped , and started looking in the rooms.

After a while he found it , The VIP room where the meeting was supposed to happen.A big round table was at the centre and chairs were surrounding it .

'This must be it '

He put his bag down and started taking out some devices , While wiping out the sweat from his mouth with his trembling hands he planted audio bugs in every corner and installed cameras in the room ,As he was going to install some more he heard voices of footsteps that were approaching the room , he immediately ran towards the gate , But someone opened it from outside , before he could reached it.

*CLACK*

"What are you doing here ?"

"Oh ! boss , nothing , I was--- was just lost"

The man was the gang's Boss. He looked as if he was in his late forties , wearing a business suit with his intimidating body and voice he glanced at Ritesh as he was piercing through his soul.

"Really , You are just lost ?"

" Yea ---- Yes sir," Ritesh replied while trembling 

"I see , now go down this place is not for people like you "

Ritesh ran out from the room without looking back , but he couldn't go down just now, Because he had the transmitter and the recorder,He had to stay in the range of the audio bugs, cameras and other devices that he had planted. For that he hid in the room next to the VIP room.

After a while people started coming into the VIP room .

"Oh ,hey Siraj how its going ," The first man who entered said while handshaking the gang boss.

"Good , sir "

Ritesh who was listening in the next room wearing headphones

'He is the Chief minister , I always doubted his policies'

When all the members entered the room , the Boss Siraj tapped the table loudly to get the attention of the congregation,

*TAP*

When all of their gazes turned to him then he started speaking.

"For quite some time.... I have been looking for the opportunity to invite you all and have a discussion about our future plans , But now! that you are all here I can just say welcome! friends , You are going to enjoy today and what we will be receiving in the future"

All the people started clapping.

'Looks like it is starting ' Ritesh took out a small tablet that is connected to the cameras.

The old CM came running and stood in front of the people.

"All is well and that , but let's finish this quickly ,You all know there might be some eyes that must be watching us or some ears that are listening us ,I can't afford to be found out that I am working with you all"

Siraj the boss smiled and placed his hand on CM's shoulder.

"Yes - yes we will finish this quickly but about that , what you were saying , I have to tell you about something ,You all know that today's meeting is important , due to so many things going on in last couple of months and above that my boys and some of yours men were being caught and had been arrested in last two years , and ..... the thing is this is happening too much , so I checked out here and there to found why it's happening all of a sudden ....So I found out,Hahahahaha!!"

All of them said in the same tone and at the same time.

"What....really So tell us what the cause is?"

Siraj shifted his gaze toward the man who was standing beside the door.

"Bring him"

"Yes , sir "

Ritesh became confused after hearing all of that .

'What?..what is he talking about? He found out what?"

For a moment he wondered what if he found out about him but then he shook his head.

'Nah! it's not possible I am cautious all the time'

When Ritesh was figuring out in his mind what the boss could be found out , then suddenly his eyes caught something on the screen of the tablet, he grabbed the tablet with both of his hands tightly but after a while his eyes became wider and he was started to trembling ,His face covered in sweat and he muttered.

"Oh my god..."

The scene he saw was that of Sanjiv covered in blood pulled by his hair by the same man who was sent by Siraj a while ago . Ritesh froze up and just looked at the brutal scene for quite a while ,When he snapped out of it he looked in front of him , some men was coming for him to caught him, He stood up but in their hands were iron rods, One of them hit his head with his full might that made Ritesh lose his consciousness a bit, When he fell down on the ground the men picked him up and started dragging him through the room. He was not in condition to resist, the other three men punched him on his face again and again and broke all the equipment he had and after beating him brutally took him in the VIP room and tossed in front of Siraj.

"So how does it feel to get caught hah!?"

Siraj kicked on his face and sat on the chair while lighting his cigar.

"Stupid worm , thought he can escape after damaging my business"

Ritesh's ears were numb and his eyes were blurred because of blood that was starting to pour out of his head, While still lying on the floor he tried to open his eyes and tried to look around him but he could only see Sanjiv lying beside him beaten up badly.

"Haa... you must be thinking how could your friend got caught haann...."

Siraj was stepping his shoes on Ritesh's face.

"You donkey... For the people your friend work is in my pockets also hahahaha hah"

The evil laugh of Siraj echoed through the vicinity.

"Take them out of here and finish them"

Siraj ordered his men, Two men came and lifted both Ritesh and Sanjiv on there shoulders and ran from there ,After getting out from the building the men threw them  in a Van.

"Where should we take them at this time ?"

"The Hawda bridge....to the bridge"

"Oh! Okay"

*****

The Van reached at the bridge , Because  of the fog none can be seen after a certain distance, They both took out the unconscious Sanjiv first and laid him down on the ground.But when they were trying to took out Ritesh from the Van Ritesh's regained his consciousness a bit , He had not the energy to fight them but still he succeed in silently sneaking out the knife , that was in the pocket of the man.As soon they completely took him out , Ritesh threw his body on one of them while still holding knife in his hand ,All three of them fell down on the ground but doing so the knife fell from Ritesh hand,

*THUD*

*TUNNG*

The other man stood up angrily and shooted him with a gun couple of time.

*DHAE* *DHAE*

The second man shouted angrily at him.

"Why did you shoot him? idiot ,we had to do that with knife"

"It's not my fault ,he just pissed me of "

"hurry.... throw him in the river before someone show up"

The blood after being shot was so much that it looked like Ritesh was floating on the diffused blood ,The men carried him and threw from the bridge.

While falling from the bridge Ritesh could only see the fog in the air.

'huh... what is happening ....Oh yeah Sanjiv was got caught and me too, What happened to him .... Ahh I can't see anything, it's just dark everywhere.... my body .. it feels like it's floating'

*SPLASH!!*

Ritesh's body dropped in the river and he started drowning in the water .

'This is the end!? But why so soon? I had not achieved anything yet ,I hadn't lived the life I wanted to be, Why? without doing anything significant I am dying, My life was not meaningful to begin with..... I was just a delinquent without any future , When I was not able to pass through in school I just chose the path of a criminal but that was not the right path so I tried to undo my wrongdoings by helping Sanjiv , But....but ...but looked like that was not either the right path for me,I tried my best to do something good but when this world is forcing me to choose the wrong sides than whose fault is that .... Ah!! I remember he, my grandpa, he said in this world all things happen on the will of god ... Then I guess all of what happened or what is happening now! Is because of him,The god'

It's said that in their final moments humans either remembers of their memories or they pray to god for their family and friends wellbeing ,But in his final moments Ritesh just blame  and accuse the god for what happens with his life and what led him to his death ,Its as if he was holding these feelings, this grudge against god for a long time because in his twenty - seven years of life he just seen the worst of what a human can see and feel , His mother was passed away while giving birth to him , his father died before he was born, his grandfather who worked at factory was shut down when he was three ,He lived through extreme poverty , Didn't mattered if he was six or even he was seventeen , he worked as a labourer ,He never even seen the gates of school or colleges , He was just living his life for waiting just for the end but when he joined the mafia group his life became better but soon guilt starting to eating him up and he chose a different path.

'Tell me why you do this to me? Tell me why those people are living their best life and here the one who(Sanjiv) was going to do good was getting killed , You could have given me  a better life than this but you chose to give the worst ... Haa ... haaa..If you ever come in front of me I'm going to....'

"I am going to....., What!?"

He heard a voice, A voice of a male or it was of a female or what is this voice he couldn't figure out , But when he opened his eyes he was on a chariot that was flying where..? don't know, but everything around the chariot was white there cannot be anything seen as far as the eyes can go ,But the more strange part was the chariot was being pulled by an black ox.

The reins were controlled by a man who was facing forward ,The man looked muscular. His height must  be seven no ten feet or more , Ritesh was dumbfounded to see those weird and strange scenarios, As he was staring at the man's long black hair, he heard again.

"Tell me what you were going to say after, " I am going to..." What?"

This voice was coming from his right side, he spun his head to right side and saw a boy at the age of six or seven , wearing same clothes as he was wearing , but according to his size, Ritesh looked at him for a while and make a weird expression that was telling , he didn't expect a kid to be here when he heard the voice.

 The boy leaned forward while still placing his hand on his cheek.

"Tell me what are you going to say ?"

Ritesh with his wide eyes whispered in a low tone

"What is going on!?"

<Chapter 1> Ends