The Last Letter

It had all started when Billie, Ria and Reavan began attending the police academy.

Like everyone knew, the training was severe and harsh and was done day in and out. The only peaceful time that they used to get was during dinner, and at night when they were made to replenish their lost energy via sleep. The next morning, they start the routine all over again. This went on, forever and ever that one could easily question the authorities if they all were even thought of as humans or not. Everyone’s performance and enthusiasm kept going down each day except one person.

He was wise, bold, smart and highly talented. He never felt tired mentally and was the first one to move about based on their allotted schedule. this was possible only due to his will power. He never hesitated, not even for a second, to follow whatever command he got. 

Physically, he definitely was worn out, which was for certain but he never gave up. No matter how much he had to undergo, how much he had to give up on, he never took a break or went back of his word and his promise to himself.

He was so determined with his goal to become a good cop, that he didn’t care about anything else. He ranked the highest in all his examinations, was excellent in logical reasoning, aptitude and fitness test too.

There was not a single person who didn’t admire him, he was the role model of all. Everyone respected him but he had no friends as his dignity was more valuable than friendship. They all thought of him as a leader and thus not as friend…. He was automatically isolated by the crowd due to his excellence.

He was also admired and highly spoken of about by two close friends, who knew each other since high school, which was Reavan and Billie. They weren’t the ones who seemed to care about shit like class or excellence of a person. They empathized with the state he was in, not that they knew how it felt but because they had seen this happen to their old friend who had a character completely opposite of his. Yes, it was Zack, who was trying to become to close with everyone with his goofy character that they felt that he had trespassed their personal space and thus either started ignoring or avoiding him.

Well, in the current scenario, the top-class was left behind by his all classmates as he never took the initiative of mingling with them. Maybe he was shy, or even an introvert but who cares as long as you don’t try to mingle with people, they don't mingle with you too. But these two did, they understood him for who he was and accepted him as he was.

The three of them had slowly become close, they got to know about each other’s family, their lives and how everything was going on in each person's home.

Billie started falling head over heels for the newbie of their gang ever since she heard about his past…

************

His father was a billionaire and a gambler. All he used to do after his work was to enter a casino, or spend time in a hotel with different woman every night.

Once he came home, he used to beat his wife severely, when she questioned him about where he had been. This was once seen by his first son (the one sharing this to Billie and Reavan) who just stood there, not knowing what to do. After all, he was just a kid of eight when this happened. The small kid didn’t know what exactly was going on, all that he knew was that his mother was crying. 

The next day, when he heard the familiar sound as that of the previous night, he ran from his room to the hall to find what he found the previous day- mother on the floor, crying and pleading, father standing over her, with belt in his hand and arm raised to hit.

The kid, without any clear idea, jumps in front of the mother just in time to receive to hit from the edges of the belt and saving his mother from the hit. Takk!!!

It hits the child so hard that he crumbles to the floor, trying to rub his back. To his disappointment the pain and burning sensation doesn’t seem to go.

The mother is in a shock and so is the father.

The belt slips to the floor away from the father’s hand. He strides to his room without apologising or turning back to see if the child was ok.

The mother moves towards the child once his dad in gone, hugs him, checks for his wound. It had hit his back with so much velocity that it was red like tomatoes, she could even see that the wound was slightly elevated. The wound had left an impression with tapering ends.

 All that the kid kept saying was, “its burning mom, its burning….” The mother didn’t know what to do but was filled with rage. That’s it! - she decides. 

She lifts the child, takes him to her room, gives him first aid, packs her bag and leaves the house. The mother goes to her mother’s place, she leaves the child there and returns back to her husband’s. 

All that she thought at that moment was that she had to protect her child, no matter what happens to her, he has to survive. He should grow to be healthy and strong so as to protect her and also all the other women and people in general who underwent such injustice and bring in justice to the world.

************

Five years later, his father’s mansion hits the headlines of the newspaper, which states- Billionaire found dead with his wife as his mansion was burnt to ashes.

Apparently, his mother was the one who had set the fire, she decided to die with him so that she doesn’t live to get arrested and lose her dignity. She had decided upon doing so as she couldn’t bear him anymore. She had already lost her hope two years ago, but was expecting thus kept up with it.

Now that her second son was born and her husband wanted to kill him believing in a prophecy which said, “this child will bring upon the destruction to your family”, she gave him to a newly wed couple who were happy to adopt him and decided upon ending his life by herself.

***********

The night before the tragedy she writes her last letter to her first son addressed to her Mother’s place saying she wants him to become the harbinger of peace and justice to the society. She also demands him to promise her that he would do everything in his power to establish the same. She also wants him to live a life he would be proud of, if its thought about. She states in bold letters, “Live! My child, with dignity and pride.”

P.S. please don’t shed tears from that beautiful face of yours, your momma was never qualified to have such a wonderful kid as you. I am sorry that I couldn’t be with you or be there for you when you needed me the most. And I am sorry that I can’t make up for it anymore and not even in the coming future, as my life ends here now and today. With so much love and affection, I write to you, my last letter……

This letter arrives when they checked the mailbox once they the funeral is done. The thirteen-year-old kid was now an orphan, all he had now was his granny whom he cherished. He sat by the veranda as he read through the letter, tears trickling down his eyes making his vision blurry. He crumbled the letter that he held in his hands and let out a silent cry. His voice didn’t come out as he had already cried too much, he was already too tired and lost due to the funeral, this letter just added to the pain.

His granny found him leaned against the side wall with letter in his hands, she sits beside him and pulls him towards her, gives him a warm hug and then strokes his hair as he cries his heart out.

She too cries, but wipes her tears off before her grandson saw it, after all, she couldn’t cry before him in order to provide him moral support. She regrets growing her daughter filled with pride and dignity, that she had lost her daughter, along with the truth that could have ruined the billionaire’s family reputation. They were all buried with their graves.

For the grandma, the only thing that was left behind like a souvenir by her daughter was her grandson, whom she took an oath to grow very well as to compensate for what had happened.

*************

Though this whole story was not known to the child, he shared whatever he remembered and especially about the oath that he had taken upon reading his mother’s last letter. He also thought that his mother died due to a fire accident and not because he created it.

Another truth that they didn’t know was of the presence of his kid brother who lived with a young couple, who were deeply in love with each other and newly married. They named the kid as Ashura, and kept in secret about the child as the only condition for adoption was to not let anyone, including the kid know that he was adopted. Later, after few more years, the husband passes away due to a car accident- he dies on the spot  leaving behind, poor Maya and her son Ashura.

The three friends completed their course and were posted in two different cities- Reavan was put in a city 50 kilometres away from that of Billie and other friend.

 Lucky for Billie, she and her crush were recruited into the same department and same station. They met up by weekends in a place at equal distance from both the cities, chatted over wine and went back to their places. Whenever the other friend wasn’t there, Reavan used to pressurise Billie to tell him how she felt about him. Reavan was hooked up with Ria, so he thought if things worked out between these two, they could go on a double date.

She couldn’t bring her to do so as she knew his story and respected his choices. She felt he wasn’t ready for a commitment and when she feels that the time is right, she would confess. Reavan couldn’t say anything more, he respected her idea.

The three of them thus started working on different cases and solved many of them.

As years passed by, Billie finally found an opportunity to confess, he accepted and proposed her a date. Things went on really well until the criminal that Billie and him worked on, seemed to have a good justification on why he was criminally involved. He made them look at a different dimension of justice which made them feel like the bad guys.

They had to undergo a lot of trouble before they caught him. When they finally found him, he told them, “The real justice lies in purifying the mind and not letting evil thoughts enter into it, the very second one person starts hating the other for one reason or the other, he slowly starts thinking about ways to torture him or bother him in his mind, if justice has to last, these kinds of thoughts have to stop coming. If killing is bad, you (the cops) too are killing, if torturing is bad, you too do the same. What is right and what is wrong, it all depends upon the perspective with which one views them. In different angles different things seem to be the culprit, how would you know which one has to be arrested?”

He then points to his head and says, “this is where the change should start.”

Billie twists her head sideways, she then raises her arm having gun, her eyes non- focusing but in deep thoughts, growls with her voice and says, “well, goodbye...” as she finishes her sentence, his life too is over.

Hearing the gun-shot, her teammates enter into the shed, before they see that she had killed the criminal, her boyfriend intervened and shot multiple bullets from his gun. They all witnessed him shoot, he was thus named the mad-dog and was arrested for doing so. Reason being, all they had against the criminal was an arrest warrant and not the one to shoot or kill.

Billie couldn’t take him being arrested; she had already lost her mind as she heeded to the nonsense that the criminal had spouted. Just in order to stop him from blabbering more she had shot him, but unfortunately, her aim was perfectly to the center of the skull that he was dead on the spot. Because of her mistake, he had to bear the consequences.

**************

After few months her boyfriend escaped jail, she was kept under surveillance to see if he met up with her, but no. her mental status too was worsening that she was let go by the department.

Slowly as time passed, her desire for solving crimes didn’t leave her, since she had a bad history in the department, she decided to join a private detective agency where her desire to solve mysteries were satisfied and her payment and promotion depended upon how well she worked, she thus got easily promoted and well paid due to her brilliance in solving them all.

Reavan was still working for the department, he was the one who struggled alongside Billie to lower his friend’s sentence for the crime, but in vain. He frequently met up with him in his cell to know if everything was ok.

His friend seemed cheerful and alright even the day before he escaped the prison, that he had no clue of what was going on in his friend’s mind.

Reavan then arranged for a search party to find his friend, but he was nowhere to be found......