Honesty at a Heavy cost

Reavan was sleeping on the couch again, the scene was so nostalgic to him, as he had been waiting for the patient to wake up, this time it was Zack and not Ashura who needed care. This time it was also different as the cause of this current scenario was Reavan himself.

He thus was mentally preparing himself to accept and receive all the hatred and disgust that Zack’s family might express. Little did he know he would be forbidden forever, from meeting or getting help from Zack. It wasn’t because Zack was injured grievously, but because he was the one who requested Zack’s help, and ended up being the same person who led to what Zack had currently become; a person under bed rest for at least the next two weeks.

Doctor had said, “his speech might be slurry for a few days and that the injury was minimal. It was lucky that he survived the blow as concussion was mild.” Which frankly, Reavan was relieved to hear it, he already was going through a lot, if something had happened to his dear friend, there is no guarantee that he would be able to live through it.

The game of guilt and self-infliction of harm is not something that is uncommon in this society. The only thing we have in our hands, is not even our lives but our own bodies, we thus tend to either cherish it or to destroy it based on the emotions that we perceive.

This is what we see as emerging celebrities (when positive) or people who tend to suicide or cause trouble to the society when it takes a negative turn. Such attitude either positive or negative, is never beneficial to people as in some way or the other they tend to get hurt.

The irony is that, we get into that kind of thought process when we are in too much shit that we have no clue of how to come out of it, thus we tend to get pulled towards the ideas that we disregarded when we had a current and neutral mindset, which knew the pros and cons of each action. This issue happens when we lose the ability to do so. This is not an uncommon scenario but is something that everyone undergoes at some point of life, and this is what Reavan was undergoing currently.

Zack woke up, he finds his friend beside him, Reavan immediately rushes towards him with liquid eyes. Zack tries to sit up on his bed who is supported by Reavan. Once he is up, he looks at Reavan, vision unclear, but still, he could tell what Reavan’s face might look like if he could see it clearly.

Zack says, “idzz…ooll- lite bud… afder oll, id wazz ma fall-d”

It’s alright bud, it was my fault, that’s what he wanted to say. But unfortunately, it sounded so bad that Reavan started regretting it more, “it’s my mistake that you are in this situation, I owe you and will do what ever you ask me to”

This is when Zack’s wife enters, she apparently was informed by the nurse that he had gained consciousness. She came rushing towards Zack, pushed aside Reavan as if he was inconspicuous and ghosted by her.

“Ouch!” Reavan says after being tossed aside by her strong shoulders, which is ignored by her. The drama began: as in the wife crying and Zack trying to calm her with his words which further worsened the issue, leading to her getting furious at Reavan and yelling in the hospital, who gets yelled back by the nurse, who ended up being noisier than the wife herself.

All this nuisance might have been funnier had the scenario not been that of the injury of Zack. He then pulls his wife hands in a gesture to make her stop, which strains him. Seeing that he was struggling, she let the issue go. She tells Reavan, “I’m letting it go,” then whispers, “for now...”

Reavan lets Zack rest for a while and decided to go and investigate the Ria’s case further. He had finally calmed down and was glad to have gotten a hint on where to search next.

“Jaish and David huh?” Reavan thought he then arranged a meeting with the husband of Ria’s friend.

He made it happen by utilising that person’s guilt towards the injustice that Reavan got Ria’s death. Reavan assured him that this time, they would meet only as a drinking partner and as nothing else other than that. In fact, Reavan convinced him saying he had no one else to turn to, but needed someone to listen to him. He then manipulated him into accepting the request.

The husband who knew nothing about what the conversation might be on, innocently agreed to it. As obviously, he didn’t know that his call with his wife was overheard.

The very same evening, they meet in a bar, that is lit beautifully in yellow, the bartender looks handsome as if he was ready to propose someone, he oddly didn’t seem to belong in that place.

Well, the truth was, he was Reavan’s subordinate who was just present as a witness to hear all the conversation that was just about to happen, and to also replace the drink that Reavan ordered, to a non-alcoholic one.

The conversation began with a partially pretending and yet truthful confession that Reavan makes after five rounds of drinks, “she left me just like that and I wonder why do I even exist, now that she is gone. I don’t find any purpose of living anymore, didn’t think that I had hurt her to an extent that she decided to kill herself.”

The husband replied, “no, no, don’t think of it that way, as far as I remember, and since my wife was also involved in that incident, Ria had accidentally slipped and fallen. You couldn’t have done anything if it was fate.”

Two more rounds of drinks and the husband loses his chill.

Reavan begins, “Ohh! Ria, you wretched girl, I suffer your loss, am I satisfying your desire to make me struggle? Couldn’t you have taken me with you? I’m all alone now, unlike my friend here who has a wife he run to.”

The husband getting touchy with Reavan, “brother, don’t bother, you should feel happy that you are alone, these women are dumb and end up in trouble without requiring anyone to even bring the same, they bring trouble to their self. You know what I mean?” “No”

The husband explains, “Wait, I will give you an example. There was this time when people were bothering my wife about the case of her friend’s death, what was her name again? Dia, Raya or something, never mind. That woman’s death was no way due to my wife, but I was a partial culprit that I have to agree.”

“yes, I know. Jaish ordered you.” Reavan said, knowing that he was not completely conscious.

The husband, jumps on his seat upon hearing Jaish’s name. “Yes! Yes, so you are one of his men? Did he send you to save me like he did last time?”

“Yes yes, but sir has just told me to fulfil your needs, he hasn’t ordered me to do anything as such.” Reavan decided upon playing along.

“Well, I just wanted protection for my wife and myself from that investigator who has been bothering us”

“isn’t that me?” Reavan pretends to be truthful to gain his trust.

“Oohhh! Ya, ya. Well played by Jaish sir, so you are no longer a threat to my family?” he giggles, which looks awkward for a grown man like him.

“No, I never was,” Reavan responds, he kinda tries his luck on the next question, “So, how is Jaish sir like? And how is he related to you?”

The husband gets too much comfortable, “Ahh, that is because one, I work for his company and two, he is the father of my wife’s friend.”

“nice! So, your rich due to his influence in your family?”

“No, hmm… you could say that. After all, we hit the jackpot last year, I didn’t get involved in a murder but was just distracting my wife for which I got paid-”

“Interesting job!” Reavan comments to cheer him with his fist clenched tight, holding back his emotions.

“-No, I am not happy about it, later I got to know that a girl had died because of that call. I couldn’t turn myself in into the police custody as I was scared. Scared of being killed, scared of being alone, scared of having to lose my family to Jaish.”

“why, does Jaish have a big army of underdogs?”

“No, but you don’t know how much power he possesses. If he wanted to, he could burn your house this instant!”

“Why would he do that to me, I was never in his bad side” Reavan said ever so offended. But thinking, as if he knows me to begin with.

The husband replies, “not you brother, but your wife, he held a grudge against your wife, he wanted her dead not because of you, but because of his daughter.”

Reavan is stunned, “What?!”

BANG, the husband’s head slams on the table after he finishes his fifteenth drink.

Reavan got up, told his subordinate (the bar tender) to drop him off at his place, he sends him with commands like, “if wife asks where he had been and whom he was with, tell her the place but inform her that you found him alone in the bar taking to himself, he fainted and that’s when you decided upon helping him as he looked like a decent man” the junior nods. “Also, tell her that he hadn’t paid for his drinks and get her to pay for in with her card.” “yes sir” the subordinate exits, Reavan drives back home with multiple thoughts running through his mind.

***********

Apparently, Jaish was the father of Ria's arch enemy who wanted to murder her, though maybe not in a way that Aron's people ended up doing it but in a way that let out no sound or trace that so and so person even existed there. Basically, they all (as in cobra gang and Jaish’s gang) had been waiting for an opportunity to isolate her, they succeeded in doing so, but ended up killing her unprofessionally.

Ria's enemy was her own school mate who had also started her new business. But since her father was an entrepreneur himself, he tried to support his daughter and didn't want her to fail in any manner no matter what. The daughter was a pampered child who never knew what losing meant, she hence hated to lose in anything and was highly susceptible and mental breakdown if she lost to someone. He thus went to an extent that he decided to eliminate his daughter's competition so that she attains all that she wants. He wanted to support Cobra gang as they had finished the job that he wanted to do, thus as a matter of respect between the gangs, and since he wanted to combine forces, he silenced the witnesses with large capitals.

Ultimately, the one affected by it all was Reavan and Ria. Also, probably the cobra gang might also be affected, as catching Jaish would mean gathering information about the crime and who caused it. This was inevitably a miss calculation from the side of the cobras who were currently in the verge of being exposed to Reavan.