The Leader No Longer

Reavan wakes up looking tired. The image of the visages that stare at him as he wakes is initially blurry, which later gets clear and focuses into that which looks like Ashura’s shiny and innocent eyes that depicted love and worry as clear as crystal. Reavan slightly strains to get up, he then says, “Ahh... I am alright now dear.”

But there is no change in Ashura’s expression nor in his twinkling eyes. He then jumps onto Reavan and hugs him, it obviously is painful for Reavan, but more than that, he might have ached had Ashura not been here. Reason being, he needn’t bother about Aron’s letter about looking out for Ashura and also because he loved him and wanted to see him.

Once Ashura knew for certain that Reavan was alright, he started bothering him about why he had been so careless. Reavan then briefed him the whole incident. He also showed him the letter and wondered out loud, “All that I don’t understand is why does he take interest in you?”

Ashura shocked at the sudden turn of event says, “He is my brother.”

Reavan freaks out, “What?!” His stitches hurt; he presses it with his hands as the pain slowly recedes. Ashura explains, “I got to know this when we spoke the other day, as the whispers told me so. I couldn’t convey the same to you as I had to know for certain. I then cross checked with my mother, who apparently wasn’t my own-

-the other day, she cried out confessing the truth and that she had broken her promise to my biological mother of not letting it out.”

Reavan wondered, May be that’s why she seemed scared and at the same time worried when Ashura was alone and overthinking, I guess she finally realised that there was no other way out of it but to confess to him when he asks about it.

Reavan know the rest of the story, “you then looked up your mother, might have found a news paper clipping about the fire accident etcetera, then you looked up at the funeral record to find out who did the same, further leading you to Aron”

Ashura is impressed, “How did you-! Wait, Aron had told you about all of it.”

Reavan, though not sure if he should be proud of it, smiles and agrees, “Yep!”

“So does that mean Aron knows that I exist?” Ashura asks with too much excitement.

Reavan not sure about the same says, “I don’t know, but as far as I know, he didn’t know it back then as had he known his first goal might have been to search for you. Looks like Maya did a good job in protecting and hiding you from the eyes of media and other enemies of your biological father. But sad for Aron, he had to face them all alone, he could have used some help.”

“I am here now, I would go to any extent to stop him from his misdoings, please help us out” Ashura is filled with upsurging will power and rage towards all that his brother had undergone.

Reavan keeps his calm and says, “No, you help us, I too want to bring back my friend to what he used to be…”

The door to Reavan’s room suddenly opens, a guy bandaged at head enters, he shouts as he does so, “Reavan!! Are you alright? You aren’t hurt much right? You did you leave me out of the investigation?!”

Knowing who had come, pretending to ignore, Reavan looks towards the opposite side and replies, “Zack, don’t you know that your wife had forbidden you from meeting me?”

Zack replies, “Who cares, I am here for my frie-” He then looks down to find a kid sitting near Reavan. He whispers into Reavan’s ears, “Is he your son from your first crush in school?!”

Reavan glares at him, “shut up! And no, he is not. Also, I didn’t have a relationship when I was in School. He is Ashura, a prodigy who lives in my neighbourhood, we recently found out that he is the brother of Aron”

Zack’s mood changes from being stupid to that of a serious one, “Interesting, now that we know the rest of the information about him, can we start tracing him out like we used to earlier?”

Reavan replies, “no need, he himself has said that his next target is Ashura, all we have to do is wait for him to try to meet up”

Zack ready for action says, “yes, then what are we waiting for?”

“No, I don’t approve this decision, I don’t want to lose Ashura if anything goes wrong. I am not going to make the same mistake twice, no is a no!” Reavan seemed angry.

Zack then asks, “So you tell me what do we do? If he knows we are waiting to catch him, which I certainly know he does, he will not come at all, or will direct and deviate us elsewhere so that he gets his time with Ashura.”

Reavan so sure, says, “No, I won’t let that happen, I have decided to keep Ashura at my vicinity all the time, so that he can help me with catching him and at the same time I can always be there to protect him. By the way, I am very sure that he wont shoot at us, as according to his letter, he is still a cop with clean records, but little does our organisation know. They might end up shooting him before we even get to converse with Aron. Anyway, the whole system is messed up, we have to think of a method to retrieve him back unscathed. This would require us to work alone without the help of the force.”

Zack reconfirming, “you do know its consequences if found out right?”

Reavan replies with a slow nod.

Zack claps his hand and says, “Yes! Let us begin.” As Ashura and Reavan firmly reply with a “Yes”

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

A week later, In the other side of the town, Vermin rings up Aron, “Boss, Joshua escaped the factory!”

Aron is shocked, “didn’t I tell you it’s not going to end well if you lose him again?! Anyway, did you trace him? Where is he? What happened before you lost him, didn’t you guys check out if he was properly chained?”

“I assure you we did boss, but somehow he seems to have escaped”

“How else can he escape, you idiots! Let me know where I can meet you all and trace him too” Aron seems really frustrated

“The last location that he was spotted was half an hour ago, by the main road leading to our store room” faithful Vermin never leaves is hope on the leader.

“Boss! A change in pla- rrrr” Vermin’s call goes static and Aron can’t hear anything from his phone, he hangs up the call, and tries calling him again as his call in not reachable since the phone is switched off.

Aron immediately takes his car and rushes to his factory.

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

Apparently, the only faithful underling and Aron’s right hand was hit with a baseball bat on his head. His phone had smashed to the ground, and he was then tied up to a chair by the factory. He was the only faithful person as others had a change of mind ever since they had lost all of their companions to the fight at Aron’s palace, they were certain that everyone was Aron’s toy and could be disposed off if he wanted to. In fact, Aron’s true motive was the same, wash out all the criminals of other gangs and then start clearing out his own by letting them get caught or killed by the cops. His initial plan of action had thus begun by letting the cops see a glimpse of the gang’s presence by haphazardly acting in case of Lizzy’s death.

Now that his underlings under command of Joshua, the fifteen-year-old girl’s father, knew the truth they all turned against Aron and decided to ambush him into coming to the factory, all except Vermin.

Vermin waited for an opportunity, when people under watch were limited, he broke through the ligature and fought them all.

He was severely injured but he decided to inform his boss about the change of events. He searches for a mobile in an unconscious person’s pocket. He then calls Aron, and informs him regarding the change of events, as he asks his boss his final question, “can you please take care of my family with capital support?” BANG! he dies being shot by Joshua in his heart without waiting for the reply to his question…

“YES!!! YESS I WILL!!!” Aron shouts from the other side out the phone.

Too late…...

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

Aron stops his car, returns back to a shady place which offered his safety and helped him escape form the cops’ eyes. His heart was racing and so was his mind, so uncertain upon the sudden turn of events into something he didn’t anticipate as he had overlooked Joshua going on a rampage.

This wasn’t the first time but this time he could show them all the proof of what he had said earlier to his crew mates.

It turns out that Joshua wanted revenge for his dead daughter, he had this notion that her death was because of Aron, as he was the one who didn’t let him see his daughter one last time, but the truth was, Aron never denied his visit to his family, Joshua chose to isolate himself and behaved like a madman leading to Aron’s distrust over him with the thought that he might reveal everything about his gang to his family and others. Also, Joshua never asked him if he could visit them.

So, Aron closed his eyes and wondered what can be done now, that this had happened. He remembered his letter to Reavan, never did he imagine that it would turn out this way, but all that was left for him to do was contact Ashura, and surrender to Reavan.

He decided that his end was near as he had nowhere else to go, he might have a chance of survival too if he met up with Reavan. But to do so, he has to escape from the cops, as well as his established Cobras who were equipped with greater technologies to figure out where the person was. He threw his cell phone on to a nearby river after wrapping it up nicely with a plastic bag, he was against pollution and stuff but when his life was at stake, he would rather choose his life than the other.

It may or may not act as a diversion, if at all they decide to follow his phone. He thus came to a conclusion, “I have to meet Ashura, I feel that I might get my answers if I do so….”