Oh, my God! Who has done this?” Mr Taha was shocked.

“We have no idea, but it would be someone who is not satisfied with the happiness of this family.”

“What do you mean happiness? This family has hardly ever seen any happiness since the demise of Tariq Yasar. Anyways, I’m hanging up now, as I have to look into this illegally captured land’s matter.”

Mr Taha hung up the phone.

Hours later, during the night, Hannan and Maqsood were walking towards Rizwan’s house. It was quite dark outside. Maqsood asked him while walking,

“Are you sure you want to do this?”

“I’m just giving him an invitation. I’ll ask him to have sword against sword or gun against gun battle with me. Any one among us will survive. The survivor will be the last descendant of this family.”

“Look,” Maqsood said to him pointing his finger towards the gate.

Hannan then, saw his brother Rizwan standing outside the house. Hannan asked for a suggestion,

“Should I go and talk to him face to face?”

“Right now?”

“Yes, why not?”

That moment, they heard hooting of a bird. Hannan paid attention and saw that two owls just came out of a bush and crossed Rizwan. Rizwan was looking at the owls. Surprisingly, few more owls came over and flew above Rizwan. Rizwan was surprised seeing so many owls together.

“Oh, my God!” Hannan gasped realising something.

“What is it?” Maqsood asked.

“The owls, don’t you see it?”

“Yeah,” Maqsood understood what Hannan meant.

After watching the owls for a while, Maqsood asked,

“The prophecy, right?”

“Exactly, that is what I am talking about.”

“So, what should we do now?”

“I don’t know, but we do know for sure that he is the dishonest person mentioned in the prophecy.”

“Yes, he is that liar. But what exactly is he lying about?”

“Our father’s murder,” Hannan said firmly. “He is hiding the truth. I know, he is the one who is responsible.”

They got distracted by the sound of the owls as there were many flying above the spot where Rizwan was standing.

They saw Rizwan making his way back inside the house.

“He is gone,” Maqsood commented.

“He can’t go anywhere. He is a criminal, he has to pay for his sins. I will reveal this incident before everyone.”

“What incident?” Maqsood asked to clarify his confusion.

“The owls, what we just witnessed.”

“So, you mean we are not waging that battle against him?”

Hannan stopped and considered the idea once again. He had two options ahead of himself, he could either tell everyone about what he just saw regarding the owls or he could simply wage a gun against him. He said out his choice,

“I have decided that I will not involve anyone. I will simply wage a war against him. I have written down a letter. I want you to go and hand it over to him.”

Hannan took out the piece of paper and gave it to him. Maqsood walked towards the house and rang the bell.

v v v

Next morning, Rizwan who was too upset made a call to Mr Taha. As Mr Taha answered the call, Rizwan said immediately,

“Uncle Taha, I saw some owls yesterday.”

“Sorry, what are you saying?”

“I saw owls. You know, I am not lying about anything. I swear, I am not lying about anything, and yet I saw those owls.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it. I have sorted out that problem.”

“What do you mean?” Rizwan asked furiously as he was not expecting this reaction.

“I have found something and I’m sure, you’ll be delighted to hear about it.”

“What is it?”

“Your father’s diary, the prophecies are written in his original handwriting.”

“Oh, my God! Really?”

“Yes, and I want you to come and collect it.”

“See, the thing is,” Rizwan replied getting disheartened once again, “I can’t. Hannan has called me today to a place. I received a letter from him yesterday. He wants me to fight against him, gun against gun or sword against sword.”

“I was expecting this sooner or later.”

“What?”

“I’m sorry, but I had seen this coming. I should have told you earlier. But you know what, you don’t have to worry about it. I’ll come with you and trust me, no one will die in this battle. You just go and fight for your defense.”

“Isn’t there any way, we can call this off?”

“Trust me, there won’t be any harm. We have to go there and do whatever he is asking. The truth regarding who killed Sidra might reveal today.”

Rizwan’s eyes opened wide and he was provoked now, he answered,

“Alright, I’ll go there and fight against him to prove my innocence.”

Two hours later, at an empty parking lot, Hannan was walking with Sartaj and Maqsood. Sartaj was holding a file. Hannan said to him,

“Don’t drop anything.”

Maqsood’s phone began to ring. Hannan asked him getting surprised,

“You have a cell phone?”

“This is not my phone. This is my brother’s. I was expecting a call today, that’s why I brought it.”

“Whose call were you expecting?”

“The doctor, who has examined the bottle.”

“Oh, I see.”

That very moment, Rizwan along with Mr Taha came to the same place. He was holding a sword in his hand.

“Well, look who’s here,” Hannan said looking at them.

Hannan took out his gun and exclaimed,

“Mr Taha, please leave. This is between me and Rizwan.”

Rizwan took out his sword and walked towards him. Hannan aimed his gun towards Rizwan and said,

“Alright, stay back.”

Rizwan kept on coming towards him until, Hannan fired the gun. Rizwan, however, dodged the bullet and rushed towards him.

As Rizwan got closer, he threw the sword aside and jumped over Hannan making him fall backwards. The gun dropped from his hand as well. Rizwan started hitting Hannan with his clenched fist but Hannan fought back pushing him aside. Hannan stood up and kicked Rizwan on his chest several times. Rizwan managed to stand up and fight back by knocking Hannan down with his leg. Hannan fell backwards but was still conscious.

Maqsood, who had missed the previous call, answered the phone as it began to ring for the second time,

“Hello?”

“Sir,” the doctor said from the other line, “I have examined the bottle in detail. I can give you the details but the end result is that the bottle had no poison at all. It had nothing that could harm a person who was suffering from Asthma.”

“Oh, my God!” Maqsood uttered.

They both were fighting badly, Rizwan’s face was severely injured from and Hannan was injured on the elbows. Mr Taha slowly made his way towards Sartaj and crossed both of them fighting, he immediately snatched the file from Sartaj and asked him,

“What is this?”

“I don’t know, Hannan gave it to me.”

Mr Taha looked at Hannan who was on the ground with suspicion and he then, opened the file. He read the documents for a minute and commented,

“I knew it. I knew, what was going on.”

“What do you mean?” Sartaj asked him.

“You guys have no idea, what Hannan is putting you into. This document was stolen. These are the papers of ownership that claim a charitable organisation owns the land that once belonged to Tariq Yasar.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes, and now he is planning to take over the land,” Mr Taha said. “If you remember the prophecies then, you must know that a two faced person was supposed to capture this land illegally.”

“Yes, I know.”

That moment, Maqsood interrupted and said to Sartaj,

“I have just received a call from the doctor. He had sent the bottle to the lab and he has stated that the bottle never had anything poisonous.”

Sartaj wasn’t much surprised as he heard this. He was expecting this, since he had just discovered the ugly truth about Hannan. The two brothers were still fighting, until Rizwan held Hannan tightly and asked him,

“Why did you kill my wife?”

“I had nothing against your wife. I never sent Khubaib to do that. But you murdered our father. I know that you are lying. I saw you yesterday. The owls were flying around you at night.”

“How do you know the prophecies?” Rizwan asked him cunningly. “This means, that you were the one who stole that paper through Khubaib and he was working for you all along.”

Hannan pushed him and let himself free from him. As the two were standing face to face, Hannan said out loud,

“I had nothing to do with Sidra. I swear, I had nothing against her.”

Rizwan shut his eyes as he was not willing to accept this fact. Seeing the sword nearby, Hannan picked it up and said,

“I haven’t killed anyone in my life. But what you have done is still not justified.”

“Everything is justified now,” Sartaj said from behind.

Hannan turned and looked at him. Sartaj continued speaking against him,

“We have discovered the truth, it was you since the beginning who was not doing justice.”

“What are you talking about Sartaj?”

“The bottle, it has been examined thoroughly; there are no signs or traces of poison. This proves that Rizwan has not poisoned your father.”

Hannan was quite shocked as he learnt this. Sartaj continued,

“And secondly, this file, this document did not belong to you. It belonged to your father once but he had donated it to a charitable organisation. You have captured it illegally.”

“I have not captured it,” Hannan replied raising his voice with anger.

“That’s enough Hannan,” Mr Taha said as he joined Sartaj.

Hannan looked at him with astonishment then he said,

“Now I get it, you all are involved in this conspiracy. You are not sincere with Tariq Yasar’s blood.”

“You are not his blood,” Mr Taha declared. “Everybody knows it, but you have proved to be a criminal today. Therefore, as a head of the family, if not the head then, as the eldest person I exile you from this family. The reason is your illegal seize on your father’s land.”

Maqsood stepped ahead and said bravely,

“We are giving you one day, leave this city or one of us might kill you.”

Hannan was extremely shocked hearing everyone talk like this and then said,

“Fine, you guys do what you like. But trust me, one day I will be back and I’ll have my revenge.”

Saying this Hannan turned and walked away. He left the parking lot.

That moment, both the servants turned towards Rizwan who was bleeding. Sartaj said to him,

“We are extremely sorry, we had no idea about how he would fool us. Please forgive us sir.”

“You don’t have to apologise,” Rizwan answered. “I have already forgiven you.”

Rizwan also left the spot as he said this. Mr Taha came forward and said to both the servants,

“He truly is a kind person, just like his father said.”

“But what about the prophecy of owls then,” Maqsood asked Mr Taha.

“That is exactly what I am talking about. I had acquired Tariq Yasar’s diary yesterday. According to that diary, it wasn’t the lying person who would see owls but it was for the kind person, who would see the owls.”

“Oh, I see,” Sartaj commented. “But, how did you come across the word lying initially?”

“It was that old man’s speech. I couldn’t hear him properly, that’s what created the confusion.”

“Yes, that’s understandable. So, where is the diary?”

One hour later, Rizwan was at his home with a bandage on his forehead. He was quite happy and relieved as he was holding his father’s diary. He wondered, while walking and remembering the past few days of his life,

I was never ill intentioned. My purpose was never to create divisions among the family and now everyone knows it. I had to go through a really dark phase of painful mischief in order to prove my honesty. I lost my wife, I lost my brother but I gained my father’s diary. However, I don’t think that the mischief has ended for forever, it has only faded temporarily. In the meantime, I can read all the prophecies mentioned by my father.

He sat on the sofa, opened the diary and began reading. •