The lights turned on, and Rehan was extremely shocked when he saw the face of the person.

Oh my God! Rehan uttered with his eyes wide open.

This guy was none other than his colleague Kashif.

“You?” Rehan asked.

“Yes, it’s me. I’m also surprised at the coincidence.”

“But how come I didn’t recognise your voice?”

Kashif chuckled. Rehan asked him,

“But wait, aren’t you Abram?”

“Yes, I am Abram, Tahira is my wife and I am the reason why Mujhtaba is missing.”

“But wait, if you were here then who’s working at the firm?”

“Nobody, I was fired just like you were.”

“Oh, dear Lord, so what about…”

“…I know you have a lot of questions in your mind right now,” Kashif interrupted. “But you also need to understand that we are short of time and I need to make a decision regarding your life.”

“You know what? Why don’t you simply shoot me? You killed my child, you made our life miserable, so why are you thinking so much? Why not just simply kill me?”

Kashif smiled and said,

“I got to say, I admire your guts. You have seen me destroying you from the beginning to the end and yet you are bold enough to talk back at me.”

“Yes, I am, because you are a coward.”

“You are trying to provoke me but it won’t happen. These games are not for grown-ups.”

“Okay, what game do you want to play then?”

“A game of questions and answers,” Rehan said.

“At the moment, my mind is filled up with questions, and you expect me to answer your questions?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, and what if I don’t answer you?”

Kashif showed him the handgun.

“Oh…” Rehan taunted, “You think you can scare me with this gun?”

Kashif loaded the gun, when Rehan responded,

“I seriously don’t think that your senses are working.”

“Excuse me?”

“Haven’t you been listening? Aren’t you even looking at me? My hands and my legs are not tied, I can easily wrestle you and run away but I’m not doing anything like that. Don’t you see that I’m not afraid of dying at the moment?”

“I do know that, and my purpose is not to kill you but to scare you.”

“What?”

He shot Rehan on his left ankle with his gun. The bullet pierced through his bones and he was bleeding. Rehan screamed with pain. Kashif smiled and said,

“Have you understood now?”

Rehan held his leg and was in extreme pain. Kashif continued,

“It's not the murder I enjoy, it is this torment that I enjoy.”

“You’re psychotic,” Rehan said angrily.

“It makes sense if you are saying that.”

“What exactly is that you want?”

“…Just answer me clearly,” Kashif said after pausing for a minute.

Rehan looked up at him and paid attention to what he was saying,

“What do the cops know?”

“I don’t know, I haven’t been involved with the cops in this matter.”

Kashif loaded the pistol again and said,

“Every lie will cause you an injury. Now it would be better if you save your time and…”

“…What are you going to do eventually? Kill me.” Rehan interrupted him.

“I don’t think you’ll get to die so easily. I might keep you here and torment you for the rest of your life.”

Rehan was in pain but wasn’t saying anything. Kashif was enjoying his reactions and was anxiously waiting for him to speak. Rehan however did not utter a single word and kept on wasting his time. Kashif finally stood up and asked him,

“Tell me on a serious note now, do you want to stay alive or not?”

Rehan didn’t respond. Kashif asked further,

“How would you like if after killing you, I approach Maria and…”

“…Okay, just listen to me,” Rehan said angrily. “I’ll tell you the truth. The cops know nothing.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m positive, they just know that somebody has murdered the camera guy.”

“Maaz.”

“Who?”

“Maaz, your cameraman.”

“Oh yeah, right,” Rehan responded pretending as if he knew his name.

“You didn’t know that, right?”

Rehan looked down with embarrassment. Kashif teased him,

“Would you look at that? How cold of you to not know his name. Or maybe it’s because you don’t care about anyone but yourself?”

“You know what? Maybe I don’t, but I certainly don’t care about you. So, I might keep on wasting your time here and not tell you anything.”

“Even if I go and harm your wife?”

Rehan got angry that he stood up despite his injury and rushed to attack Kashif. Kashif shot him on his waist this time. The bullet went through his body and splashes of blood came out.

Meanwhile, Maria was standing on the footpath quite tensed. Kevin was standing on the top of the car holding his broken leg with one hand and pistol in the other. Maria asked him,

“What have you done? You have killed these two men.”

“I had to,” Kevin replied as he climbed down the car and stood next to her.

“Is your leg okay?”

“No, but I’m going back. I have to save Rehan.”

“What do you mean you’re going to save him? He must be dead already.”

“It’s never too late, you can always try.”

“Kevin, just stop it. Let's just get the hell out of this place.”

“No, I have to go back. Abram deserves to be punished. This time I have a gun in my hand, I might not be able to save Rehan, but I can definitely kill Abram.”

Back inside the building, Rehan was lying on the ground holding his waist trying to stop the bleeding. He however let the blood flow as he knew that he was about to die.

Kashif reloaded his gun and aimed towards his head and said,

“I killed Mujhtaba a few days back, you’re no different. It is easy for me to plant a murder in a way that it is hard to tell whether it is an accidental death or an intended murder.”

Rehan shut his eyes as he had completely lost the will to live.

“So, you don’t care about your wife anymore?”

Rehan didn’t respond, neither did he move for a second. Kashif heard someone knocking the door of the apartment. He got frightened and slowly walked towards the exit door to see who it was.

As he reached the door, he asked,

“Who is it?”

There was no answer from the other end.

“I’m asking who it is.” Kashif raised his voice.

There was no answer but just a knock on the door. Kashif got provoked so he immediately opened the door and pointed his gun towards the guy who was standing outside. To his surprise, it was Kevin Rollins. He asked,

“What the hell are you doing here?”

Kevin aimed his gun at Kashif. Kashif asked,

“And how did you get past the guards?”

“I can climb through windows, don’t underestimate ordinary civilians.”

Kashif was angry and was thinking about shooting Kevin once and for all but he was reluctant as Kevin also had a gun and thought that a man who could climb a building with a broken leg could easily dodge a bullet.

“What have you done to Rehan?” Kevin broke the silence.

“He is alive.”

“I don’t know if you’re telling the truth or not. I just want you to let me come inside.”

Kashif was really confused so he closed his eyes and thought of shooting him, so he just pressed the trigger. As the gun fired, he opened his eyes and to his surprise Kevin was not there. He looked towards his left and saw Kevin running inside the apartment. He wondered,

How come I didn’t feel him passing by me?

He anyways ran back towards him.

Kevin found Rehan lying on the ground and called him out shaking his body,

“Rehan!”

Rehan opened his eyes in agony. Kevin looked at the blood and commented,

“Oh my God, you’re bleeding.”

“Kevin, I don’t think I’m going to survive, can you promise me to take care of Maria?”

“No, I can’t Rehan, you are going to survive, I’m sure you can make it.”

He picked up Rehan’s body and said to him,

“I have called the cops. They will be here any moment.”

Rehan’s eyes opened and he uttered,

“Oh dear God!”

“You need to escape, I will keep Abram busy.”

“His name is not Abram, he is Kashif, the guy who cost me my job and my child.”

Kevin got brutally shocked as he heard this.

Kashif was listening to their conversation while hiding outside the room. He whispered to himself,

I should have known that the cops would be here. Now I have no other way but to kill the two of them and escape the building.

He reloaded his gun.

Outside the building, the cops had arrived. Kashif’s men took out their guns and knives as they saw them coming.

The police officer announced,

“Drop your weapons and put your hands up.”

The criminals shot them back with their guns. There was a heavy crossfire between the two. Out of four, two of the criminals got shot, and the crossfire kept ongoing.

Back inside the apartment, Kashif after reloading his gun emerged before them and shot more than six times with his gun.

The very next moment, he heard knocking on the door. He realised that it must be police or some backup that Kevin brought with him. He turned and looked back at Kevin who was lying dead on the ground with splashes of blood on his face.

He rushed towards his closet and after opening it, he took out a hand grenade. He held the hand grenade tightly and uttered to himself,

I’ll simply explode this over them, but I have to figure out a way to escape the building so that I won’t die.

Anyways, he turned and slowly walked towards the exit of the apartment.

Quite unexpectedly for him, the police officers broke the apartment’s door and entered inside.

Oh shit! He uttered.

He immediately threw the hand grenade towards them and one of the police officers that luckily went through Kashif’s chest. Kashif fell backwards with his eyes shut.

The grenade bomb exploded and a few seconds later there was nothing left except for fire.

The building’s entire apartment was on fire as there was a minor gas leakage as well that exacerbated the fire.

A crowd gathered downstairs who were shocked to witness the incident.

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

That evening, Maria was sitting with a female doctor at her home. She was silently weeping and the doctor was putting a bandage on her arm and where she was injured. She heard her phone ringing, she answered the call,

“Hello!”

“Hey Maria, turn on the news channels, they are talking about an incident related to your husband.”

She immediately stood up and picked up the television’s remote control and switched on the television. The news channel appeared. Maria paid attention and heard the reporters saying,

“A bomb exploded near Karachi’s highway, the police claim that the ones who died in the blast were two police officers and Kashif, the guy responsible for Mujhtaba’s case. Other than these the two others who died in the explosion were Kevin Rollins and Rehan Riaz.”

The remote control fell off Maria’s hand. She fell on the ground but the female doctor held her. Maria said,

“Deep down inside I was hoping that Rehan would still be alive, but my hope turned out to be a false one.”

She shut her eyes and began weeping. The doctor held her from behind tightly. Maria started crying out loud.

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

For two days Maria kept on crying and hardly ate anything. She spent most of her time sleeping or lying on the bed. However, her grief went on for a week until she pulled herself together and accepted her fate. She realised that she had to move on with her life, therefore she tried to be strong.

One usual morning, while she was in the kitchen, she heard the doorbell. She went to answer the gate. She held the doorknob and opened the door.

to be continued...