-FAISAL-
-11:00 pm
"Where are the other suppliers?" I ask Victor.
"A few denied to come." He replies.
My eyebrow raised in skepticism. "A few? List them." I order, as I walked, my feet struck the floor with a deliberate, measured pace. Each step carefully considered. My shoulders slightly hunched, my head bowed forward.
"It's Hamid." Victor handed me a piece of paper. The faintest furrow creased my brow, a testament to my focus.
"Bring him here. If acts arrogant, you're permit to be forceful" I say.
I'm a man consumed by my task. Ordering and filing the chaos of the world into neat, manageable compartments. I walk inside the facilities. A chaotic work space.
The pharmaceutical manufacturing facility. I stand with my chest puffed. Hearing the
humming with the quiet efficiency of precision machinery. Rows of stainless steel tanks, gleaming pipes, and laboratory equipment lined the spotless floors, while technicians in crisp white coats and hairnets moved with deliberate purpose. All these men, and one job. How much time does it take? I'm standing in the production area, where automated systems mixed and blended active ingredients with excipients, the resulting powders or liquids then filled into capsules, tablets, or vials with precise. I don't usually visit the factory, Victor is in charge of it. But today I felt like taking a walk outside. Sam always wanted to come here, I never let him. He's a child after all. I don't drag him much. He's learning step by step. He'll learn everything in time. Not like his father, who couldn't even get a single whiff of judgement out of me. He had to be the hero.
It got him nowhere, only six feet under.
I sit in the little office that is here, all glass room.
Victor forcefully drags Hamid by his collars, and pushed him infront of me, making him kneel down.
"Hamid." I sigh.
"Sir—sir I didn't mean to do anything."
"You did." I take out my gun from the front drawer.
"I didn't deny, I just wanted a break."
"A break? From?"
"He's lying sir." Victor commended. "He decided to supply for Erdoğan."
"Is that so." I nonchalantly take out a tissue and begin wiping the tip of my gun.
"No, that is false. I never did." Hamid cries.
"Victor?" I only look at Victor.
"He did sir. He's been supplying them for a week now. Thus why he wasn't involved in ours any longer." Victor tells me.
"Victor what do we do with traitors?" I ask, stroking my chin with my gun.
Victor stood there, said nothing.
"Sir, please forgive me. I won't ever go to Erdoğan. Please." Hamid begs.
"Ah so you did went there?" I ask.
"What—"
A loud crack split the air. My bullet went perfectly through the middle of his forehead. His blood splashes out, ruining my expensive carpet.
"Take him out." I crossed my legs. We don't play witn traitors. I stretch out and stood up.
The world is a nasty place to be, mankind is even worse. The only correct method to fit in this world is to be the nasty it produces. It's either be the terrible mole, or act to not follow the mole when in reality its all everyone does. And I'd rather be the nasty mole than to be the one who pretends not to see the agnony of this world.
Because I see it.
I had to see its inner most disturbing, harsh and vindictive parts of it. And so I became the one who provides nasties instead of the one who follows it.
I order, I don't chase. Even if horrible, I'm the one who gets to play around, I don't get played with.
Victor's still standing over my head. I raise my brow. "I told you something to do, didn't I? Or is there something else?" I say.
"Sir"
I face him.
"It's about Sam."
I paused, and sighed heavily.
"Hmm"
I have a feeling its time.
"What about him?" I ask.
I might know what.
It took a minute for him to say it.
"He knows."
My jaw clenched.
Ah that.
"You win Sarfaraz." I tell my old friend, who's standing infront of me.
"I told you he'd know under ten years faz"
"Our debate isn't over yet" I say.
"Soon it will friend"
"You've always did believed in fate and how it can be unfortunate from time to time" I say.
"I still do"
"Its sad, my company needed him. I suppose no more."
"Sir? Mr Faisal?" Victor drew me out of it. "Uhm?" I looked at him.
"Who are you doing to?" Victor asks as his gaze widens.
I point at Sarfaraz but he went away. "I uhm. No one" I bottoned my coat.
I knew what I was playing with. I poured this upon me, I saw it coming.
It had happen sooner or later.
"Nothing to worry of, just another end" I say calmly.
"He's only twenty seven sir." Victor said to which my hands clenched. "He had a choice and he chose to come to me." I say. "Tell me everything back at the mansion." I Inform Victor as I caressed my coat and left.
-1992.
"I've decided"
Sarfaraz and I stood at a large, wooden workbench, surrounded by piles of rough-hewn lumber and scattered tools.
"Decided what?" Sarfaraz wore a worn leather apron over his flannel shirt.
"Faraz I'm going to snatch away this entire town, and everyone will be right under the palm of my hand, in my fist, under my rules and conditions, under my power" I tell Sarfaraz.
Together, we carefully assembled the intricate components of a clockwork mechanism.
"These sort of ideas only look good in fantasy books Faz, don't waste your energy on it" he laughed, taking me not serious, taking me lightly, as if I'm joking.. his large hands moved deftly, his fingers stained with machine oil, as he fitted a delicate gear into place
"I'm not joking around friend." I say.
"Sure you're not" He laughed again.
"I'm serious.. he's the one who humiliated my father" I get serious, meanwhile I scrutinized the blueprints spread out before them, his brow furrowed as I felt insulted.
Sarfaraz paused, released the plug he was cleaning. "I'm so sorry Faz, I didn't know"
The sounds of the factory provided a constant background hum.
"You weren't suppose to know, so now I will murder him" I chuckled. The rumble of the steam engine, the clang of hammering, humming in the back.
"Faisal that's not something to joke about.." His face turned rotten.
As the afternoon sun began to set, casting a warm orange glow through the grimy factory windows, The clockwork mechanism, a intricate dance of gears and levers, ticked away with smooth precision.
"You still think I'm joking" my taunting laughter cut into aggression, as I kicked the furniture near me.
"Calm down, you don't need to act impulsive.." He's the one mad?
"Everything he has is because of me, I did that, I earned all that, the shrewd business deals, and the bold risks that culminated in the grand empire he so comfortably inhabits! I made that empire! The lavish lifestyle he enjoys, the rarefied air he breathes, and the very throne he sits upon, behind it all is my work! All I did that was for me, and only myself, I did not toil tirelessly, I did not sacrifice and strive, for his benefit. Oh no. I did it all for myself!" I yelled.
"Pride is outrageous Faisal"
"Then let it be, excuse your interfere"
"What If I don't?"
"Then I'd do what I did to everyone."
"And What might that be?" Faraz asks.
I said nothing.
"What did you do?" He asks again.
"I'll choose myself over anyone Sarfaraz you know that very clearly."
"Were you behind that incident.."
"Don't give me such look, I did what pleased me" I say.
"What is this Faisal? Why are you ruining your perfectly set life?"
"You want this life, I never did! I was always bound to take my father's vengeance, and that's what I'll do."
"I won't let you"
"Try me"
"Anger is bad luck" he says.
"All I have left is ANGER!" I shouted. "So if that makes me cursed, then I guess I am unfortunate" I turn void.
I was about to thundered across the place when he asked. "Is farukh really your child Faz?"
I face him.
"Did she ever lie to you" He asks.
I stood still.
"I spent the night with her before you did." He said.
"If he isn't my child then.." My eyes widened.
"I impregnated her. I know because I did.." He tells me.
"The engagement is already broken" I said.
"How long did she know me? Approximately Two years? It matters not. You've known me since we were young, Faisal. You've been my friend since preschool. How could you do this to me?"
"It was never personal, she's our leader's daughter and I needed every possible way to get to him, she used me, I used her, equal as that" I say.
"What about me? You both used me.."
"Don't let it get to your heart faraz, you wouldn't understand, it's not like your father was humiliated infront of the entire town to point fingers at." I say.
"What our leader did wasn't my responsibility, I don't deserve any of this!"
"You still proposed his daughter! Didn't you?"
"I loved her"
"Love" I said. "You love her.." I turned my face away.
"Where are you going?"
I didn't listen.
"Faisal!"
I went to the cage I made, where I kept Mr Elham.
Ever since that fateful betrayal, my retribution against Sarfaraz was visualised. The irony is exquisite, the very man who sought to destroy me, I decided that day I'd cultivate his own sons to embody the very essence of the individual he once reviled—myself.
. . . .
"Is that so." I spun my chair around. "How did he unearth?"
"Unconfirmed reason sir, but he's ranging. You have to stay safe, he's furious, and he can do anything to you." Victor informs me.
I smirk.
"I have to stay safe? You're suggesting, I should hide from a child eh?" I scoff.
"I didn't intend for it to sound like that." Victor clears his throat.
"I'm the one who trained him. I know every move he can possibly plan, I can see it all before he even does anything. He's my man. My pawn. I made him. He doesn't get to have the privilege to make the next move. I do." I say.
"What may that move be sir?"
"He won't kill me." I sigh.
"That's a strong assumption sir. Based on how I found him. He won't stand still untill he kills you."
"Mera pala hua janwar hai woh Victor. Mera koon nahi karega."
"Either that sir or.. uhm worse"
"I've seen worse, I've been worse. Let's see what that child can do." I smirk.
Even I'm surprised how I'm not surprised. This day had to come with the consequences.
I let him in my mansion, and I fed him.
It was well till it lasted I suppose.
A hint of suppressed hurt touched my heart.
Every fine moment must come to an end at last.
This is his end.
Saddening he's just a child but everyone's end is bound to come one day.
This is his—or parhaps ours.
An end to our relationship.
-SAM-
-12:00 pm.
The car door creaked open, and I slowly unfolded myself from the driver's seat. I winced, my rugged face contorted in pain, as I put weight on my battered legs. "God forbid my ill fate for tonight" I mutter, my forehead wounded from the accident, my legs shaking, not because I have gotten weak but because disgust is all I can feel. My broad shoulders sagged, and my chest heaved with labored breathing for all those I lost.
This is it..
I made it here..
But at what fucking cost? with a grunt, I slammed the car door shut, the sound echoing through the desolate night. I took a step forward, I'm stiff as if every step is a battle against his own battered body. I can no longer sense my presence, all I feel is as if I'm a mirrored version of Faisal, and that's making me want to fucking rip my own skin out of my body and gasoline my very own existence.
It began with fire—it'll end with fire..
My worn jacket torn and bloodied, I stumbled out of the dark alleyway and into the faint moonlight. A faint grimace twisted my rugged features as I clutched my side, where a crimson stain spread slowly across my shirt. My feet stomping when I see my coworkers, several of them, standing, their faces etched with concern and caution as they stepped forward to block my path. "Hey, man, you shouldn't be moving," one of them urged, hands outstretched in restraint.
With a guttural growl I had on my face, I shove him aside, all the would-be helpers stared.
And even though my legs trembled beneath me, I still pressed on, driven by a stubborn act of anger.
I walked to the gate all by myself, I guess they're ordered not to harm me yet, ah nostalgia, just like on the first day.
"Step aside." I say firmly. I stood infront of the main gate.
"We're ordered to not let you in Sam." They said in harmony.
"I won't repeat myself. Move." I say with a straight face, firm body posture. I'm not here to joke.
They looked at each other.
"Don't think I will spare your life." I grunt.
"Sam—"
"if the chances are more for me having to kill you. I won't hesitate. so step aside." I warn them.
Those two guards did as I said, moving aside but one bastard yelled.
"We're not scared of you Sam. Mr Faisal doesn't want to see you. Took him a while but yeah, go home—"
Bang.
My bullet went through his shoulder.
He covered the wound with his other hand. "Are you fucking out of your mind?" He looses his cautious.
"I warned the chances." I shove him aside. He fell down, over the stairs, bleeding.
"Send more men!" The guard I had just spared, ordered in the microphone. Fucking loyal shit. I walk inside, as steady as I could.
"Look I don't want a fuss of having to kill anyone!" I already try to make myself clear but as absurd human beings are, I see one of my old colleague running to me, and as expected everyone is ordered to kill me on sight.
He ran up to me with a knife in his hand to stab me.
What's scarier isn't that he's coming to kill me but that I'm calmer than I thought.
I stood still until he reached me, then I twisted his wrist, pinning him against the wall. My elbow dug into his neck, and I applied more pressure, threatening to escalate the situation. "Is this how you treat your colleagues?" I growl.
"Orders are orders S..sam!" He choked.
"Goddamnit pawns," I mutter.
Just then, another colleague attempted to stab me from behind. But I had already sensed his presence. I ducked down, keeping the man at the wall subdued beneath my elbow, and kicked the other guy in the chest. He stumbles backward, giving me the opening I needed. I swiftly knocked the man at the wall unconscious, striking his head with my gun.
Two more of our men emerged, intent on killing me. The same men we used to share laughs with.
I shot one in the shoulder, and the other tried to choke me from behind. I bent down, using his momentum against him, and he tumbled over my back. As he fell, I grasped his wrist, twisting it brutally. His head hit the ground with a sickening thud, and I released my grip. I felt it again, the sensing of another person approaching from behind.
God they won't stop coming till they get what they want.
I delivered a swift side kick without turning around. My boot connected with a loud thud, and I pinned him against the wall behind him. He grew unconscious and I let him fall down.
"Don't make me do this." I say seriously. "let me get to Faisal and no one gets hurt, its a win win." I raise my arms up.
"Are you kidding me?" A voice said, seemingly out of nowhere.
"I've been dying to have this moment," He replies, still out of sight.
"Hassan?" I asked, trying to locate him.
"Ah, sharp," he says, finally stepping into view.
"We were poker partners, what the fuck, dude?" I exclaimed.
"Tables have turned, Sam. It's not my fault you're on the other side," Hassan sneers.
"Once a coward, always a coward," I spat.
"Son of a bitch!" Hassan launched himself at me, slamming me against the wall. I stabbed him in the stomach, and he crumpled to the ground, blood smearing my hands.
"Fuck," I muttered, panting. "Nimra!" I yell.
Another man instead of Nimra charged towards me, knife in hand. I struck his wrist, seized the knife, and kicked him in the stomach. He tumbles over a show table.
My footsteps were steady. I have no expression on my face—I feel nothing. Just plain voidness.
Silent void creating inside me which drove me to strike the man who attacked me from behind. I spun around, rolling his arm around my head and I cut off his arm with the knife I had in my hand, pushing him back, he screamed and fell over. "Get out of here!" I ordered him and he woundedly ran away.
Two more men appeared, armed and hesitant. "Sam, what are you doing?" one asks, his voice shivers.
I turned to them slowly. "Oh, I'm sorry. Did I cause a fuss?" I felt empty, so void, my own voice roamed around my heart in a rattling sound.
"We're ordered to kill you," one of them says.
I clenched my hand in a fist, blood dripping down from my fingers. "But do you want to?" I ask, my tone devoid.
When they didn't attack, I restrain myself, containing the terror that threatened to overwhelm me. They don't deserve this, but neither did I.
"Run," I command calmly.
"What?" one of them asks, yet shocked.
"Run, or I'll kill you." I have a rage that's remorseful,
And the scary thing is that its filled with absolute none feeling to the point I'll kill a whole crew without feeling a single whiff of empathy.
Humanity is spilled.
Wehshat is all I feel in me.
I repeat, "Run!"
Their guns clattered to the floor as they fled.
They're gone.
That's all I am—All I'll ever be.. a brute, a monster.
I walked through the corridors, the same corridors I spent my youth in, but now it has a feeling of silence.
The cage is broken Faisal.
I ripped it apart. I'm hideous and I like it.
I like being this powerful over you to make you hide from me fucker.
Emergency alarms blared, and lights flashes as I strode through the hallways. More men rushed past me, but they paused when they saw me.
One yells, "Grab him!"
Two others opened fire.
"Goddamnit" I ducked and sprinted down the hallway, using my elbow to deflect their blows. I punched one in the chin, and he fled, but the other stabbed me in the thigh. I bit back my scream, wincing in pain.
He pushed me behind.
"Asshole." I whimper in pain, when he gained the upper hand, trying to stab my throat, I felt the tip of his knife digging into my throat but I forced him away and severed his throat with his own knife.
"Hold on hold on" I say under my breath, muttering. "Can you hear me?" My voice trembling.
I gasp out of that in a flash, falling back. I had to—or e..else I would've died.
Ah crap.
Hallway was quiet once more, the only sound left was my heavy breathing, his blood on my hands, and his body yanked on the ground.
Once again. A mimic of history. A vengeance so loud, yet quite. What have you done Sam?"
My heart panicked, my sleeves rolled up, clothes dirty, the hallway walls have handprints of blood. Floors have footsteps of mud and shattered blood droplets. Bodies near me have got me on chokehold.
"LOOK AT YOURSELF! what have you done?"
I slowly look down at my clothes. Spluttered in people's blood, I did harm. My hands— shivering, dripping blood, finger by finger, each fingernail becoming aggressive.
My weapon in blood.
My vast in blood.
Blood everywhere!
I never wanted to kill anybody, but if that's what they'll do for Faisal then that's what I'll have to do for myself.
Another body laying near me.
And I feel nothing.
I won't let him be the reason I die because I died the minute I saw who he really was.
The man who ordered them to attack took his step back.
"Order me to do something." I ask.
In a spam of three seconds he took out his gun to shoot me and I with having to defend myself punched his ribcage. A bullet went through his face, startedling me. I blinked in devastation, unable to understand what happened. He coughed blood and fell over my shoulder, I shake him off, the stomped sound of him falling down made the silence weak. I look around to see who shot him.
Two more bodies laying around me, on each side.
The same men I worked with all these years..
Fraud
cheat.
Puppets.
I look up at the Cctv cameras.
I get it now.
I know Faisal is looking through that.
Blood smeared on my face and I wink at the camera as I flick a wrist wave at him with a smug grin on my face.
I feel nothing, none whatsoever.
A rage with silence shivering down my spine.
None.
None reaction, only sublimation.
Subfucklimation.
I Bang opened the door to his office, tore it midway, I kick the table away, the glass on it shatters. Faisal sat still with his chest puffed out, head high. "Sam" his voice is calm. "What are you doing Sam?"
I put my feet up on his desk as I polish my boot. "Nothing much Fas, you?" My shoulders slumped back.
He crossed his legs. "You reek from alcohol"
"Oh yeah? This is your biggest concern?" I take his cigar and lit it up inbetween my two fingers.
"You're my concern." He's cautious, he knows I'm very much capable of ripping his head off of his body. But I won't.
I wouldn't do that. He fed me when no one else did. I would never become a namak-haram.
Doesn't mean I wouldn't hurt him.
"I'm your concern?" I put the cigar in my mouth. "Which part of my entry concerns you?" I laugh, releasing smoke out.
"Let's sit down and talk." He says calmly.
"I wouldn't even fucking spit near you and you're talking about having a conversation with you?" My pupils go deeper and wider, and my eyes narrowed as I lean against the wall.
"A conversation like Father and son." I laugh with pity, that remorsefully echos.
"I put everything at risk, to find out what happend—I shouldn't be surprised. I poured this upon me." I inhale more smoke, as I walk around knocking off his books. "Lame, lame, this one is super lame."
"This is very unethical."
"So tell me, after killing my father did you just happen to have a thought of killing my mother? and then leaving me in that shithole household." I ask in irony.
He has nothing to say.
"Hey" I snapped my fingers, the sound crisp and confident, as if I summond the attention of the entire room. "You look at me when I'm talking, got it asshole?" I lean in close. "Oh sorry I forgot, where are my manners." I mockingly bow to him.
"Mr asshole." I laugh at my own joke. The laugh isn't genuine. It's forced, painful. To piss him off. He remained silent. And I merely in seconds took my gun out. Aiming right at his head.
"Anwser me." I whisper. "Did you had fun doing that?" My tone stayed mockingly.
"I'm not.. I'm not mad, I'm genuinely asking, did you had fun when my mother screamed for her life?" I walk behind his chair. "Or.. or when my father's neck cracked in half." I say. "Not to forget, whilst his body burned in fire." I pace back and forth. "Come to think of it—they both burned, right?" I stroke my chin. "So it's only fair you die in a fire too, you know— to join the family tradition." I stop pacing.
"I promise you Fas." I release a chuckle. "I'll let myself die that way too. We good now? Equal?" I ask raising my brow in pettiness, as the tip of my gun touched the back of his head. The mental felt prickly against his skin.
"You're acting out emotionally." He says.
I laugh at his comment.
But the laugh still isn't genuine.
It's filled with remorse and worse.
"Why shouldn't I? I have valid ass solid reason to act out emotionally sir." I laugh. "One of them include you making me an orphan." I laugh even harder, the laughter didn't stay for long when disgust crept up my spine and I had to ask. "Why.." My voice broke in half.
"Victor" Faisal ordered, and a bunch of his men with bulletproof vast, shotgun prepared in each individual's hand, came inside, and surrounded me all the way around, with their weapons aimed straight at me, in a circle.
I look all over, all around me. My gun still pointed at Faisal's head.
"Do you really need a full force to take a single man down?" I laugh. "Take a step closer to me, and watch how I explode his head." I dig my gun forcefully.
"Drop your weapon Sam." Victor yells.
"You're the one to order around." I say sarcastically.
"Drop it down."
"Fucking traitor." I look at Victor with hatred.
"Put it down!" He yells again.
"Pathetic liar!" My eyes widens.
His pistol cracked, sending a bullet through me.
Victor shot me.
I fell down on my back. My head stubbed against the floor, and every sound echoed, the stub, his bullet and my gun slipping through my fingers, clashing down far from me.
Hatred.
Revenge.
Power..
Everything the world suffers from.
A never ending tale.
A never fulfilled desire.
Hatred..
That's all it'll ever be.
A never seen disease or
A never extinguished fire,
Either way..
That's how our world will always be.