Remorse

Crackle! A bolt of lightning strikes a nearby building. A man is startled. “What was that?”, He asks. “Nothing,”, replies his colleague. The frightened man shrugs and immediately continues his work. “Does the boss need this much security?”, he questions. “Desperate times call for desperate measures.”. The two men are minding a gate in front of a grandiose building. It’s almost noon. The midnight darkness maintains an eerie presence. One of them sees a truck approaching the gate. The vehicle is not slowing down, instead, it accelerates.  He orders the driver to stop, however, the tinted windows conceal its operator’s appearance. With no signs of a decrease in speed, both the men run away from the gate. CRASH! The bus rams into the gate, destroying the entire front entrance of the complex.

A few figures emerge from the crashed automobile and begin to shoot everyone in the vicinity. The poor frightened security guard begs for his life, but the anonymous killers show no mercy, finishing him off.  They make their way into the building, killing everyone in their way.

Another masked group is present on an adjacent rooftop. They are attaching silencers to their guns. Being at a higher altitude, they jump. They land on the rooftop of the intended building safely with parachutes. As soon as they land, they start shooting the guards. They then enter the upper levels of the building.

The masked group then throws punctured cans full of sleeping gas, knocking out everyone. The remaining stragglers are killed quietly to avoid detection. They quickly change into the uniforms of the building’s guards.

Meanwhile, the lower layers of the building are filled with heavy gunfire. The other masked group made their way into the building and the lower portion. However, most of them are killed by multiple armed guards. There are various casualties. Many people are killed. The remaining masked members finally reach the penthouse. They see an old man tightly clenching a grenade launcher, surrounded by bodyguards, all armed with military-grade weaponry. “Not so scary now, are you?”, the old man scoffs. The masked individuals freeze and lower their guns, to show him as if they were to surrender.

The old man holds his gun up. He aims at the masked perpetrators. His hand is shaking. “Tsk tsk tsk, all this death and blood, just to get to me, only to be outnumbered- I almost feel sad. But you did try to kill me, it’s only fair I return the favor.”. He spits on the ground. “I wonder who you work for. He must be a real amateur to conduct such a stupid scheme.”. One of his bodyguards turns and holds up a knife to his throat. “Oh, am I now?”, he replies. The other bodyguards hold up their weapons to the old man’s face. He is shocked. The main bodyguard tightens his grip around the knife. He then asks the old man a question, “Give the location of your dealings.”. The old man laughs, “I’ll die before I reveal anything to you.”. The bodyguard stabs the old man’s shoulder. He screams in agony. The guard repeats the question. “ALRIGHT! Alright! the docks on Staten-island!”.  The guard smiles. “See, was that hard?”. “So, you’ll let me off alive?”, begs the frightened old man. The guard chuckles. He slits his throat.

The guard then breaks a window. He connects a zipline to the terrace of another building. He attaches a harness to it. “Any orders sir?”, one of the individuals asks him. “Burn it all,”. Saying this, the main guard escapes while one of the masked people presses a button. In an instant, the entire building collapses in one gigantic explosion. The guard is mesmerized by the destruction. On escaping, He changes into normal clothes and leaves just as the cops arrive, concealed within the normal masses. He takes one last look at his doing and starts laughing.

“Yeah, that hit last year on the Russians was something else.”, says Ivan. “Too bad that family had been caught in the crosshairs,”, replies Liam. “Sir, we’ve just received an update.”, says a man. The atmosphere is full of smoke. It’s almost two in the morning. Four men are sitting around a poker table, in a dim-lit room. The man’s remark pulls Marco out of his deep thoughts and into the present. “Update, which update?”. “Yes Sir, something has just happened to our competition,”.” You mean the Santelli’s?”. “Yes sir, it appears they have died in an explosion”. “An explosion? Died?”, Marco was shocked. “Shouldn’t that be good news?”, snarked Ivan. “Yes, but Stefan couldn’t have died so easily…”. “They’re a rival gang who was just about to overtake us, and now they are gone, you aren’t happy?”, questioned Ivan. “Stefan was almost about to destroy us, and suddenly he dies? Something is not quite right”. “You’re too soft!”. Marco remains quiet for a couple more minutes. Ivan loses his patience. He turns to the bodyguard. “Go to the remaining warehouses of the Santelli’s and burn them to the ground. Swoop up all his buyers. GO!”, Ivan exclaimed. “Yes sir, right away sir.”, the frightened man replies. Marco is appalled at Ivan’s disobedience. He was supposed to give the order. He gazes at Ivan with an emotional amalgamation of shock and annoyance. “Early bird gets the worm.”, Ivan replies with a shrug. Marco sighs.

He stands up and looks at the window. Through it, he glances at the sprawling neon city of New York. “Don’t you ever defy my orders again, do you understand?”, threatens Marco.  Ivan replies, “Once you start making good ones, I won’t.”. Marco, seeming to be offended, turns around. He looks at Ivan with a death stare. “Get out,”, he mutters under his breath. “What?”. “GET OUT!!!”. A mortified Ivan stands up with his hands in the air as if he were to be arrested. He slowly edges out of the room.  Marco sighs and turned to admire the view of the city. New York. What a beautiful city! What a time to be alive. Especially for people in my type of…business. A lone man, with a ruffled face and a glum countenance, sits near the poker table. “You know he’s right,”, he says. “Yes”, Marco replies in a monotone voice, still facing the window.

“You know something?”, replies the man. “What?”. “All these years, no one’s realized it, but You’ve gone soft.”. Astonished by the accusation, Marco questions, “How?”. The man answered, “You’ve always hesitated when it comes to our work. Your pause on giving the orders today was the final nail in the coffin. Your one hesitation could have led to the death of whatever we have built”. “You think I’m a wuss?”. “I don’t think, I know.”. Saying this, the man stands up, wears his coat, and reaches for the door. “I could kill you for accusing me like that,”, Marco exclaims. The man smiles.  “I know you won’t,”. He then opens the door and leaves. Perplexed by the man’s accusation, Marco again looks at the glass window. “What has happened to this city?”, he sighs.

Marco’s phone chimes and he sees a message from his wife. He checks the time. It’s three in the morning. “Dear God is it this late?”. He then reaches for his coat. Wearing his hat, he takes one last look and departs from the room.  He takes the lift down to the lobby, where he briskly walks towards the exit. He gets into his taxi and leaves.

Whilst in his taxi, he rests his head on the window and glances at the neon lights and signboards. It starts to rain. He watches the minuscule raindrops trickling from the window. He then gets lost in his thoughts. A Wuss? Am I a coward? For not caring? For refusing to kill with my own hands? A shemozzle of thoughts occurs in Marco’s mind. He then remembers his childhood. He remembers his youth. All of a sudden, a young child appears in his memories, He is in a corner and petrified. He sees his mother crying and pleading. She is being held at gunpoint; her life is threatened by another man. He is seen holding the gun, vociferously shouting and cursing at her.  He waves the gun around her head, terrifying her. He then proceeds to shoot her in front of the boy. He looks at the boy in anger. That man is none other than the little child’s father.

The boy is scared and sad. He is enraged seeing his mother’s lifeless body, but too afraid to fight back. The police arrive. They shoot the man’s hand, causing the gun to fall to the ground. They arrest the murderer and carry the child away from the crime scene. The last thing the child sees before being taken away is the bloodied gun. Disgusted and shocked by the amount of violence produced by such a small machine, he vows, never to kill someone, or even hold a gun. He promises himself to never become the monster who took away his happy life.  “Mr. Aviano, we’ve reached our destination.”.

To be Continued….

About the Author

Pratyush is a proud student at Wisdom World School. A sincere student of class IX, he took fascination to books, sports, and music at a very early stage and which inculcated in his daily routine. Excelling in Piano grade exams (Trinity College London) and a Red Belt in Karate (Chi Combat System UK), he has been awarded ASA Swimming Stage 5 (UK) and RoboCHAMP Pro Engineer in Robotics. Having received several Head Teacher Awards while schooling in the UK, he has been a consistent performer in his current school in India where he was awarded for his academic excellence in the Annual Prize day. He likes spending hours slumped over a variety of books and which got him to pen down his thoughts in the form of stories as his creative outlet. Imbibing the joys of primary years, he likes playing football and cricket in his pass time.