Remorse – Part 3

In the warehouse, Marco enters a room. There are multiple screens and numerous other people are handling the technology. Ivan is also present. He notices Marco and goes towards him. Marco remarks,” So this is how we are supposed to carry out the operation?”. “Yeah, the team on the ground will be monitored by multiple cameras and drones controlled by the people here.”. “I just hope this works,”. Ivan replies, “It will,”. Marco goes towards one of the screens.

He holds a walkie-talkie in his hand. “Is this thing even on?”. A reply erupts from a nearby speaker. “Loud and clear, sir,”. Many of Marco’s men on the ground had cameras and mics attached to them. This allowed Marco to see and hear everything. Marco questions, “Have you reached the intended target?”. The speaker replies, “Almost reaching the harbor.”. “Better be quick,”. Marco’s men are reaching Staten Island on a boat. Concealed by the night waters, they could easily carry out the operation.  Staten Island is on the horizon. Through one of the cameras, Marco observes various buildings on the island. “Where the Hell is Liam?!”, Marco mutters under his breath. He continues to gaze at the buildings.

Having tracked down Jason Lockley, Liam has now reached his supposed address. He finds and enters Lockley’s apartment. Just before entering the apartment, he reloads his gun. He whispers something under his breath, “Whoever you are, once I find you, we’ll have one hell of a time!”. He ransacks the entire flat. He leaves no stone unturned, however, he finds nothing. Not a single piece of evidence. Whoever was behind this, had already packed up and left. Liam, now frustrated, sits on a couch. He stares at a window. Through the window, Liam sees a small sign down the street. Welcome to Staten Island. He notices a clock hung up on the wall next to him. It’s almost noon. He is closely watching the second hand of the clock; it is about ten seconds to midnight.

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A man radios into Marco’s speaker. “Alright, we are now reaching Staten-Island, estimated time, twelve o clock.”. Marco looks at his watch. “Ten seconds eh,”. Meanwhile, Liam is curiously staring at the clock. Marco begins to count down. “Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one,”. The team has now reached Staten Island. The clock strikes at twelve. The team is now on the harbor. They hear a faint, ringing noise. Almost like an alarm clock. BOOM!! The entire island is on fire. Marco’s eyes open in fear. His facial expressions turned into a bewildered horror. He runs outside the warehouse. In the distance, He sees a hellish looking Staten-Island, burning in flames. Marco starts panting. He is feeling light-headed. He blacks out.

Marco wakes up. His head, still aching. He is in a hospital bed. Ivan is standing beside him. Marco’s wife is also present in the room, sitting on a couch, praying. Ivan seems to be watching the news. There was no channel on the TV that didn’t have a drone shot of a dystopian looking Staten-Island. People were questioning what had happened. The entire city was in chaos. Ivan notices Marco awake. “You’re alive,”, He tells him. Laura, Marco’s wife, stands up from her seat and sighs in relief. She goes up to Marco. “Don’t you ever scare us like that again, do you hear me!”. Marco nods. He questions Ivan on what had happened. No one knew anything about the explosion. Marco’s men were on the streets, getting information, however, even they had no luck. Marco is enraged. The harbor was meant to be their cash cow. It would increase their power and hold over the city. Now they had nothing. He was disappointed. Ivan switches to another TV channel.

Suddenly a live feed appears. Ivan tries to avoid it by turning to another channel but every channel was streaming the same feed. In it, a man Is holding the camera. He is wearing a Japanese black mask. He stares at the camera. He starts to speak. “Hello there, New York! I hope all of you are having a good time, I hear Staten Island is the right place for a barbeque!”, he chuckles. “Anyways, let’s get down to business. The reason why you’re hearing this message is not that it’s a message for the people of New York, but it’s a message for him, and he knows who he is.”.  He points the camera down. There is a person, tied to a chair, badly beaten, and injured. “This is Liam. Say ‘Hi’, Liam,”. Liam stays still. “Well, he’s a bit shy.”. The man turns the camera to himself. “I mean, we were going to get to him soon, one way or another, but this little ‘detective’ just came right to us! What are the odds!”.

Marco is furious. He doesn’t utter a single word. He gets up from his bed. He clenches his fist and continues to stare at the screen. The man on the TV continues to monologue. “Well, Liam,”, The man scoffs, “We have already hyped you up already, why don’t you tell us about yourself.”. Liam is broken. He is bleeding and seems to have been tortured. He is in severe pain due to burns from the explosion. He utters with a broken voice, “Marco, save me.”. The man responds, “You mean Marco Aviano? The so-called ‘all-powerful crime boss’ of this city?”. Liam closes his eyes. “Look at me,”. Liam doesn’t care. “LOOK AT ME!”. Liam sets his eyesight on the man. The man laughs hysterically. He turns to the camera, “the irony is- you think you’re all-powerful- but I’ve got your best friend and daughter with me.”. The man continues to chuckle. “See these so-called ‘crime bosses’ think they are enveloped with power.

The police won’t do anything, they’re just under their payroll. You see, guys like me, we only need some bullets to take them down a bar.”. Saying that, the man holds up a crowbar. He kicks Liam’s chair so that Liam is now on the ground. The man turns the camera so that it faces the ceiling. He then takes off the mask. “Enjoy the show,”. Marco is distraught, he tilts his head down, but then hears something- The high-pitched, shrill screams of Liam. He is in agony. The white ceiling only increases the horror of the audio.  He only sees the back of the man. He is kicking and hitting something with the crowbar. The painful voice only increases in volume. He keeps striking until there is no more sound. He then stops. He turns and holds up the camera to his face, covered in blood.  “Theodore A Cassidy, Willington Orphanage.”. The live feed ends.

Marco is crying. He hurls a table across the room in anger. But then he hears the name. He stops, frozen in fear. Ivan, wiping his tears, asks Marco, “Do you know him?”. He turns to Ivan. “I don’t just know him.”.

From the hospital, Marco, Laura, and Ivan rush to their home. They reach their basement. There, he finds a camera, a bloodied crowbar, and a dead body. Marco holds Liam’s lifeless body in his arms and cries. He then whispers, “Don’t worry brother, whoever did this, will pay. Dearly.”. he finds an envelope on Liam’s body. He reads it. 145B, Narrow Street, Tomorrow night, don’t be late! Marco instantly recognizes the address. A distraught Laura asks him about the note. He responds, “That person on the TV. He was the same person, who I would bully during my childhood- before I left the orphanage.”. Laura is shocked.

Ivan interrupts, “He killed Uncle Liam, over a childhood GRUDGE?!”. Ivan knows something is not quite right. He thinks that Marco is holding back the real story. Marco continues, “I had beaten him up, heck I’ve almost killed him, on multiple occasions, but I have never crossed that line. Never!”. Ivan is fuming. He is about to leave the basement. “However,”. Marco stops him. “Last year, during the hit on the Russians, A family with the name ‘Cassidy’ had been killed- A wife and two small children- The husband had survived. So, it could be possible- NOW?! You’re telling us this NOW?!”, Ivan screams. He shouts at Marco. “No wonder he is coming after us, and we can do nothing to stop him.”. He continues to scold Marco. Then, Ivan sighs and accepts his fate. “I’m done.”. He leaves the room. A petrified Laura is confused. She could not process what had just happened. She stays for a couple of seconds and then leaves. Marco is standing next to Liam’s body. He is distraught. He wipes his tears and leaves the basement. Outside his house, he takes out a phone and makes a call. “Call everyone we have. Tell them to prepare for war.”.

It is now the next day; the sun has set and the clock has struck at 9. A hoard of Marco’s goons is surrounding the orphanage. It is grandiose but shows signs of being deserted. Marco is at the front, holding an assault rifle. They enter the building. The calm silence of the orphanage erupts into heavy gunfire. Theodore’s followers are seen engaging in heavy fights with Marco’s goons. Marco is behind a pillar, aiming at one of the followers, about to pull the trigger. WACK!

Marco wakes up. He is tethered to a wall. The chains are hurting his hand. He is in horrific pain. None of his men are to be seen. Theodore is standing in front of him. “Surprise!”. Marco looks up. “I hoped you would wake up. Do you recognize me?”, Marco doesn’t answer. Acknowledging his silence, Theodore speaks up. “Of course, you do. Do you recognize her?”, He points at a girl to his left. Marco looks at her. It was Alice! She is blindfolded and petrified. Marco tries to break the chain. “If you do anything to her- Oh I won’t do anything to her!”, Theodore replies. Marco looks down, his hand is taped to a gun. Theodore responds, “You will.”. Saying this, he holds up a gun to Alice’s head. “NO!”, yells Marco.  Alice, on hearing Marco’s words, replies in fear, “Dad is that you? Please help me. Don’t leave me.”.  “Oh, don’t worry sweetie, it’s totally up to him,”. Theodore looks up at Marco. Marco begs him to leave Alice alone. “You know, for a while, I had healed, gotten over you. I had a beautiful wife and two angel children. My trauma had disappeared. But then you came, took them away from me, and KILLED THEM! You take away my family, I take away yours.”. He cocks the gun. The sound frightens Alice, who starts crying.

“You know, for being a rule breaker daily, you haven’t broken a crucial one.”. Marco tries to break out. Theodore continues to speak,” You even mentioned it once during one of my beatings.  Your ‘one single rule’.”. He chuckles. “No, killing your loved ones wouldn’t be enough to break you. Tonight, I’m gonna break your one single rule.”. Marco pleads with him, promising to give him whatever he wanted. Theodore replies, “What I want, is for you to pull that goddamn trigger.”. Marco refuses.

Theodore sighs. “Well, looks like I’ll have to destroy your second most important thing in life.”. He starts to count down. “Ten, nine, – Please! Don’t do this!”, Marco breaks down. He holds the gun up but can’t pull the trigger. “Too late, eight, seven, six,”. A gush of adrenaline surges through Marco’s veins, and in an instant, he shoots the chain to which he was tied. He runs and tackles Theodore. BANG! Theodore fires the gun but it misses Alice. Marco looks again at Theodore. He looks down. Theodore’s chest starts bleeding. Marco sees the gun taped to his hand. His finger having pulled the trigger. He is horrified. Theodore stares at Marco. Using the last of his dying breath, he starts to cackle. “I Won”.

About the Author

Pratyush is a proud student at Wisdom World School. A sincere student of class X, 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.