Blood Runs Out

•five•

☃️⛄☃️

Arjun was only 9 when the monster under his bed crawled out and clinged onto him for the longest time possible. The monster was none other than the woman who gave him birth. It all started with the death of his father. While the world came to believe that his poor father committed suicide, he knew what happened that day. A few of his mother's "friends" came and forcefully made his father swallow a bottle of sleeping pills while his mother gave instructions how to do the task without arousing suspicion of others. Arjun watched it all. His mother knew the little boy saw how his father lost his life. She wanted him to see, she wanted to install an unbearable amount of fear in his heart so that she could play him with just a string. And she just did that. 

Whenever Arjun saw his mother, only one thing flashed into his mind. Fear. Nothing else. He condemned any other kind of feelings. Disgust came close to that feeling but it never faced the surface like it deserved. He complied with her orders like a robot. He didn't even utter a word when she told the world that he was suffering from blood cancer to earn sympathy and donations from others. That woman was the incarnation of a devil herself. She was always power hungry, liked to be the center of attention whether the attention came from sympathy or fear. He didn't even say anything when she almost killed him by feeding him expired medicines on purpose to stimulate sympathy from people at the age of 13. She was a widow with an almost disabled son who was on the verge of death. People had to show sympathy, didn't they? 

The assault didn't stop there though. She made more attempts to send him to the door of death, he barely escaped each time, leaving him both physically and mentally exhausted. All of his torments came to an end when his mother was killed by one of her so-called lovers. Arjun was the happiest person that day. So happy that he blasted music and danced till his heart's content while her body rotted in the living room. He could care less. He finally felt free. Finally, at the age of 16 he felt like a person of his own. Before that he only felt like a doll controlled by his mother. However, he found himself imprisoned once again when he was handcuffed and arrested for the murder of his mother. He only said one thing when they interrogated him, "If I had killed her, it would have been so brutal that you would find yourself shivering." And he wasn't lying. 

Decades have passed yet he feels like those terrorizing memories are as fresh as daisy. He has never hated someone so much.When Avinash got him out of the prison, the first thing he wanted to do was revive her from death and kill her for making him suffer all those years. For making his father suffer. He wouldn't do so that's why he got his hands on her ashes and drained them into the toilet. 

Arjun closes his eyes to stop himself from getting flashbacks from those days. He was as skinny as the unconscious boy in front of him. His mother liked to keep him hungry, vulnerable. It made people think that they were too poor to even feed themselves which earned her huge donations from people from time to time. His mother once even managed to present their plight into the TV screen through a show which only boosted her to go on with it, making his life more miserable. Arjun wonders if the boy had gone through the same treatment. He has sealed his heart long ago but he can't deny that his heart cries out whenever he sees abused kids. Kiaan's condition has made his heart so tender that he is afraid it will break once again. 

"The corpse of a 58 years old man identified as Ravi Pandey, manager of Tribini restaurant, has been found by the dustbin near his work place. The cause of death is declared to be a gunshot to his head. Police are still investigating-" Avinahs turns the TV off. 

"Didn't you go overboard, Manav?" Avinash glares at the man. He should have dealt with the man himself. 

"Hey! It wasn't me." Manav yells immediately to defend himself.