CHAPTER 10 – THE DISAPPEARANCE
No one can be happy who has been thrust outside the pale of truth. And there are two ways that one can be removed from this realm: by lying, or by being lied to.
- Seneca
RECAP:
A relentless killer wielding an axe, mercilessly slaughtering innocent children. The killer is playing a game of hide-and-seek with the children. Karna's brother, consumed by anger and blame, turned on him. With a furious shout, "It's all because of you," he pushed Karna off the cliff, sentencing him to a seemingly certain death. Karna, who is still alive with a last breath, raises his head only to see his brother's bodyless face. The face is covered with mud and blood, tears from his eyes, and a dark smile on his face. Karna became quite terrified by that and became unconscious. Karna recalled all of this when he saw the killer, who aimed the gun at the detective. He was the same killer who killed his brother. Karna sprang into action, intent on taking the psycho down. Karna, the detective, and the psycho are battling as they want to kill someone today. They fought for an hour until they were all so weak that they could hardly stand. Karna and the detective were taken to the hospital. The detective entrusted Karna with a diary, a repository of information detailing each psycho he encountered.
STORY CONTINUES:
With weakened energy, the game initiator walks slowly out of the mall that night. Then he enters a den filled with darkness. In the dim light, there was a mysterious man standing in front of him. He was surrounded by a large group of people who were laughing in a psychotic way. The mysterious man came out of the darkness and stood beneath the dim light. "Why didn't you kill them?" roared the booming voice. The crowd fell silent like an ocean.
He gazed into his eyes and felt terrified; they resembled the eyes of a predator, while his face bore a gentle and pure expression, with a smile meant to reassure. The man understood why they called him the Alligator. As he was about to answer the question, his heart began to race. He felt to himself that he thought he forgot the fear, but the figure in front of him made him sweat and shiver his body from top to bottom. With a low, shaking voice, he answered, "I kill... only... my partici..."
The man in the dark interrupts his explanation and exclaims loudly, " YOU ONLY KILL PARTICIPANTS...? You seem so full of yourself. Even though I gave you a reason to live... All you had to do was obey me, but you dared not to follow my commands? I have to make an example out of you. Bow to me, obey me, or prepare to meet your end..." And he kills the game initiator with a single slash of his sword. With a commanding presence, he warns everyone present in there that death awaits those who do not follow his commands. Furthermore, he announces that whoever brings him the suspended police officer's head will be rewarded.
The crowd of people in the den are the psychopaths, drinking blood like water. From the crowd, a psycho, along with a violently looking pit bull as a pet, jumps up and declares, "Me and my pet are so hungry. Give me some time; his head will be yours, while his body will be mine. My pet is starving for some nice meat." With a smile on his face, the psycho collects information about the suspended officer, Karna. After gathering all the information, the psycho planned to kill him. He then arrives at the hospital, where Karna is admitted. The hospital was very silent, and the lights had been turned out. The man with the pit bull proceeds to search each and every room within the hospital but finds nothing.
After speaking with Karna for a while, Vrindha exits his room at that moment. The psycho noticed her and approached her. She attempts to stop him by emphasising how valuable life is, but the psycho leaves the pit bull to slaughter her without hesitation.
In the nick of time, Karna rushes out of the room, hearing those sounds, wielding the IV pole as a makeshift weapon, striking the pit bull, and saving Vrinda from its ferocious charge. The psycho moves towards Vrinda to attack her, but the detective appears out of nowhere and places a knife around his neck, holding him tightly. As the situation intensifies, the pit bull, whose teeth are also blood-coloured, once again sets its sights on Vrindha, prompting Karna to intervene. In the ensuing struggle, the pit bull bites Karna's hand, refusing to release its grip. The psycho chuckles and says it's only a matter of time before all three of them get killed. With a smile on his face and pain in his eyes, Karna uses the pistol he concealed in his hand, firing a shot from inside the pit bull's mouth.
The psycho, astonished to witness his loyal companion lying lifeless before him, becomes consumed by a mix of rage and despair. However, before he can react, the detective swiftly injects him with a dose of narcotics, causing him to collapse gradually. With a smirk, the detective reveals his identity to Karna, stating, "I totally forgot to say my name; well, I am Siddharth."
After spending the entire day with Karna, Dharani was asleep all this time. So when she heard the gunshot, she suddenly woke up from her sleep. When Dharani comes out of the room, she is shocked to see a body that is lying down and a dead animal. She asks everyone to explain what is going on here. All of them chuckled. Then after, Vrindha quickly brought a first aid box, treated the dog bite wound with bandages, ointment, and an injection. For a few days, she advised Karna not to overwork his hands.
But all of a sudden, a smoke bomb engulfs the room. All of them are paralysed, unable to move nor see through the thick smoke. Time feels like an eternity as they wait for the smoke to clear out. When the smoke finally cleared, they found Karna was missing. They looked everywhere, but they came up empty. But the psycho who collapsed due to narcotics is still present. It took all of them into confusion and fear of Karna's disappearance.Without any delay, Siddharth and Dharani took the psycho and imprisoned him in a room deep in the midst of a jungle. Before leaving, Siddharth informed Vrindha that he did not want her to become involved in this. Siddharth explains that they are the primary targets of those psychopaths. He therefore wishes for her to remain untargeted. After imprisoning the psycho, Siddharth stated that he should not be released until Karna interrogated him. So, Dharani came up with a plan. Siddharth and Dharani began torturing the psycho in order to draw the Alligator's face, the one who rules all these psychopaths.
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D.I.E - DEATH IN EXERTION
Mystery / ThrillerIn the process of fighting crime in his state, Karna, a police officer, unintentionally stumbles onto an occult group of psychopaths who are followers of a specific 'KING' known as 'THE ALLIGATOR.' Can Karna end the chaos and bring peace to his stat...