“Now out you come, hands raised~”

Taking the keys out, he came out slowly with his hands raised above while his head was tilted towards the ground.

"Will you let me go?"

His face was expressionless though due to the darkness that had covered the evening sky it was impossible to see it. His bland voice when it reached them, they were barely able to make it out as the winds were drowning out all of the other sounds.

“Kill him.”

“No we don’t.”

"Already going against what we had decided?"

"Hey aren't you a bit too blood thirsty, look that guy hasn't even looked towards us."

Akhmad sighs.

“Knock him out then. If he calls the police and they investigate the area we are gonna be in deep shit.”

The last one of them just whistled a tune while his companions quralled. His gun moved across Azaan’s body, sometimes at his head other times at his heart or his lungs or his neck. Azaan had his eyes closed focusing all his attention to try and hear their conversation in the storm that seemed to get stronger with each passing moment.

Azaan was ready to utter his escape spell but for now he wanted to see how many chains were attached to him even still. His brother had talked about keeping their baby bird safe and now he could finally force at least some of them out in the open.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

The two who were arguing quickly fired shots in different directions. All of them seemed to have missed the target because after that multiple people came out, all of them wearing full black suits allowing them to melt into the darkness. All of them had their weapons pointed at the three masked men.

As the two groups started conversing Azaan was thinking about how he could lose these guys when he ran away. He still had some reservations before about running off to a mountain and living in complete isolation but the equipment list that he had browsed in the white room really had everything from tea cups to dishwashers to solar panels to guns to bombs. The only thing stopping him was human interaction. No matter how much he hated it, as he had learned in this month, he still needed some connections.

This one month that he had been away from nearly everything had been the happiest in his recent memories. Asides from this he could only remember his younger days when he was physically weak and easily became ill, in those days he could just cut off the outside world and do whatever he wanted. But even in those days he had someone to talk to, mostly his mother.

There was another reason why he wanted to maintain contact with other humans. It was so that he would not forget why he wanted to be away in the first place.

“Hello, hello. How are you gentlemen doing? I hope you succeed in your endeavors but please let us and our young sir go. We won’t even cause you any trouble, how about it?”

“A, we really don’t have time to waste with these guys, we need to reach the bastard before the timers up.”

“K, do whatever you want.”

“Hey kiddo throw the key.”

The last of them that had his gun pointed at him spoke to Azaan.

“Sir, please give them what they require and we will drop you off.”

He thought about what he should do. He still had not insured the car so the 2 million rupees that he had spent upon this metal box would go down the drain and though he had money, it was to be invested in the next game that they were going to make. Still he slowly brought his hands down and slowly searched his pockets making others think that he was panicking. During that time he thought about what was important, his car or his life.

Slowly, he took out the key and threw it at one of them and as he caught the key he had also caught an answer, he did not care about both of those things. As the car tore through the winds he opened the uber app, looking for a cab nearby.

“Sir, please come and we will drop you at your home.”

He ignored them and started walking after picking a random street. The winds were blowing hard and he started jogging away. The wind made it hard and the cold harder but he persisted. He was thankful that he was even able to enjoy this weather.

"Sir, you will get sick please come with us."

Even the cold that was cutting into his body was not as annoying as these guys. They were really persistent even though he had been ignoring them completely. He thought about trying to outrun them but scrapped the idea because even though he was better than before that was nothing to these guys who had undergone years of harsh training. Ignoring them was the only thing he could do as he kept looking for an uber.

It was unfortunate that even after half an hour no ride came. It was due to a combination of weather, that was the worst in months and the area he was currently in. All the mansions and the scenery that looked good even in the dark hinted at a rich neighborhood where usually there was no need for cabs. He just jogged, hoping they would go away even though he knew that was not going to happen. Because he knew that he decided to completely drone out their voices and the weather itself helped in this endeavour as it worsened gradually, now strong enough that he needed considerable force to push through the winds. The chill seeped into his bones. He could feel the numbness similar to when he took cold showers in the winter. But it was offset by the warmth that originated from his stomach. These days it was his constant companion through all kinds of pain and these small moments of relief that spread across his body in even the worst of the times had a considerable part in allowing him to go on even after undergoing the awful adventures in the dungeon.

Even as the warmth spread inside his body to keep him warm, outside the cold was victorious. Already his nose had become red and he searched his pocket for a tissue and found none when he required it most. His fingers had long since become stiff and as he took a look at them absentmindedly they were becoming blue. A normal person may have become cautious at this moment but during this month abusing his body had become his norm. The healing completely swept away all the damages and though it was painful he had gained enough resistance that he could overcome the cries of his body as he wandered in the storm.

He cut a corner and now on one side was visible the hills lush with trees.

Saaaaaa

The sound was loud and frightening and at the same time drizzling started falling from the sky. Eyes closed he looked up while continuing on walking as the small droplets struck him in the face. Each drop injected in his body a small quantity of chill that slowly seeped inside allowing cold to invade and start a battle with the warmth that was circulating inside him. By now the buzzing around him had grown considerably louder threatening to wake him up from the trance. So he moved forward faster and faster and faster until he was running and with him the rain had become similarly faster lowering the visibility even further. By now it had become near total darkness and adding in the fact that even the mansions on the other sides were nearly all enveloped in darkness allowed the darkness to encroach without any fight.

Now matter how much he ran, the lights were still around him, keeping him contained in a circle.

Boom!!!

He was violently brought out of his trance as the sound wiped away the tranquil atmosphere. At the same time, a car turned a corner and stopped in front of him but he was focused on the explosion. If he remembered clearly, that was the way he had come from and even if he had not he still thought that those guys were likely the culprits. Their getgo had radiated suspension.

Slap slap

The warmth from the hand was painful, similar to when he touched his fingers after stopping their blood flow for a long time using rubber bands. The slap itself, he did not feel because his face was numb from being drenched in cold rain.

"You ok little bro."

And like that he was forced into the car, an inevitable result. For now he had just wanted to see how many people were watching him and considering nearly half a dozen came out so easily he estimated there to be around a dozen of them at least. He had thought that the whole thing would die down but it seemed the event from last year was still alive if his family was still so cautious.

“And I had thought that you had outgrown these antics but it seemed it was wrong.”

“Well let’s see if you can give the same silent treatment to mom.”