Manish Murthy

“Come, follow me,” Levi said as he scratched his head and started walking towards the entrance of the building.

“Uh, how am I supposed to have my luggage?” I asked them shyly. “It’s just that I can’t live without changing clothes every single day.” I tilted my head down and scratched my head a little in embarrassment.

“What are you, a girl or something?” Jay sir asked.

“Stop your gender discrimination, you shithead,” Kritika was offended. Then, she kindly turned at me and said, “You won’t.”

“Uh… but…”

“Your life is about to turn upside down here onwards, and all you care is just another pair of panties?!” Jay sir taunted.

“HAHAHA!” Kabir sir laughed. I just noticed that he had quite a mustache. It was rough, and long, unlike the other two, who were shaved. “Quite a good one that was, bruv!”

“Kabir sir uses the word ‘quite’ quite a lot,” I thought as I looked at him.

“Ayee! Whatcha waitin’ there for?!” I turned back and saw Levi, who was turning back and asking me. I started walking towards him. As I reached him, we turned towards the entrance and we walked outside.

He walked outside the footpath and turned left, the opposite direction from where we came inside. I followed him and turned the same way. I was walking just two steps behind him. Suddenly, while walking, he asked me, “So, you’re a new member here, huh?”

“Uh, yeah. That’s right.” I was kind of shy.

“The Eye of Suicide hires people in two distinct ways. First is the recommendations method, where we give killers contracts to join our team. None of them actually reside in here, but they come and go as they wish. It’s like they have complete freedom even after being a part of the organization.” Out of nowhere, he was suddenly telling me about the organization, and I was hearing him quite seriously. He explained further, “But, the second method is quite idiotic, but brutal. The people are also hired after they lose everything they ever had. I know that you can understand it well, right? This method… It might sound childish too, but if you experience it sometime, it doesn’t look as idiotic and childish as it may before.”

I nodded and tilted my head down in guilt. “I came here by the second method.”

“And still, you have not even an inch of sadness in your eyes.”

I suddenly tilted my head at him in shock. “Wha--”

“You never had anything to begin with, right? Nothing to look forward to, nothing to love, nothing to take care of…”

“I-I…”

“If it were a fiction, you would not be less than an antagonist.”

“How the hell can you say this?!” I angrily shouted at him. “I-I lost my family, my sister, my everything!”

“Deep down, you know you never had them.” Then, he turned at me and smiled. “I’m good at reading people, kiddo.” Then, he tilted his head back towards the front where we were walking, and said, “By the way, you were sent by the leader of The Murdered Faction, right?”

“Y-Yeah…” I recalled and tilted my head skywards, remembering of him. “I-I guess he was named--”

“Ssh! Don’t say his name out loud in public.”

“O-Okay…” I replied.

“Well, since he told you his name, I guess you are one of us specials.”

“S-Specials?”

“We are the Special Task Force of The Murdered Faction,” He said. “Our leader is Kritika Malhotra, the woman who came here with you. She’s also good at reading people, but she never says things on the mouth, like I did. By the way, I’m sorry for what I said.”

“First, he looked so rude, cold and all. Now, he suddenly turned the exact opposite,” I thought. “I can’t even find words to describe them…”

We walked a long way silently after that. Time went slowly as we walked the cemented path. I looked rightwards, and saw that it was a small parking lane in front of a building. But, it all was dusty, rotten and it looked like it’s been years since they were not maintained. “It used to be a society of apartments, right?” I asked.

“Yep.”

We continued walking further as I looked at the age-old building going back as we moved forward. Then came an intersection of four buildings, each of whom had a building on each corner. They all looked the same--the white paint coming off, revealing the yellow part inside.

“We of The Murdered Faction are not allowed to go out until we either take permission or are given a mission. Kritika had to fill a form to go out, too. On top of that, they have transmitters on all of our clothes, so if we do something out of it, we are in a fix.”

“Must be hard to take me in, right?”

“Nah, that was not the hardest part, actually. Kritika is actually a part of Iris, as you know, so she can just fill in that she has to meet a contractor. Now, if she’d be asked about the details, she’d just say that the person refused because they could not appear on equal terms, and some stuff like that. Don’t take it all on yourself, Manish.”

“Uh, by the way,” I looked at him with determination and seriousness and asked, “If you have come from the second method too, there’s a possibility that you were not the one to kill. So, how can I become someone who kills, to be fully accepted here?”

At this, he suddenly stopped walking. I stopped too, looking at his back. He turned back, and asked, “I-I have never killed anyone up until now. But, I must have to pay something up for it someday.”