Manish Murthy

“What do you mean by… a war of freedom?” I asked Levi.

“Uh, how should I put this up?” Levi said. “TES has another faction--us, The Murdered Faction--right?”

“Yeah.”

“Actually, we’re being kept as prisoners here. And just like you, we came here without any other option.”

“Oh, so you want freedom, right? You all wanna run away, or destroy TES. I got it.”

“Yeah, we want freedom, but we have not decided upon how to get it yet. The leader is gone out for some time, and he’d obviously give us some valuable information when he’ll come back.”

“Great, but how is it gonna help you and your faction if he’s out and others are still in?”

“He’d obviously have access to people outside who have some information on TES and are secretly working on its destruction. We even got to know about Inspector Khandelwal, who is currently leading the team against TES. Though they are low on funds and people, they can still provide some help, because they are inside the police.”

“Ah, right. But, who is this leader? And why do you call him ‘the leader’?”

“Actually, we know that we could have been taped, and that’s why we never speak his name. It’s done so that whatsoever information is leaked outside, but the name of the leader will never be leaked out. This gives us a chance that the leader is still there and we can still make a strong comeback.”

“So that’s why…” I murmured. “Would you tell me his name?”

Levi gulped. He was hesitant at telling it to me, and I can clearly understand that by his facial expressions and him tilting his head right and left. Then, he came closer to me, and so did it. When his mouth was close enough to my ear, he whispered, “Shekhar Sharma.”

At that exact second, exact position of my upper body tilted down at his, my eyes got large and wide in shock after hearing that name. “S-Shekhar?” I murmured.

He tilted his upper body back and nodded. He slowly replied, “Yeah.”

At that time, I remembered his exact words when he told me, “They deserve justice, kiddo. They need it. And it’s not just them; over a thousand people like them deserve that. If it all goes to court, it’d take over a hundred years to solve them all. That… That’s the number of crimes we’ve committed over the years.”

“So, Shekhar is the one to lead this group…” I thought.

“TES has about two thousand two hundred men on their side. Out of them, about a hundred are a part of our faction. About all of the faction is currently in jail, because of the disaster of ‘Black Day’. It was conducted without the agreement of TES, and it was aimed to tell the presence of TES to the citizens. As of now, many YouTube videos and Facebook posts must have been in circulation about the conspiracy.”

“But, still, it’s suppressed, as I suppose,” I said. “I used to study in Canada, and recently returned home. I must have been there for some days, before being dragged here. I used to spend a lot of time on the internet, but I never heard of anything such as the ‘Black Day’.”

“W-Wha--” Levi was shocked. “D-Don’t tell me that… our plan was a failure.”

“But, it was, I guess,” I replied. “See, I don’t wanna be rude here, but…”

Everyone was down, and I can feel it. For a second, everyone was silent and there was no other sound. “Agh! How did this…?!” Levi thought. Everyone else had tight jaws too.

But, suddenly, Mohini rose up and said, “It’s all righty!”

Levi sighed and said, “Yeah. It means that we needa come of better plans to make people see us.”

“Do the higher-ups of TMF know it?” Chetanya asked.

“I guess they do, and with the leader out for now, they, at no doubt, must know of this.”

“You know what, he’s sooo cool!” Mohini suddenly said.

“Oh, not that again!” Chetanya said.

“How the hell does this comes in between of some important talk?!”

“The leader!” Mohini continued.

“What?” I asked.

“She has a crush on him,” Levi said. “And in between every important discussion, she says it at least once.”

“Uh…” I was kinda shocked.

“It’s usual…” Levi added.

“Don’t try to make fun of yourself like that, Mohini,” Chetanya scolded her.

“I’m not making fun of myse--” She said.

“You are!” Chetanya scolded her.

“Big brother to the rescue!” Siya commented.

“Shut up everyone! This is supposed to be something important and serious!” Levi tried to calm down the situation in vain.

“Manish, see him once, and you’ll also fall in love with himmm!” She told me.

“Ah, I don’t guess I will, actually.”

“Stop it!” Levi said.

At that same time, when Levi was raising his hands to calm the situation, Chetanya was getting hold of his sister Mohini, and Siya was giggling at the back with her hands in front of her mouth, the time suddenly started moving slowly, and it felt like everyone stopped for a second. I thought, “Everyone… looks so happy and cheerful. They accepted me so easily, and… they all have fun with each other. Why… then what did they do that they deserved to live in this hell? Or, they don’t deserve this?”

In the bathroom, Kritika was standing in front of the mirror. There was a toilet behind her, and the room had no lights. She glared at her image in the broken mirror which was split into two from the right up and left down vertices. Her hands were on the sink, and she continuously glared at the mirror image. “Why?” She asked. “Why the hell did you leave us, Shekhar?!”