The Savior

A Short Story by G.S.Vasukumar

The woman handed a hot cup of coffee to her husband with a smile on her face. Meantime, in a distant room of a tall building, a stranger loaded his long range gun and took his aim. The husband took the cup closer to his lip. The stranger moved his finger closer to the trigger, and as he had one sip of the coffee, he pulled the trigger of his gun. The bullet raced out of the gun, cracked through the window glass and pierced into his forehead. It was just a fraction of few seconds. She had turned to leave, when the cup of coffee slipped from his hands and crash landed on the floor. She just took a turn, in that very moment a bullet pierced into her heart. She collapsed on the floor.

Taking lives of his targets was the profession of this stranger. He had got this assignment from his boss. It was an honor killing. The couple had fallen in love with each other, though they belonged to different caste. They had eloped from their village knowing the fact that their elders wouldn’t spare their lives if they came across them anytime.

He scanned through the lens of his gun to see if he left any witness in that house. He was shocked to see a baby crying in the cradle in the next room. 

“Alas! What have I done?” He cried, letting his gun fall from his hands, which hit the floor.

He rushed to that building and saw the innocent face of the baby. The baby stopped crying seeing him. He slowly lifted the baby from the cradle and kissed on his forehead.

“I’m very sorry! I killed your parents!” He said. The baby just smiled at him, and held his finger. He walked away from the house with the baby in his arm. His mobile started ringing and he answered when it started ringing for the second time.

“How could you do this to me?” He cried 

“Do what? What are you talking about? Did you complete your job?” The voice asked him from the other end of the line.

“This!” He cried, taking the receiver of his mobile closer to the baby’s mouth.

 “I didn’t know that the couple had a baby!” He cried back.

“Don’t you dare to lie to me? You know very well that I don’t take the assignment of parents having children.”

“Why create a fuss on the split milk? Just put another bullet in the baby’s head and send it to its parents!”

“How about putting a bullet in your God dame head instead? I am leaving forever! Never try to contact me or track me down. If you do then you will meet your end! Good bye!” He said disconnecting the call. 

Later, in an isolated house in the out skirts of the city, the killer was seated on the sofa, and he was depressed. He couldn’t forgive himself for what he had done today. He knew well what loneliness meant in life, having no one to neither take care nor love. He had been through that in his life, and now he had just made this baby an orphan.

The moon was shinning in the sky. The moon light fell upon the cradle in which the baby was sleeping peacefully, unaware of the fact that his parents were killed by this killer.

He took the loaded gun and pressed it against his head and was about to press the trigger, closing his eyes. Suddenly, he heard the cry of the baby and opened his eyes. He walked towards the cradle. The baby stopped crying the moment he saw him. He kept his hand upon the baby, gently patted him. The baby smiled at him, closed his eyes again and went back to sleep.

“No, I can’t do this!” He said to himself, keeping his gun in the drawer of the table and closing it.

Some years passed by, when the boy who was named Aryan was eight years old, one day, he was down with high fever and cough. He called up a doctor.

The doctor answered the call after the third ring “Do you know what time is it? It is 2 am for God’s sake! Can’t it wait tomorrow morning?”

“No, doctor, someone wants to speak to you..” The voice said. Then the doctor heard a boy’s voice, which was his son’s voice.

“What do you want? I will pay you whatever money..” The doctor fumbled.

“I don’t want your God dame money, doctor. Just Hurry up with your medical bag to this address…” The voice said.

The doctor was wide awakened now. He took the scribbling pad and noted down the address. He rushed to that place in his car as fast as he could.

When he reached that place, he was escorted to the boy’s room.

“Where is my son?” He asked him.

“He is fine. First, you treat him!” He said.

The doctor checked the boy and gave him an injection.

“He should be fine by morning. Call me, if the fever doesn’t come down. Now, where is my boy?”

The door opened and his son of nine years walked in with handful of chocolates and a smile on his face.

“Dad, this uncle is so good. If at all I have to be kidnapped again then I want him to do it!” The kid said.

“You could have called me up without doing all this” The doctor said, holding his son’s hand and pulling him along.

“I am sure that you wouldn’t have come so fast if I hadn’t done this. I just wanted to show you that my son’s life is as important as your son’s life to you.”

“Thanks…you have opened my eyes. Good night!” He said, getting into his car with his son and driving away.

He went back to Aryan’s room, bent down and kissed on his forehead. When Aryan opened his eyes in the morning, he found him holding his finger and dozed off to sleep on the chair next to his bed.

“Dad, you didn’t sleep in your room?” He asked, waking in him up.

“Son, are you all right now? Has the fever come down?” He asked up, waking up.

“I’m feeling much better, dad. Thanks for being there for me.” He said hugging him. “I love you dad!”

“I love you too, son. You know, it feels so nice to have someone love and care for you. I had no one in this world until you came.” He said.

***

Twenty five years later. 

“Son, I would like to confess something to you. I am not your real father, and your parents were killed... by me twenty five years back. So I brought you up from then.” He said

“Killed them? Why did you do that?” Aryan, the young man asked shocked.

“Because, I was paid to eliminate them” He replied

“Eliminate them? Who paid you to kill parents? Why?” He asked still in shock.

“Your grand parents had made a contract with my boss to eliminate your parents to save their honor. Your parents belonged to different caste and married against their wishes.”

Aryan became depressed learning the truth about his parents. He was confused whether to hate or like the person who had brought him up in the place of his parents, even though he was responsible for his parents’ death. But then he was just an instrument or a weapon in the hands of people who wrote the fate of his parents.

Next day, he went to him and asked :-

“I want the details of my grand parents! Where do they live?”

“What would you do knowing that? Kill them? Would it bring back your dead parents to you?”

“Just give me their details!”

He gave him the details, and he reached his grand father’s house in the village.

“Are you Karam Chand?” Aryan asked the old man.

“Yes, what can I do for you, young man?” He asked.

“I want my parents back!” He cried, taking out the gun and pointing at him.

“What the hell are you talking about?” The old man cried getting up.

“You know what I am talking about!” He cried walking forward.

“So you are their weed!” He frowned and said “I thought you were plucked too!”

“It would have been nice if that had happened then you could have lived peacefully. Now prepare to die!” He said, aiming his gun at him. 

“Please don’t kill my husband!” An old lady rushed blocking the old man.

He aimed his gun at the big portrait of his grand father and fired all the bullets from his gun. They hugged each other in fear.

“I wanted to put all the bullets into your body for killing my parents. However, I couldn’t just do it. How could you kill your own son? Whom you had brought up? How could you…?” He cried.

“You will have to pay for this!” He said, before leaving.

***

Some days later, a stranger took his gun and aimed from a vacant under construction building.  His finger moved towards the trigger. A bullet hit his hand while he pressed the trigger of his gun. The bullet from his gun missed its target by a few inches and hit the book shelf, breaking the glass of the book shelf to pieces. Aryan was shocked to see what just happened.

He looked in all directions to see who had shot at him, but couldn’t find anyone. Just then his mobile started to ring.

“Who the hell is this?” He asked.

“Someone who just shot your hand. Remember, the next time you take your aim then I will have the bullet delivered to your head.” The voice from the other end replied.

“What do you want me to do?” He cried feeling scared.

“Just leave this place!” He said “And do tell your boss that if you try again then I will eliminate each one of you and put an end to this!” The line got disconnected.

Aryan’s mobile started ringing.

“I think by now you would have understood that you can’t kill the hatred from some people's hearts. Your grand father had sent him to eliminate you” He heard the voice of the person who had brought him up.

“Yes, Thanks for saving me. However, don’t be under the impression that I have forgiven you.” Aryan said

“I know. I wouldn’t forgive myself, even if you had. Take care, son” and the line got disconnected.

The End