Fire Phantoms and Mavericks

Part - 1:

Once upon a time in a mystical land which consisted of nothing but ash and fire there was one who ruled the charred dread under mystic skies. A hissing piece of darkened metal rested in his hand as a variety of abominations caught up to his rationale. Salty tears mixed with the summer aura flowed from the same eyes he once saw his world in, emotionless he could just stare at the pathetic waste which he had created from a myriad of aspirations and dreams. 

“So, you know where this all is going right?” she asked him even though she knew he would have no clue where anything could go and would stick to her shadow no matter what, only because she knew he loved her too much to just walk away. “I do. And I don’t want to be a part of it anymore. I don’t have anything to prove to you. Prudently I have observed that this empty space inside me is just creating a bigger and bigger void and it’s driving me insane. I have to cut off an arm to save the body, I have to cut off you to save me from myself but I guess slitting the throat is the correct depiction here since I have only known me as a part of you” he replied as she stood there aghast with dread and fear hiding her true emotions behind a façade which was only so much ruined that the other side would have been too terrible to imagine. “I am glad you can finally understand. I don’t want to hurt you anymore” she replied as she finally gave in to the urge and burst out into tears “I am so sorry for hurting you so much, I had no choice” she spoke through her sobs. “Don’t worry, you had a choice and you took it. Don’t regret it, I don’t regret the first time I saw you. Don’t cry because the only person who was selflessly yours is now too selfish to care cry once you see what you lost” he said as he walked away while she crumbled to her knees while reality dawned upon her of losing something which was so precious that it could only belong to her.

A decade later he was the famous billionaire and the founder of Twinge Industries which now ranked among the top Fortune 500 companies. Precarious and careful as always he was riding his Lamborghini at 60 when a horn from behind shattered him out of his fantasies, amusedly he let the biker pass him by thinking he might be in a hurry to get somewhere as the tunnel came up. Something shiny on the waist of the biker moving ahead of him made his fantasies tick as he matched up to being just a few inches behind him, midway through the tunnel he was wondering what he wanted to do next when suddenly his window was shattered, he looked outside to see himself surrounded by two black SUV’s on each side and before he could actually comprehend anything there were bullets flying past him from every direction. His bodyguard was hit and he could only gawk in horror as he found himself motionless inside the marvel of human technology, life as we know it is the greatest motivator as his leg automatically slammed the accelerator all the way down and the Lamborghini Aventador moved forward with a huge blast of power as everyone else seemed to be bound by the limits of their own materialistic worlds drifted past him. Bullets continued to fly past him but somehow he was much safer now, a little speed bump followed by a crunch of crushing a life, a gasp of horror as the person two feet away from him gurgled blood and then subsided away to nothingness. Like the last sweet mango blemished by ants, like the final day of holidays tainted by heavy rains or like two lives which extinguished to serve him.

Darting towards nothingness with a speed of a hundred and eighty kilometers per hour a blizzard of thoughts passed through his panicking mind. A barrage of vehicles flew past him, a thousand hissing needles overtook him. Then suddenly it felt like in the blink of an eye someone had stabbed a hole in his left shoulder, expensive white cloth turned scarlet while he screamed in vain. He could feel his eyes widen as the spilling blood soaked his soul dry of hopefulness, pain began to grow with each heartbeat and each heartbeat seemed to leak out more blood as he watched his entire life pass by him slowly. His dripping room during the rains, his favorite football which he lost on the first day itself, grasping for breath as he started to drown in his swimming lessons, walking to school wearing shoes with holes above toes, his father crying because he didn’t have enough money for his college, his only love leaving him for something she didn’t knew, a phase of drugs which still haunted his routines, bleeding wrists with wounds which never heal and always remain firm behind his full sleeved shirts or coats, a pierced bulletproof vest by one of the best companies in the world and a feeling of being helpless beyond comparison. His head dwindled to a side as white spots started appearing in front of his eyes, his breathing grew faint and slowly a film of milky color enveloped his eyes. A shift of paradigm and he could only see a faint silhouette instead of all the chaos “Come with me” she said softly “we’ll be together forever” she looked as beautiful as ever the one true princess of his heart “I will die and you will rot away as well but atleast that will be the truth” he replied “and what good would that be? I am already here why do you want anything else?” she inquired “I want everything else, all the pain and all the tears along with the migraines and remorse and I also want that small part of my life where I am full again so that I can grow old and die beside your memories" "And what if I never come to you in that world?” she asked “then I want to be your last hope. A mountain that can’t be moved. The only rock you can hold on to for your pathetic little life” he retorted.

Through his punctured windshield he could see the silhouette of his assailant as the end of the tunnel came closer he could see the man running away for his life. Picking up his cellphone he speed dialed his head of security “I have been attacked, tunnel 23. I am ordering you, kill everyone.” He flew past the person who had shot him with wobbly eyes barely noticing him through the throbbing pain and surges of numbness which were spreading throughout his body. With his final shreds of energy he pulled out the machine gun still clinging to his bodyguard's corpse, fumbling with the safety lock there was another bump and at a hundred and eighty a small speed bump feels like a crash but since his senses were so numb the effect only felt cushioned. His car began to drift in one direction and he realized one of his tires had been shot, pointing out the machine gun he simply opened fire shooting in every direction as his body was too weak by now to even check the rebound, his elbow bumped into the steering and he could see his world go round in circles at unimaginable speeds while his index finger was still pressed back hard on the trigger.

The airbag was covering his face and there was something he could bury his face in for being amongst one of the richest men on the planet and then being chased through the streets like a dog and he couldn’t do even one thing to fight back. There was anger in his eyes, his wound was still bleeding and yet somehow he managed to unstrap himself and grab a fresh magazine. The passenger’s side had been smashed entirely making it remotely impossible for anyone to recognize his bodyguard. Being a hero is too tough, heroic actions are often coincidental and there is no such force which can drive you beyond your limits. A game of football which lost him his sports quota, an exam he couldn’t clear to get into his favorite college, a stage three cancer which made him watch his mother wither away day by day, a bar fight which left him with a black eye and a broken rib or a stupid gunshot wound which wouldn’t stop bleeding.

His chief of security broke his window and pulled him out as he still gripped on tightly to his HK416 machine gun. “Ivan… did you kill them all?” he clumsily asked his chief of security as he carried him in his arms towards the armed helicopter parked in the middle of the street “yes sir” Ivan replied “Guess now they won’t ask why a billionaire should have so much security” he said with a smile “Don’t speak sir, you are too weak at the moment and anyways it’s all over now” Ivan replied waking steadily towards the demolition wagon. “Did anyone get hurt?” he asked again, “Yes sir, you shot six civilians along with a vehicle of your assassins. Two of the civilians and all of the attackers have been killed as of now but don’t worry I am handling everything” Ivan usually had no expressions but right now he seemed a little worried “Also, sir she is in the vicinity” he said after a momentary pause. There was only one person he referred to as she, only one person in the world he wasn’t authorized to take the name of. “Tell me Ivan, what did you fear the most when you were a child?” he asked as Ivan put him inside the helicopter, Ivan didn’t reply maybe the sound of the rotor was too much for him to hear the deranged words of an asphyxiating man with half liter less blood than normal humans.

“Halt! This is the Police, we are here to arrest you for creating violence and for the murder of innocent civilians” A voice came from a speaker as flickering shades of red and uniformed men surrounded the helicopter from all sides. “Let me handle this, even though the vest cushioned and minimized the effect it looks like you were shot at with a powerful weapon. You need to get to a hospital” Ivan screamed through the howling wind and slid the door shut “Go!” Ivan said commanding to the pilot. With his hands in the air he turned around and before he could take a step forward something made him crash to his knees and soon blood gushed out of his throat. “Someone fired! Ivan has been shot! Get Cherry out of here, which was our main objective” it was Bogdan on the wireless, Ivan’s childhood friend and one of the three sub commanders of his security forces. A few light knocks on the wall of the helicopter told Cherry that firing had begun outside. “Bogdan, return fire!” he screamed snatching the wireless from one of the guards sitting beside him as the helicopter levitated in midair quickly rising above estranged pity. “Sir, I can’t there are still civilians in the periphery. They are shooting at us but we are in armored vehicles and no one else can get hurt now. Everything is under control” Bogdan replied. He looked outside the window of his flying fortress and there was the dead body of a man he only trusted so much more than he could ever trust himself. “Jaykant, lower the helicopter and then return back to conduct an aerial strike on them. Mikhail, find Nikita Banerjee and secure her beside us, use a tranquilizer if necessary. Veer, Akash and Ashley you three come with me and hold them off till Jaykant is back in the air. Everyone else, mount those DSR 50 machine guns and XM500 snipers and shoot down everyone whom you can” Cherry commanded. “You will pass out before we even get close to the ground. Don’t worry we are going back” Jaykant replied “Jaykant, do what I say or else I will shoot the fuck out of your brains!” Cherry shouted, “Sir, who the fuck is Nikita Banerjee?” Mikhail asked as the helicopter dwindled and started to dismount the skies “You have five minutes to find out and bring her back” he replied “Bogdan, form a perimeter around Ivan and stay there till I come and don’t you dare disobey my order ever again!” he then screamed to the black antenna box in his hand.

With a wobbly left foot his knee crashed into the ground, slowly he got back up using his machine gun as a walking stick, it was surprising how he still had enough strength to clutch on to that heavy metal even though he couldn’t manage to even walk properly. “R-P-G!” someone screamed and chunks of hardened carbon steel went flying off the flying machine.

Life is seldom fair and often it is too cataclysmic to be even perceived as livable. A traffic jam before one of the most important exams in life, chicken pox during the placement sessions, a direct gunshot to the shoulder piercing a bulletproof vest, seeing the man you trusted the most bleed to death right before your eyes or a random RPG which hit its target two feet away from you. Cherry’s eyes were now closing again as he embraced the dark and hard Earth, his head drooped to one side as he saw the flicker of lights in the dry thick blood. It’s funny how people always tell that just before death a person sees all of his life pass before his eyes but no one tells you that the second time you come near to death in the same day you see every single aspect of the present in a retarded timeframe. Bogdan was shouting something through the dim spifflication of lives as Cherry’s eyes seemed to be not seeing anything but darkness. Pain seemed to be slowly going away from him and calmness seemed to engulf him, but he was just not ready to give up yet. There are certain things a human is capable of and there are certain things he just cannot overcome a continuous adrenaline surge made him capable of raising his arm as Bogdan pulled him up over his shoulder, he was still saying something but all he could hear was a strange buzzing sound growing in his ears. “Aah!” he screamed as he opened fire once more relentlessly on the enemy but his heart was stooping to lower beat rates and he could feel himself gasping for breath as he knocked the life out of several others, waves of blasting sounds clashed with each other as none tethered to stop the massacre.

He couldn’t feel himself, he couldn’t feel his thoughts the only thing he could connect with was revenge but he was too weak to carry it out, too blemished to even protest and too much hurt to even care. He sunk on his knees and immediately Bogdan lifted him up in arms. Fire rained from the skies and ashes grew up to kiss the clouds and there was only so much he could appreciate than a faint smirk which lapped his face against all this misery there was to it all. She was crying bitterly and he could see her at a distance as Mikhail tried to subdue her, he was too nonchalant over his momentary victory and consequential demise to wipe her tears, someone should cry for me. Hell, the whole world should soak in tears if I die. After everything that I have been through it would only be a small appreciation for their blithely remarks he thought to himself. A final thought before he bid adieu to his consciousness a second farewell for the evening first being to its sister called conscience.