BLOOD

THE MISCHIEF ENDS, SEASON: 3
  • 26 Sep - 02 Oct, 2020
  • Mag The Weekly
  • Fiction

That evening, around seven o’clock, Rizwan and Rahman entered inside the hospital. They were walking slowly until they finally reached the room where Khattab was admitted.

Rahman knocked the door. Some unknown man opened the door and allowed them to enter inside.

As the father and son entered inside the room, they saw Khattab lying on the bed with his eyes shut. However, he opened his eyes and looked at his old friend Rizwan.

The moment Khattab saw Rizwan, a memory flashed before his eyes. He remembered the last time he saw Hannan. The moment was of the time when Hannan handed over a piece of paper to him and said something quite important. The paper he was given also appeared before his eyes.

“Are you alright Khattab?” Rizwan asked him.

Khattab got distracted and nodded his head once.

Rizwan and his son walked closer towards him, and Khattab said,

“Rizwan?”

“Yes dear, what is it?” Rizwan spoke kindly.

“I don’t know how much time I have, but there’s something very important that I want to talk about.”

“Okay, I’m listening. What is it?”

“I’m sorry, but I want you to be alone,” Khattab said quite hardly.

Rizwan turned and looked at his son. Rahman understood and slowly walked out of the room leaving them both alone.

Rizwan then walked closer towards Khattab and asked,

“Alright, what is it that you want to talk about?”

“Just drag a chair and sit down. I want you to hear me out completely.”

Rizwan felt for a moment that whatever he was going to talk about was something very serious and important.

Rizwan however sat next to him on his bed and said,

“Okay, I’m listening now.”

“Rizwan…I want to apologise for something.”

“Apologise? What for?”

“Please just hear me out. There’s something that I have tried to hide. My conscience was really heavy because of it.”

Rizwan gained quite some interest and paid more attention to what he was trying to say.

“I am a criminal,” Khattab said. “I am your criminal.”

“Khattab, are you sure you know what you are saying?”

“Yes, I am in my senses.”

“Okay, then tell me exactly what’s bothering you.

I want every detail about what you have been hiding.”

“Do you remember our last encounter with Hannan?”

Rizwan felt a bit shaken and then remembered about it. He shut his eyes and remembered some scenes of the encounter.

Rahman getting hit on his face through machine guns by two goons, appeared before him.

Getting shot on the thigh appeared before his eyes.

And Rahman throwing the hand grenade in the garage which led to bomb blast also appeared before his eyes.

Rizwan opened his eyes and said with a heavy heart,

“Yes, I remember that.”

“Do you remember how Zakariya went inside and talked to Hannan?”

“Really?” Rizwan asked trying to recall. “I don’t seem to remember.”

“Well, it happened. But what else happened, you should know that too.”

“Look Khattab, I am getting mixed signals here. Tell me is this going to come out as a surprise or something.”

“I’m afraid, it will. The point is that the whole truth won’t be revealed before you right now.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“I’m just saying that you have to find the rest of the truth on your own. I am just going to reveal half of it.”

“Khattab, please cut the chase and just get to it.”

Khattab shut his eyes and felt some pain in his body.

Rizwan was getting really curious, so he gave an expression of furiousness.

“When Zakariya confronted Hannan…” Khattab said.

Rizwan paid complete attention now.

“…he talked to him,” Khattab continued, “He was holding a paper in his hand. He said that Zakariya must give this to you or your son. However,

I appeared when Zakariya was shot dead. I saw the paper.

I found it in his pockets. So, instead of handing it over to you, I hid it.”

“Okay, what happened next?”

“I read the paper and decided not to give it to you. But what happened several months later was that I went to the central jail myself. I paid a special visit to this person.”

“Hannan?”

“Yes,” Khattab answered spontaneously swallowing his guilt.

“What then?”

“I went inside his cell. I showed him this paper. I asked him what was all this about. He said some words. I never told you about that conversation.”

“Look Khattab, it is a little too late, but I think we can manage to make things right.”

“No, Rizwan.”

“What? Why?”

“I’m just saying that I don’t have the courage to reveal that conversation right now. But I can let you know through some other channel.”

Rizwan was getting a bit irritated now, so he said,

“Alright, just tell me whom should I go to.”

“You can go to a specific location. I have kept both the original paper and our jail’s conversation’s paper in some box.”

“You wrote that conversation?”

“No, only what he said to me.”

“Okay, now where will I find this stuff?”

“It is in another city.”

Rizwan held his fore head with frustration and asked,

“Can you just tell me everything in one sentence?”

“My daughter Mahnoor is here in the hospital. I have explained everything to her. She can guide you with everything you need to know.”

“Okay, I’ll go to her,” Rizwan stood up as he said this.

“Rizwan?”

Rizwan looked at him. Khattab joined his hands as if asking for an apology.

“It’s okay,” Rizwan said. “I’ll come back to you within an hour.”

“Great. Thank you.”

Rizwan stepped out of the room holding his stick and saw his son standing with his arms folded on his chest. He asked his son,

“I hope, I didn’t leave you bored here.”

“Not at all, I just want to know what he was saying. Is everything alright?”

“Yeah, it’s all fine. But your uncle has done something terrible?”

“What is it? What has he done?”

“I don’t know for sure. What I do know is that it has something to with Uncle Hannan?”

“Hannan?”

“Yes, he says that his daughter knows all about it, and she can take us somewhere where we can find the truth.”

“If his daughter knows everything then, why can’t we simply ask her? Wait, I’m getting confused here, why you aren’t asking it directly from Uncle Khattab?”

“He is not willing to. He says that he can’t, he doesn’t have the courage to. But his daughter can help us.”

“No, tell me something here,” Rahman said trying to clear the confusion in his head. “Are you saying that his daughter knows exactly what he wants to share?”

“No, no it’s not that. She does not know or maybe she does, I’m not sure. I just need to see her right now.”

“Is she here in the hospital?”

“Yes, she is.”

“She is?”

“Well, at least that old guy inside said that.”

“Oh, come on Dad,” Rahman said feeling a bit offended, “you shouldn’t speak like that for Uncle Khattab.”

“I know, I’m sorry. I’m just fed up with him. He lied first and now he is not revealing the whole truth.”

“Why isn’t he? Is he too afraid to?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what it is.”

“What if he has done something really terrible? Shouldn’t we try to get it out of him? I mean he should reveal it himself.”

“Forget him, I might lose my temper in front of him. I just want to meet his daughter Mahnoor.”

“Okay, where would she be?”

“And secondly,” Rizwan continued, “I might have to leave the city for a few days.”

“Okay, is it because of this ‘finding the truth’ stuff?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t get it, why can’t we simply make it easy. Solve it over here.”

“No, there was some paper. There was some note that Hannan gave to Zakariya”

“A note? What kind of note?”

“That moment during our last encounter with them.”

“Oh, my God? Really? What was in that?” Rahman was shocked for a second.

“I don’t know what was inside. But I do know that he wanted it to be given to us.”

“Uncle Khattab told you that?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, now I’m beginning to worry.”

“I know. I’m feeling the same.”

“Maybe, he wanted to apologise for everything.”

“What does he have to apologise for? He killed my only daughter and son. Does he think apology would be enough? No, an apology is not enough. There must be something else, something very important.”

“Yeah, I suppose. You’re right.”

“Anyways, now where is Mahnoor?”

“I don’t know. Why don’t you wait here? I’ll go and find her.”

“Okay.”

“And one more thing,” Rahman said before leaving.

“Yes?”

“Once we are going to get in touch with Hannan and his family, there would be mischief. It shall begin again.”

“I know. But I’m not afraid. I have handled this every time.”

“Yes, you’re right. We have nothing to be afraid of. We are truthful; we are not guilty of any crime.”

“Exactly!”

Rahman left the spot to find Mahnoor.

v v v

Inside a bank, a crowd of people was gathered as if they just recovered from a situation of chaos. The team of city’s police was just inside the bank and the leading officer asked the manager who was in charge,

“What happened here?”

People of the bank started chattering, so the manager answered raising his voice,

“There were three robbers. They stole our bank’s vault.”

Everyone else got silent. The police officer asked,

“The entire vault?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, can you tell us a little about them?”

“Well, all I can say is that they were experts. They were deadly accurate with whatever they wanted to achieve.”

“You do have a CCTV video right?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll need that immediately.”

“Okay, I’ll arrange that. But I think that the robbers have not escaped quite yet. They must not be very far from here.”

“Don’t worry I have already sent the team for them.”

“What else do you have that is important?” the police officer asked.

“They were all skillful but their leader who was wearing the white mask unlike others…”

“…Were they all masked?”

“Yes, with clothes. Anyways, what I’m trying to say is that their leader was very expert and very fast. He was just damn good with what he was capable of.”

“I see.”

Meanwhile at some distance, Jafar who had grown quite older than before took off his white mask. He was in a van with his two partners. He was sitting at the back seat and was smiling as if they were quite successful with their mission.

One of the partners who were in front said,

“I thought there might be some trouble, but we did it.”

“Don’t worry” Jafar said, “My plans are always successful.

I always think way ahead of these people.”

“I know, it took you more than twenty years to become this expert.”

“Yes, that’s true.”

There was silence for a minute, until Jafar heard his cell phone ringing. He took it out to answer the call. The driver of the vehicle said,

“No Jafar, don’t answer that call. They might be tracking you.”

“Relax, I always have a plan for situations like these.”

Jafar answered the call,

“Hello?”

“Is everything okay?” the same police officer who was inquiring in the bank said from the other line.

“Yes, we are far ahead.”

“Great, I have sent my team to an entirely opposite direction.”

“Good, you’ll get your share by tomorrow.”

“And one more thing, the bank manager showed me the CCTV video clip.”

“And?” Jafar asked curiously.

“And it wasn’t quite clear. You guys were not visible.”

“Great, make sure you keep an eye on their investigations.”

“I will, don’t worry.”

Jafar disconnected the call and said,

“All clear, we are free as birds.”

v v v

Next morning at Rizwan’s house, Rahman came for a visit. He rang the bell while he was standing outside.

As Rizwan opened the door, Rahman said right away,

“I had a conversation with Mahnoor. She said that the case can be made easier.”

“Really? How come?”

RELATED POST

COMMENTS