Austin exclaimed,

“The only person responsible for all this is surely the beneficiary of this incident. And who else than Abraham is benefitting from this?”

“Excuse me?” Abraham shockingly said looking at him.

“Yes,” Austin exclaimed, “You are the one who have done this. I know this for sure.”

“Austin!” Jacob scolded him. “Watch your mouth.”

“I don’t care about what you all think. I know that it’s him.

I don’t want any one of yours support, but I’m going to investigate on this matter and prove that Abraham is a criminal.”

“You know what Austin…” Abraham replied to him. “I’ll be very much pleased. I will cooperate with you in every way you’ll ask me to. I won’t move away from you unless you are satisfied. But mark my words, if you are unsuccessful, you shall be punished for the crime of slander.”

“So, this means that you will still be the king? Isn’t that why you devised that law?”

“That is absolutely a lie,” I finally spoke in between. “Austin, you are so crossing a line here.”

Jacob came in between and as he tried to calm us down, he said,

“Nobody is going to blame anybody. We all will resolve this matter like adults.”

“I am not sweet and chocolaty like you Jacob,” Austin said,

“I know how to handle criminals. Abraham here is one of them and you shall know. You will agree with me and you shall regret.”

Thomas walked in further

and said,

“We will find the criminal when we will know for sure. If Frederick is alive, he will come out himself.”

“I don’t think that he will…”

Austin left the room saying this.

********

The next few days, were really strange days. The state had no king and no government whatsoever. The news of Frederick’s disappearance had spread in the entire city and the ordinary citizens were quite worried and curious. It was like a hot issue that everyone was interested in.

I was surprised that there were some citizens who were talking ill of Abraham. Most of the people knew that Abraham was innocent but there were still some who were suspecting Abraham. This was also a topic of debate among the citizens but majority were in

Abraham’s favour.

Abraham had sent an entire team for Frederick’s search. He was quite worried about his young brother, and he was seriously not interested in the kingship anymore.

Jacob was in his support from the start and he was the only one who could look straight in Austin’s eyes.

Frederick’s disappearance had seriously shaken up everyone. We couldn’t sleep. We were all hoping that we would find him someday soon, but that was not happening. Two weeks had passed and there was absolutely no sign of him.

The dark time had come. A period of mischief had begun. Was I expecting this or was I not? I don’t know. But it was like a fire that was just a flame and was about to get fuelled up.

During this entire campaign, I saw that the brothers had divided into two parties: Austin and Thomas were on one side and Jacob and Abraham were on the other.

********

One night while Jacob, Abraham, Thomas and I were in the meeting room, Austin finally came and declared,

“Now as we all know that Frederick has disappeared and probably he’s dead. Therefore, we need to find a new king for the state. But before that we must punish the person who is responsible for Frederick’s disappearance.”

“I agree with you,” Jacob said, “but decisions will not merely be made by you or anyone of us. These meetings are held because the five of us agree upon a matter, form a consensus and then pass on the verdict.”

“That does not matter anymore. I know that one among us is the culprit.”

“Austin, listen to me.”

“I am more than confident that Abraham is the criminal. He was the only one who had to take over the throne after Frederick. He is the sole beneficiary of this crime.”

“Austin,” Jacob stood up angrily, “you are so crossing a line. There can be plenty of other suspects here.”

“Hang on,” Abraham said to Jacob, “let him complete.”

Austin continued,

“According to me, Abraham must be punished. He should be locked up in a cell.”

“Fine,” Abraham responded.

Everyone in the room was shocked including Austin himself.

“You can lock me up,” Abraham continued,

“If everyone in the room is agreed on this, I am willing to go behind the bars.”

“I am not one of those,” I spoke.

“Neither am I,” Jacob added.

“He should be punished,” Thomas spoke.

“I am in this favour.”

“Well, you can see,” Jacob said while looking at Austin. “Two against two, this is not a consensus.”

“How about three against two?” Thomas asked.

“Majority is authority.”

“Yes,” Austin said.

“If we get one more vote we can make this decision.”

Jacob and I looked at Abraham as he was the one whose vote mattered.

“Okay, I will go to the jail,” Abraham said. “But on one condition…”

“No Abraham,” Jacob instructed him, “we can’t leave this state without a king.”

“No, I’m fine with it. I will go to jail but I have one condition.”

“What?” Austin asked.

“Within one week, if Austin is unable to prove that I am really a criminal.

I will be released then.”

“Okay good,” I liked this

and said.

“One week is too less,” Thomas exclaimed.

“Fine, I agree,” Austin said waving his hand to Thomas to stay quite.

The meeting ended.

********

Twenty four hours later, Abraham was inside the lock up cell. This cell was really dark and one could hardly see anything in there. Jacob came inside holding a candle.

As Jacob got closer towards Abraham, he said,

“You took a really bad step yesterday.”

“I know what I’m doing. Anyways, thanks for showing up.”

“Abraham you don’t know. People out there are crying. The city is in a state of utmost violent riots.”

Abraham got a bit shaken as he heard this.

Outside in the state, there were absolute public riots taking place. People were burning furniture and other stuff. Almost everyone had come out in public and they were creating violence and damage of every kind. The police was not there to stop them because the police was involved with them.

All of this was happening because the state had no government at all. But the citizens had great love for Abraham, and they were doing this because of him.

Almost everyone wanted to see him free and their king like previous times.

Austin was the most stubborn and rigid person I ever knew. If only he would have given up his greed of having power once again, most of the problems would have resolved.

The destruction of the city did not matter to him because it was Abraham’s development. To my surprise, the so called educated civilians of the state were ruining the effort of Abraham’s reign. It proved that Abraham was unsuccessful in teaching these people how to behave as human beings. I’m sorry but that’s the truth.

Although, no human lives were lost in these public riots but there was great property damage. Not just men but even women were a part of this. Ryan was the one who motivated most of the people but I disagreed with his methods completely.

********

Three days after Abraham was locked in jail, Austin finally took a stand, a quite horrific stand that created fear in the heart of everyone. He called out Ryan outside the castle in front of everyone.

He asked him audibly,

“What is your motive?”

“I want to see Abraham as our current king.”

Austin gave an evil laughter and looked at the people. Then out of nowhere, within three seconds, he took out a knife from his pocket and slashed Ryan’s throat. Splashes of blood flew all over. Ryan died on the spot with his body shaking like a fish.

People got very terrified as they saw this. I was also haunted.

I was standing inside the castle and was watching the entire scenario.

“Now,” Austin asked loudly,

“is there anyone else who wants to see Abraham as their

new king?”

I thought that the general public would speak up but nobody did. Everybody remained silent to my surprise.

“Very well,” Austin continued, “it is now official and I believe clear before you all that I am the new king of Prestige Land.”

The people were still not making any move. So, Austin then said,

“If anyone has any objection, he can raise it right now.

And I will deal with him in my own way.”

Everyone was too terrified.

I was literally more than just surprised seeing this. I mean these people were so violent just a few days ago.

And now they were standing like coward lambs.

My query was however, answered later. As I came outside the castle, I saw that Austin was not alone.

On his left and right sides, there were canons. People were scared not just because of Ryan’s murder but the two canons on either side.

These were Franklin’s canons and they were only for purposes of war. Austin however, took them out and used them for his own benefit. People were now afraid and the ones, who weren’t like Ryan, were obviously losing their lives now.

All said and done, Austin had made his point. He wanted it so bad that he took over the throne through terror. No one sided him in our family except for Thomas. It was also clear to me that Abraham’s imprisonment was not temporary but permanent.

********

Next night, I was sitting alone, all by myself. I was not in my house, I was at the castle. I was thinking about many things at that moment but I made an analogy on Frederick’s disappearance as I remembered something.

I talked to myself remembering certain events of the past,

When Austin made an unfair decision in court, only Thomas was on his side. Even Frederick was against him.

Then, I remembered what happened at the last meeting when all five brothers were together.

“Alright,” Austin said trying to create mischief, “If Frederick dies before he becomes the new king, Abraham will get complete two years.”

Nobody responded. Abraham looked at Frederick.

“Sure,” Frederick spoke.

Oh, my God! I uttered.

Apart from this, I also remembered another encounter between Austin and Frederick.

When Austin was hitting Frederick with a whip, I rushed towards them and stopped them by snatching the whip away from Austin.

“What the hell is going on?”

I asked. “Are you out of your mind Austin?”

“He just criticised my methods. He thinks that he can be a better king than I was.”

“I did not say that,”

Frederick argued.

“Alright quite,” I yelled. “Austin is this any way to treat your brother?”

Coming back from my flashback, I stood up and said,

Now, it makes sense. Austin always disliked Frederick and Frederick also had the guts to stand against him. I think he is the culprit. Austin is the culprit. He is the one who has done it, if anything has happened as a conspiracy.

That moment Jacob came by my side and broke the silence. I looked up at him. He said,

“Look, what Austin is doing. We are not able to do anything against him.”

“Jacob, I want to share something with you.”

“Okay, I’m listening…”

“Austin is the real culprit here. He is behind Frederick’s disappearance.”

“I know, I agree with you.”

“He always disliked Frederick.”

“That is not enough to convict him,” Jacob answered wisely. “We have to do something practical.”

“Austin has been doing everything so that he could take over the throne once more and permanently.”

“He has made his place stronger. His gangster friends are given higher posts.”

“We all know that he planned to imprison Abraham so that his position would be stronger.”

“I know, Abraham has made the worst decision of his life.”

This conversation provoked me and next day I took a stand.

********

Next evening, inside the castle, I stood up against Austin and said to him in front of all the people,

“You have made your way unjustly. Abraham deserves to be on this chair.”

Enflamed Austin looked at me and said, “I did what I had to do. But if you will stand against me, I might do with you, what I did with Ryan…”

to be continued...