Once I was done with my research, and I was sure that I had read everything that I needed to, I just made one statement in my mind:

Octaland incident was not a tragedy. It was a conspiracy.

After this, I took out a white A4 size paper along with a pen. I started writing. I cannot explain how much surprised I was after discovering the truth about Octaland mystery.

So anyways, I started writing, and at the moment my mind was so occupied with this truth that I just discovered that I wasn’t feeling what I was actually feeling. And that was extreme hunger, extreme thirst and extremely hot.

Days of my past appeared all differently in front of my eyes. Everyone I could remember from my family or Lindsay’s family appeared really stupid to me.

I entitled the page: ‘The Truth About Octaland’. I started writing down the truth that I had discovered and in quite a clear way so that if I had to read it before everyone then it would be easy for me to.

Meanwhile, Lot Hector was sleeping in his house, when he heard his phone ringing. He answered Vernon Leaf’s call:

“What is it? Why are you calling at this hour of night?”

“Do you know the latest news of today?”

“No, what happened?”

“Aaron Tribiani, brother of your prisoner Gabriel Tribiani has left for the Octaland Island.”

“What?” Lot asked sitting up. “Really?”

“Yes, it’s true. He has left on a boat and is going to return with those books. Books written by our ancestors.”

“Oh my God…I don’t know what to say. I mean it’s a good thing, well actually, a great thing but what if those books prove that Gabriels were on the right path all along.”

“It can be possible.”

“You know what? Let’s meet tomorrow at my place.”

“Sure, no problem!”

Back at Octaland’s library, I had made my one-page note. I had summarised the entire Octaland reality in not more than thousand words. This truth was known to no one but me. I had spread it like fire. Unfortunately, there were no signals here. And there was no internet either. Otherwise, I would have sent this to everyone I could.

Hours later as I saw the sun rising, I packed up all the stuff that was necessary. I packed all the diaries written by Hector and his brother Gabriel. I also packed the notes written by Zion Cesar and his tribe.

As I walked in the library for a while I spoke:

I wonder nobody even knows why this island is called Octaland. They don’t really know that this island has eight sides and looks like an octagon, if you look at it from above.

I realise how illogical those people are. Be those Gabriels or Hectors, they know nothing about properly analysing the books and point of views of both sides.

Getting too emotional or sentimental must be stopped and ended. After revealing the truth before them, I must conclude my speech by giving them this message that no good comes out of being overly emotional and expressive of every feeling.

One hour later, the guard outside the library who was sleeping on his chair woke up by the sound. It was the sound of the door opening. I was coming out of the library. I said to him:

“Alright, I’m leaving now. You can come with me if you want to.”

“I would if I could…”

“Look, if you want to settle at an urban city then you have no other option besides coming along with me right now.”

“But what about this library?”

“You can hand it over back to the ones who appointed you for this job.”

“Oh, well, I guess I can do that…”

“And secondly, I’m never coming to this island again.”

“I understand,” he replied. “So, when are we leaving?”

“We have to leave right now. Just arrange some food and water for one entire day.”

“Entire day? You mean next twenty-four hours.”

“That’s right!”

Tom Collins was sitting really furious in his room. His brother came and asked:

“Are you angry about Aaron making his way to Octaland?”

“Why else would I be angry?”

“Look calm down, there’s very little chance that he shall return safely.”

“There should be no chance at all,” Tom answered standing up. “Now I will have to do something.”

“What do you mean?”

“Now we must appoint our men on the harbor…”

“Appoint? You mean to keep an eye on the sea.”

“On the sea, but at Aaron specifically. The moment he comes here, we have to get hold of him and make sure he doesn’t make his way to the Gabriels or the Hectors.”

“So, we should kill him?”

“We can if we have to…But not right now. First, we need to know what he has discovered, from Octaland!”

Few hours had passed, the library’s guard and I were at the coast of the island. We were pushing the boat towards the water and we had been doing this for quite some time.

Now as the boat was on water, and the two of us were sitting on it. I gave him the oar and instructed him regarding the rowing of the boat and also about the directions leading back to our city.

We started rowing the boat together. I made sure that I was carrying all the books and notes, and most importantly my speech which was the short summary of the entire Octaland conspiracy. The sun was clearly visible and there was quite some light. This time my effort was reduced since I had a rowing partner.

At my father’s house, Uncle Ralph and my father were seated really surprised and tensed. My father said:

“I can’t believe it. Aaron really left for Octaland!”

“Yeah I’m surprised too. I just hope that he returns home safely.”

“We can only hope for that…”

“But the thing is…Shawn, that since he has visited the island and he is the only one, so what he knows is true. What we know about Octaland incident might not be true, but what he knows is definitely true.”

“Yeah, most definitely!”

At Lot Hector’s house, he had gathered plenty of his family members, cousins and close relatives. They all were seated on chairs and sofas and the room was almost full. Lot was standing between them and speaking to them:

“Look Hectors, today I have this news about which most of you are already aware…But what I’m trying to convey here is different. Aaron Tribiani is the first person ever of this generation who has personally visited Octaland Island. And regardless of the fact that he belongs to our rival family, we must appreciate his effort. Don’t take me wrong please but he has discovered the truth and we must…”

He stopped speaking for a moment, one of his cousins asked:

“We must what?”

“We must keep our family biasness aside and listen to the truth. If he brings those old hand-written books and diaries along then we have no option but to snatch those books, read them and then discover the truth.”

“Wait so you’re saying,” some relative spoke, “that what we all know about Octaland tragedy is not completely true?”

“I’m afraid so. The absolute truth lies only in those handwritten diaries.”

There was a little noise in the room as everyone was quite shocked after hearing this.

“…My friends, I have called you all here to instruct you that we are not supposed to get violent. We have to find out what he has discovered peacefully. First, we will try to attain those books by gently negotiating with him. We shall offer him his brother, we’ll offer him huge amount of money as well. If he accepts our offer, well and good, but otherwise we will have to attain those books the high way.”

Everyone in the room agreed.

 More than twenty hours later, I finally reached back at the harbor. The guard was sleeping at the moment and I was the only one awake at the moment. After getting a little closer, I felt my cell phone vibrating. I realized that there were signals now. I took it out from my pocket and read the text messages that I had just received. Most of them were from Lindsay. I read the last text message that got me alert:

There are some men planning to kill you the moment you arrive. They must be waiting at the ship harbor.

I was a little surprised as to how she knew about this. But then I realised that my father in law must have been told through the Hectors that they were planning to kill me.

So anyway, I woke up the guard and as he gained some consciousness, I said to him:

“Alright, listen to me very carefully. Some men are out there who are planning to kill me right now.”

“Oh, my God!”

“But they don’t know who you are. So, what you need to do is take all this stuff including my cell phone and get to my wife’s house, which is actually my father in law Mark Martinez’ house.”

“Oh, okay,” he understood. “But what stuff do I have to carry along and how would I get to your home? I mean I don’t have your address.”

“Not my home, my father in law’s house. Please, no mistakes!”

I showed him my wife’s cell number and said:

“You’re going to have to dial this number and stay in touch with her.”

“I’m sorry but I’m an illiterate person as you know. I don’t really know how to use this cell phone.”

“Oh, my God!” I got a little irritated and tensed.

I calmed down and spoke:

“Alright, no problem…I’m going to note down the address on a piece of paper. You’re going to have to show it to the taxi. A taxi is a yellow vehicle.”

“Yellow coloured vehicle?”

“Yes exactly, you will show the address to the driver and he shall drive you there.”

“Fine, that’s easy!”

I took out some money from my wallet and handed it over to him saying:

“This is what you’re going to pay him with.”

He took it from me and looked at it as if he was seeing it for the first time. I then quickly noted down the address on a small piece of paper and handed it over to him saying:

“This is the address.”

“Okay!”

I then handed over my bag that had all the books. While giving it to him, I instructed:

“This is the most valuable thing. It should not be lost or taken away, do you understand?”

“Okay, I will take care of it.”

I looked at him for a while giving an expression of seriousness.

He stood up. I helped him climb the harbor’s wooden floor. He left the spot rushing in speed as if running for life. The next moment, I wrote a long text message of instructions and sent it to Lindsay and her father, so they could communicate with the guard I just sent.

Now, I prepared myself for death. I wasn’t really afraid since my goal was accomplished. I jumped out of the boat.

I vigilantly walked on the harbor until I saw four men approaching towards me. They weren’t holding any weapons but one of them was holding a rope and a black cloth. I understood that they were kidnapping me, so they could take me to their boss.

 That evening, my wife Lindsay and her father were seated together in her father’s room. They were holding the speech I wrote. And the room’s bed was holding all the diaries and notes acquired from Octaland. Lindsay said to her father:

“Aaron said that we have to get that guard a job at the city.”

“I know, don’t worry about it. I know a vacancy that shall be suitable for him.”

“Okay good, and what about Aaron now? I’m worried if he’s still alive or Tom Collins has done something worse.”

“No, he wouldn’t have,” Mr Mark answered. “As long as Tom doesn’t know the whereabouts of these books, he is harmless to Aaron.”

Meanwhile at Tom’s house, his men unveiled my face taking off the cape. The moment I looked at my friend sitting in front of me, I got brutally shocked. He looked at me with an evil look in his eyes. I uttered:

“Oh, my God! Tom, you?”

“There’s no need to get shocked. Since you know the actual story behind Octaland conspiracy, you now also know who the true villain behind the entire family rivalry is…”

“I don’t know anything the Octaland conspiracy,” I lied. “I didn’t find anything there.”

He was stunned for a moment but then he caught me lying when he cleverly said:

“Do you know who I am? I am one of Zion Cesar’s descendants.”

“What?” I reacted. “You mean you have been fuelling this family rivalry this entire time?”

“Got you,” he said pointing his finger towards me. “You have read all those diaries and notes, haven’t you?”

I was speechless but now I began to understand everything that happened in the past. So, I said by myself a little louder:

“Oh, my God! so it was him who got me married to Lindsay in the first place.”

“That’s right. It was a setup!” he replied.

“And you suggested me to move from one city to another.”

“And one more thing…

Your brother Gabriel never murdered that guy Jimmy. It was me. I planted that murder on him.

It was all a setup.”

I was more than stunned, to be really honest. I have no words to describe how shocked I was.

That very moment at my father in law’s house, Lindsay said to him holding the paper that had my speech:

“Alright, I’m finally reading the truth about Octaland history.”

“Yes, you read it then share it with me…”

Lindsay began reading…