THE LION'S SHARE

  • 05 Sep - 11 Sep, 2020
  • Salaar Laghari
  • Fiction

Suddenly, Alfred heard someone knocking at the door. He asked,

“Who is it? Come in.”

The door opened slowly and Gwyneth entered inside. Alfred said kind of courteously,

“You? What brings you by?”

“Alfred, you have to come with me. There’s something you need to know.”

“I want nothing more than leaving this place right now, but for the moment, I want you to know that this phone’s battery has died.”

“Forget the phone, the phone’s not that important.”

“I want to know what happened further. I want to know how exactly I managed to kill my sister, making it look like a natural death.”

Gwyneth held her forehead tightly and said,

“Oh dear, would you please listen to me first?”

“Okay.”

“We have to get you out of here right now. The hospital staff should not find this out.”

“But what is the big emergency?”

“The big emergency is the truth. You need to know the truth, which no one besides me can share with you.”

“Okay, I will come,” Alfred got serious. “Do you have any escape plan?”

“No, but I think we can bribe the nurse.”

“Oh…I guess we can do that but unfortunately I don’t have any money.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll manage that.”

As she turned around and looked outside the door, Alfred wondered in his thoughts,

Why is she doing this? Why is she trying to help me out? Is it something about Ronald?

She looked back at Alfred and asked,

“Can you walk on your own?”

“Walk? Yes, I can. I can walk quite easily.”

“Great, alright just follow me when I give you the signal. Wait here, I’ll talk to the nurse…I’ll be back.”

Alfred was feeling a bit weird on her attitude but he was more excited about leaving the hospital permanently.

Oh dear Lord he whispered by himself, I’m finally getting out of this place. This place is more of a cell. A prison.

He immediately held the phone and the diary and other things that seemed important to him.

After around five minutes, Gwyneth entered inside the room and said,

“Alright, the good news is that we don’t have to escape like prisoners. The doctors have given permission to leave. The disappointing news is that they want Ronald to come and pick you up, so we are kind of trapped.”

“Wait…so Ronald can’t come? Is that what you’re saying?”

“No, I’m saying that he shouldn’t come. He is not allowed to see us. I have something to share with you that he does not want you

to know.”

“Gwyneth, seriously, what is going on? You’re worrying me.”

“I am not, what I am doing is getting you out of trouble.”

“Okay,” Alfred said feeling a bit embarrassed.

“Alright, now help me think this out. How can we avoid bringing Ronald here?”

“…We can tell them” Alfred spoke after thinking for a moment, “that he can’t come right now. He is stuck somewhere.”

“Either way they will ask me to make a phone call to him. I don’t know why they are so strict about this.”

“Can you bribe that person who is supposed to talk to Ronald on the phone?”

Gwyneth liked the idea

and said,

“Oh yeah, I can do that. I can do that. Good idea, let’s go.”

Alfred stood up holding whatever he had to. Gwyneth helped him pick up stuf

and said,

“Alright, you just stay quite. I’ll do the talking.”

“No problem!”

“As soon as we hit the road, there’s a lot that you will discover and it will literally blow your mind away.”

“Please tell me, Hannah is

still alive.”

“Oh no, I’m sorry she is actually dead. In fact, almost everything that you’ve heard in the voice narration is true.”

“Oh my God, no!”

“Okay,” Gwyneth said trying to calm him down, “don’t make noise. We have to get out immediately.”

They walked until they met some members of the hospital at the floor’s reception.

Half an hour later, the two of them were in Gwyneth’s car. Gwyneth was in the drivers’ seat and Alfred was in the front side passenger seat. Gwyneth began the conversation,

“Alright, now listen to me carefully, we are right now leaving for the library. You will stay there for the night. There’s one of your father’s servants who will look after you.”

“Okay, what about you?”

“I am going to go back to our house. I have to make sure Ronald is not keeping track on me. Next morning, as he leaves for work, I’m going to come to that library.”

“Okay.”

“I will clarify everything before you. You just to make sure that you will stay inside the library and not leave that place for any purpose.”

“Look, I really appreciate all of this, but I want you to know that I am very impatient. I can’t wait this long. I want you tell me what exactly is it that you are about to disclose.”

“It’s no big deal; just leave it for the moment. I will come tomorrow afternoon and share everything. In the meantime, you have to stay quiet inside the library.”

“Oh come on, why are you building this suspense?”

“Alfred, just leave it. I have a plan, I’m doing everything according to it. I don’t want to change it. Now just keep quiet and wait till tomorrow.”

“…Can I keep my sister’s diary?” Alfred asked after a long pause.

“Yes, you can.”

She didn’t talk further and kept on driving the vehicle.

Alfred looked at the city outside and observed changes in places he knew before.

Several hours later, they both were at George’s library. Alfred was sitting on some chair when his sister in law asked him,

“Alright, you’re all set.”

“Yes.”

“You sure you don’t need anything?”

“Positive.”

“Great. I’m leaving now.”

Alfred nodded courteously.

As Gwyneth started walking towards the opposite direction, Alfred looked at her and wondered:

I wonder what’s so different about her. She has never been this nice to me before.

He turned his face towards his father’s books and said,

How about I pass my time with this stuff?

He stood up and walked towards the shelf to pick some book.

*************

Alfred was roaming around in his father’s library. He was looking around until he could find something interesting to read. He heard some footsteps that were approaching towards him. He got vigilante trying to figure out where the sound of footsteps was coming from.

Thirty seconds later, he heard a woman’s voice from behind:

“Hey!”

He turned around and looked. He was just shocked to see his sister Hannah standing in front of him. She was wearing a white dress and there was no makeup on her face.

“Hannah! You?” he uttered with surprise.

“Yes Alfred, it’s me.”

“What are you doing here?” he asked her trying to move backwards.

“What did you think? You thought you would murder me and get away this easily?”

“Hannah, I swear I don’t remember a single thing. I’ve been told but I do not know how exactly I planted your murder.”

“Don’t worry about that” she said like a spooky woman, “I can remind you.”

Alfred moved backwards feeling terrified. He asked her,

“Are you real?”

“What do you think?”

He stepped on something while moving backwards, that instant he looked down at his shoes. It was a piece of bulb that he had cracked. As he looked back up, he saw Ronald instead of his sister. He was wearing black clothes.

“You?” Alfred asked feeling ridiculous. “What are you doing here? I was talking to Hannah.”

“Hannah?” he chuckled with sarcasm. “You had her dead, how can you be seeing her?”

“What is this Ronald? Is this some kind of joke? Are you guys planting some kind of prank over me?”

“Maybe we are, maybe we aren’t.”

Provoked Alfred held his brother by the collar and said,

“Alright, I want to know the truth. What games are you guys playing with me?”

“We’re not kids Alfred. You need to wake up and see things realistically.”

“No, answer me. What have you been doing?”

“Nothing, you’re the one who murdered Hannah.”

Alfred pushed him and left his collar. Ronald then cleared his shirt and took out a knife from his pocket. He held the knife close to Ronald’s face and said,

“Are you willing to face the consequences of your actions?”

“What?”

Ronald threw the knife straight towards his face.

Alfred woke up from his dream instantly and found himself sleeping on the chair and table where Gwyneth left him earlier.

Oh, my God! What a horrifying dream that was.

He then shut his eyes tightly and said,

I was so terrified. Hannah was alive. I think I feel guilty already.

He looked up on the wall clock. He commented,

Oh dear, I’ve been sleeping for two hours.

He stood up from the chair and walked towards another side of the library. He looked at some aisle and said,

Hey this one resembles the place in my dream.

He walked away from the spot as it made him feel uncomfortable.

Alfred was walking towards the exit of the library when one of the librarians came before him and said,

“I’m sorry sir, but you are not allowed to leave this place.”

“I understand, but I need to sit outside for a couple of minutes.”

“I’m sorry, you can’t unless ma’am allows you to.”

“Look I’m feeling really panicked over here. I need some fresh air. Just give me five minutes. I’ll have a power walk and I’ll leave.”

“Alright, wait here,” the librarian said picking up the phone, “let me just call Ma’am Gwyneth and see if she’s okay with it.”

“Okay,” Alfred answered nodding his head.

Alfred looked around at his father’s library to see if he could bide his time here. After a minute, the librarian who had just talked to Gwyneth said to Alfred,

“Sir, your sister in law is on her way.”

“On her way? You mean she’s coming here?” Alfred asked getting surprised.

“Yes, she’ll be here within a few minutes. She wants you to wait here.”

“Wait, but wasn’t she supposed to come and meet me tomorrow morning.”

“Yes, she was but I think she has changed her plan.”

Alfred said giving an expression of being okay with it,

“Alright, whatever suits her good.”

Deep down, he was very happy that she was showing up as he was getting bored in this place and wanted to hear what was hidden from him.

Half an hour later, Gwyneth arrived. Alfred saw her from quite a distance and ran towards her. As the two of them were standing face to face with each other. Alfred saw that her forehead’s left side had a huge red bruise. It was actually bleeding.

“Oh, my God!” Alfred uttered seeing her, “what happened to your face?”

“We don’t have much time. I must tell you what you need to know immediately.”

She walked towards the other side of the library. Alfred followed her and asked,

“Alright, I will listen to everything but I want to know what changed the entire plan and what exactly happened. Did someone try to attack you?”

“Alfred, just and get the first aid box. The librarian over there has it. In the meantime, I have to get something.”

“Sure, I’ll get it.”

While Alfred was walking towards the librarian, he turned to see what Gwyneth was doing. He saw that she took out a small box from the shelf of books. Alfred wondered,

What is she up to?

Five minutes later, Gwyneth had a bandage on her forehead. They both were sitting on the chairs. Alfred said to her,

“Now if you’re feeling better, can we please get to it?”

“Sure…Just let me begin from where I remember.”

“Just tell me one thing, what I have heard in your voice’ narration, it was actually yours and not someone else’s?”

“Yes it was mine but what you need to know is something else.”

“Okay.”

“I will begin by showing you these two papers.”

Gwyneth took out a large and a small piece of paper.

to be continued...

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