Austin looked at me and then said,

“I did what I had to. But if you will stand against me, I might as well do with you what I did with Ryan.”

I chuckled a bit and asked him,

“So what, now that you cannot speak with logic, you will simply use terror to scare people?”

“Hmm… think whatever you want to think old man.”

His men grabbed me from behind and tried to drag me.

Few hours later, I was standing at the edge of a mountain’s top. On the other side, all I could see sea water and nothing else. Suddenly, I saw that a mob of nearly ten men was standing against me and they were forcing me to jump from there. Of course, I had to resist them all.

“Woah, you talk a lot,” the leader of the mob said to me, “you are also among those freaks who literally have the guts to face Austin.”

“And why should I be afraid of him?”

“Maybe you haven’t opened your eyes as of yet. You have no idea what Austin is capable of doing to you man.”

“Can it be worse than this?”

I taunted.

“Look, we know that you are Austin’s uncle which is why we have been instructed to give you one last chance.”

“I don’t need your sympathy. What kind of chance are you talking about?”

“Join Austin and give up Abraham and Jacob’s support.”

“What?”

“Jump off this island, or give up Abraham. It’s as simple as that.”

“I will never give up supporting Abraham. I’d rather die.”

“So, be it…”

His men approached me and pushed me towards the edge of the mountain. Of course, I lost my balance eventually and fell off.

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

Mr Hart ended his narration and got silent for a while.

The police officer had tears in his eyes and he then said to him,

“Wow, this is quite a

painful tale.”

Mr Hart had nothing to say.

“I must say,” the officer further said, “you are a man of great courage.”

“I am worried about my state right now. If matters won’t be resolved, then my state would be ruined. Austin and Thomas see nothing besides what is benefitting them.”

“Okay, what can I do for you?”

“Nothing much. Although, I would really appreciate if you would drop me back.”

“Oh, come on, that’s not enough. The matter’s quite worse. Here’s what I will do, I shall take you back and I will also send a small team with you who will be well equipped to make your force strong.”

“That might take a long time.

I just need to be there, that would be enough for now.”

“Look sir, just wait for two days only, can’t you?”

“No, two days period is too long. I can’t. Dropping me there would be the best thing at the moment, please.”

The officer gave it a long thought and then he finally said,

“Alright, how about this? Just for twenty four hours, you stay here. And while you return, you would not return empty handed. You’ll return with plenty of weapons. I need twenty four hours to arrange them.”

“Okay, what kind of weapons?”

“Machine guns and other similar weapons.”

“Okay, how about no guns and just plenty of bullets.”

“Okay, I can do that. And I will arrange some guns as well.”

The police officer stood up and then said,

“You are getting whatever you’re asking for within twenty four hours. In the meantime, you will have to spend the night at my place. It is at some distance from here.”

“Okay, thank you.”

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

Twenty Four Hours Later

Mr Hart and the police officer were on a yacht. The yacht was at the coast of Prestige Land. Mr Hart said to him,

“I’m sorry, but I can’t go through this route. There would be guards and they might not

let me in.”

“Oh, so now?”

“At a little distance from here, there is a cave like entrance, nobody is probably aware of. If you can take me there,

then it would be easier for me to go.”

“Sure, no problem.

Do you know the way?”

“Yes, I’ll guide you.”

Several minutes later, Mr Hart finally stepped out of the yacht holding a large bag of weapons and other instruments that the police officer arranged for him to take along.

The police officer asked,

“Are you sure you can find your way from here?”

“Yes, I’m positive.”

“Good. Although, it is too

dark here.”

“No, I’ll sleep here until the morning comes up. I’ll walk through during the morning.”

“Right. Well, I guess this is it.

We part ways now.”

“Yes. By the way, I’m very grateful to you. I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

“I seriously wish that I could have done more. I wish you the best of luck for rescuing your island from crime and corruption.”

“Thank you so much.”

They shook hands.

The police officer prepared

to leave.

Mr Hart walked towards the cave like side and whispered in his thoughts,

I had never assumed that I would ever be able to return alive to my homeland when I was thrown in the river.

He walked further until he found a comfortable place to sleep and take some rest.

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

Next morning, the old man after waking up in the morning finally made his way inside. He was now headed towards the castle. The bag that he was holding was quite heavy but he was very determined to reach there.

Hours later, he stopped somewhere where he found a group of mob filling a grave that was dug earlier. The general public around was quite upset and haunted.

Mr Hart asked one of

the civilians,

“What happened here?”

“There was a group of few youngsters. They were in favour of Abraham and were not accepting Austin as the new king. Austin’s men then caught two of them and after beating them brutally, they dug a

grave and…”

“And?” Mr Hart asked them feeling uneasiness in him.

“And they buried them both alive for only supporting Abraham.”

“Oh, my God…!”

Mr Hart was more than terrified on hearing this. He whispered to himself,

I better make my way faster or else Austin’s cruelty would not be controlled.

Two hours later inside the castle, Jacob found Mr Hart lying on the ground. Jacob rushed towards him and helped him stand up.

“Uncle Hart. Are you alright? Where have you been?”

“I am really tired,” he spoke hardly, “can you please take me inside?”

“Sure…”

Few minutes later, the two of them were seated on a bed.

“What happened with you?” Jacob asked him.

“Austin’s men, they pushed me from the mountain.”

“Oh, my dear Lord! Austin tried to kill you? And now he’s doing this with his family members as well?”

“We can expect this from him.”

“You know what I saw two nights back. Two nights back, Thomas threw a young woman from the top of a building.

I saw this with my own eyes.

I mean these guys are just out of control.”

“Look, all we have to do right now is get Abraham. One week has passed already.”

“You’re right. And we must hand over the throne to him,” Jacob suggested.

“That won’t be too easy but we have to stop Austin and Thomas with Abraham’s help.”

“Abraham is still locked up in that cell.”

“Well, the question is how can we release him?”

“Don’t worry, I know a person who can help us with this.”

Twenty four hours later, Abraham was inside the jail and was feeling quite sick. He heard someone making his way towards him. As he looked towards the sound of footsteps, he saw Jacob making his way towards him. Jacob said to him,

“Abraham, we have to escape quickly. With the help of two locksmiths,

I just broke inside.”

“This will create mischief.”

“There has to be mischief, Austin is mercilessly killing innocent people. He has buried people alive. He has murdered women as well.”

Abraham was seriously distressed on hearing this.

“Austin has taken over the state by force.”

“What about my commitment of staying inside the jail?”

“What the hell are you talking about? That was just for a week. It has been more than a week now. He didn’t keep his word, so why should you?”

“Sounds fair,” Abraham agreed.

Jacob helped Abraham

stand up.

Several hours later, while Abraham was sleeping in Jacob’s room inside the castle Mr Hart came and said to Jacob,

“We can’t keep him here.

If Thomas finds out, it would be really problematic.”

“I know but Abraham is sick.

I think they have been giving him poisonous food.”

“Poisonous food?”

“I guess. But whatever, we have to look after him.”

“All I’m saying is that we should do this somewhere else. Abraham is an asset for this state, he is our only hope. If he dies, then we cannot expect this state to improve and get better.”

“I know, I agree. We need to do something about Thomas, not Abraham. Let’s just distract Thomas.”

That moment Abraham woke up and said,

“I am fine. I am not sick. Just let me have a cold bath.”

Jacob and Mr Hart were really happy to see this.

Abraham then said something what they weren’t expecting but wanted to hear from him. He said,

“We are declaring a war against Austin and Thomas.”

“You’re saying this?” Jacob asked getting surprised.

“We are not waging a war at once. We will first ask them to step down politely and conduct fair elections. If they agree, it will be fine. But if they won’t, which is most likely to happen, we will then simply declar a war.”

“Okay,” Mr Hart said, “what kind of war?”

“The winning team gets to decide who will be the new king.”

“Oh…”

The three of them had a detailed conversation until they left for Mr Hart’s house.

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

Next morning, outside the castle, Abraham, Jacob and Mr Hart came in protest along with several citizens. They had a mic and loudspeaker that helped them enhance their voices. Jacob announced,

“We are here to announce that we are not accepting this government, since our current rulers are breaking laws that were initially devised by their forefathers. We are giving Austin and Thomas twenty four hours to step down from the throne and cooperate with us in conducting fair elections. If they won’t step down within twenty four hours, then we will declare a war. We might even attack over the castle.”

That moment, Thomas came on the window side and looked at them.

“We are asking you two to step down from the throne,”

Jacob continued looking at him.

Thomas through his gestures responded that they would not step down. To this, Abraham took the mic from Jacob and said,

“You have twenty four hours.

If you won’t, then we will simply wage a war tomorrow morning.”

Thomas was quite terrified to hear that.

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

Next afternoon, Austin was seated on the king’s chair until Thomas came who appeared quite worried and said,

“It has been more than twenty four hours.”

“I know. Trust me they will never do this. Abraham is too disciplined to do such an act.”

“What if he’s too honest to keep his word?”

That moment, they heard Jacob’s voice from outside

the castle.

“Oh, my God! They are here,” Thomas uttered.

“Alright, I’ll order the soldiers to guard the gates and start the attack of bombing.”

“I think we’re a little too

late now.”

Five minutes later, the soldiers from inside the castle threw two grenade bombs. The bomb explosion caused Jacob and Mr Hart to fell off their tank.

Seeing this Abraham ordered,

“Attack…..”

The war had begun. There was a constant crossfire of heavy weapons. The defense of Abraham’s side was quite strong which was why they weren’t getting shot. Austin’s soldiers on the top of castle were shot and most of

them died.

It was like a gang war and Abraham’s team was dominating. Thomas who came to the gallery side reloaded his shot gun but he did not have the bullets to fire.

Abraham sent his force of ordinary citizens and retired army officers inside the castle and ordered them,

“Just arrest Austin and Thomas, without hurting them.”

The crossfire kept on going until Jacob’s gun went empty.

“I need more bullets Uncle Hart,” Jacob yelled.

That moment from someplace that was on top of the castle, somebody made a fire from a shot gun. The bullet hit Jacob straight in his heart.

Abraham turned and saw his elder brother almost dying.

Jacob fell backwards with his eyes closed.

to be continued...