In Search of Identity

  • 13 Nov - 19 Nov, 2021
  • Salaar Laghari
  • Fiction

Mr Kingston laughed maniacally and pointed his gun straight towards my face.

I was scared. I won’t lie, I’ll be honest here. I was afraid and I couldn’t do anything. Luckily, my brain worked and I found a way to escape these criminals.

I sat on the ground with my hands down. I picked up the ashes of dust and after standing up threw them straight towards his face. Mr Kingston’s eyes caught them and he moved backwards, accidentally firing his gun.

As the other three got confused and vigilante at the same time, I simply flipped forwards and escaped the place.

I ran as fast as I could as this was the only thing I was really good at.

While I was running, Kingston’s dialogues and my conversation with him were echoing around in my head,

“So, you all have been pulling a wool over my eyes altogether?”

“Actually…we have been pulling it away from your eyes.”

I shook my head with regret realising that my troubles could have been resolved a lot easily than what I was after.

“Your name is Henry Eckhart.”

I commented thinking about this,

Unbelievable!

Then, I remembered how the other faked their names and how they just cleared them,

“My name is Roald.”

“My name is Martha.”

“And my real name is Lisa.”

Tears started falling down my eyes and I said to myself,

How unjust has this been?

While I was running,

I realised that they had lost me and I was far away from them and I told myself,

No matter what happens,

I have to get this man arrested. I live, or I die, doesn’t really matter…This man should be hanged.

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

Suddenly, everything just by in front of my eyes all over again in flashes…

As it got a little clearer,

I assumed that Mr Kingston was approaching towards me, but I felt very astonished when

I saw Luke making his way towards me.

“You?” I asked making sure that it was him only.

“Whom were you expecting?”

“How did you get here? Were you following me?”

“As a matter of fact,

I was following you…”

That moment, I heard other footsteps from another corner and paid attention to who it was. Two women were approaching towards me and they were none other than my so called friends from the university, the blonde one Ellison and the brunette Linda.

“What the hell?” I responded as I got really stunned.

“How are you Henry?”

Ellison asked me.

“Is this some kind of joke? Are you guys about to pull a prank over me?”

“You will get your answers today Henry,” Luke said to me.

I understood something very horrifying in that moment and said it out loud in words, right in front of them,

“So, you three have been working for Kingston all along? Am I right? Yes, tell me if I’m wrong.”

“You are absolutely right,” Linda said to me.

“Bring him over here. Bring your boss right in front of me so that I can give him a piece of my mind.”

That moment, a car came rushing and stopped by our side. From the passenger side seat, Mr Kingston opened the door and stepped outside. He walked towards us and stood between Luke and the girls.

“So, you all have been pulling wool over my eyes altogether?” I asked with sarcasm.

“Actually…” Mr Kingston replied, “We have been pulling it away from your eyes…”

I was getting seriously angry on these people so without any further delay of moving away from the subject, I asked them straight,

“However, you three are related to each other, I don’t care. Just tell me who I am and…”

“Your name…” Mr Kingston spoke handing over my identity card and other documents to me, “is Henry Eckhart.”

I took my card and other papers from him. Seeing what was written on them kind

of shocked me and I asked myself,

I really am Henry Eckhart, and these people were not lying to me?

“I hope you are satisfied now,” Luke spoke.

“What was all this drama then?” I asked furiously.

“Excuse me?”

the blonde uttered.

“You were the one who didn’t believe us,” Luke spoke further.

“Mr Kingston,” I said looking at Mr Kingston, “I don’t want to talk to these people but you have to explain this, why didn’t you clear this when you could

just have…”

“I think you know the answer to this.”

“Planting a bomb? Just to use me for this crime, you made me believe firmly in their falsehood that actually wasn’t even there.”

“This was my entire plan.”

“These people: Luke, Ellison and Linda have been working for you since the beginning?”

“No. Luke, Ellison and Linda have not been working for me.”

“What do you mean?”

I got really confused.

“Let’s just say that your suspicion about your identity was not completely wrong. Your suspicion was right. The only difference is that you were suspecting your own things, but in reality the identities of these three were replaced.”

I looked at the three of them and asked Mr Kingston,

“What do you mean? These three aren’t the ones who they are claiming to be?”

“Yes,” the brunette spoke.

Luke came one step forward and said,

“My name is Roald…”

“My name is Martha,” the blonde spoke.

“And my real name is Lisa,” the brunette lastly added.

“Oh, my God!” I held my head as I was more than just stunned.

“The people who died in the explosion” Mr Kingston spoke, “they were actually Luke, Ellison and Linda.”

“What?”

“Yes, they were my actual victims.”

“Wait,” I said trying to untie the knots in my mind, “if they were Luke, Ellison and Linda, and these three are Martha,

Lisa and Roald, does this mean that the story I learnt through that magazine interview was a fake one.”

I looked at Luke hoping he would answer me.

“Everything was true in that story,” Mr Kingston replied. “Except that the names were replaced. And the person who gave that interview was not actually their relative but was someone from my team.”

“Oh, God! You people are sick.”

“Are we?” Lisa asked. “Or are you Mr terrorist?”

I looked at her angrily but then said looking at Mr Kingston,

“I am not going to let you win. Mark my words, if I am going to hell, you people are coming with me as well.”

Mr Kingston laughed sarcastically and asked,

“Do you think you can out win a person who has way smarter brain than you can ever have?”

“I don’t know about these three, these are just your assets, but you, you are going to rot in the prison cell with me.

that’s for sure.”

“We’ll see,” Mr Kingston said taking out a hand gun from inside his pocket.

I was all silent and I had nowhere to run or escape.

“Shall we explain it from the beginning?” Roald asked Mr Kingston.

“Sure, why not?” Mr Kingston answered.

“What happened was that…”

“…Wait” Mr Kingston interrupted him, “I will narrate this to him.”

Mr Kingston who was walking around where he was standing began,

“Initially, I secretly acquired your documents, your original documents and after meeting four of you I then gave you a task of crime. This is about the time, when you were fine and had no memory loss. You people were bound to oblige me because I had already discovered a crime you guys did of fixing the arcade games during the tournament few months back. I was blackmailing you guys keeping your original documents with myself.”

I tried to recall that time but I couldn’t remember anything.

“The task failed,” he continued, “It failed and ended up in an accident and you lost your memory.”

“What was this task? Planting the bomb?”

“Yes, then I asked these remaining three to bring you back to your normal state of mind and continue the task. It was quite difficult and unrealistic.”

Twelve Hours Later

I was inside the police station. More than ten cops had surrounded me from all sides.

I did not have much to confess except what I did,

“I am an Amnesiac. I have no clue about who I was or where I am from. I just know one thing for sure that my name is Henry Eckhart.”

“Henry Eckhart,” The police officer seated at the desk responded. “We already know that. We have discovered everything about you since your face was revealed.”

“Okay…”

“Can you tell us about whom you were working for?”

“I will give you every last detail. I might even lead you to him. But after this, I want to know what will be my reward.”

“Your punishment might be reduced to a huge extent.”

“Alright! His name is Kingston. I’m sorry, I can’t seem to remember his full name.”

The officer browsed through his laptop and requested,

“Give me a minute please…”

I nodded my head.

After a brief moment, he turned the laptop towards me and asked,

“Is this the guy you are referring to?”

I looked at the JPEG image on his laptop and quickly responded recognising the face,

“Yes, that’s him. That is exactly the person I was working for…”

“Okay, now answer this question. Before the bomb plantation, was he or was he not with you inside the car.”

“Yes, he was. I mean he was the one who dropped me there and gave me that bag.”

“Perfect,” he said hitting the desk. “Our job is made

easy now.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, you will just play your role as an approval. And then this guy will be behind the bars and soon hanged to be dead.”

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

Two Days Later

Mr Kingston was seated in his office. He appeared quite stressed even though he was all alone in the room. His cell phone was ringing but he wasn’t answering Roald’s call.

That moment, two police officers opened his room’s door and entered inside. Mr Kingston was more than just upset seeing them.

One of the police officers exclaimed,

“We have a warrant for your arrest.”

Mr Kingston simply looked down at the floor and didn’t respond through words.

One of the police officers took out the handcuffs. This made Mr Kingston even more disappointed and he asked,

“Can I talk to my lawyer?”

“Yes, you can.

But only inside the police station, remember that.”

Mr Kingston shut his eyes giving an expression of anger and regret. He then asked them,

“Can you tell me what this is about?”

“It is about the bomb explosion that you were a part of.”

Mr Kingston simply stood up and said,

“Alright, take me…”

Several hours later, Lisa and Martha who were standing together were having a conversation,

“Roald seemed quite upset,” Martha said to Lisa looking at her.

“Did you talk to him?”

“Yes, he just called few minutes back.”

“What was he saying?”

“Well, I… Uh…”

Martha’s phone began to ring that instant. She saw that it was Roald’s call again.

“It’s him,” she said and answered the call.

“Hello?” She answered the call.

“Guys we have a big problem,” Roald spoke from the other line.

“What is it?”

“Mr Kingston has been arrested. Henry went and told the cops everything.”

Martha’s cell phone dropped from her hand and it broke open.

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

One Month Later

I was seated alone in the prison cell of the central jail. Even though I was a prisoner, I was happy with my life mainly because my guilt was reduced. I was remembering whatever that happened in the last month.

The trial went for three weeks. Mr Kingston, Roald, Lisa, Martha and myself; we all were defendants but Mr Kingston was the court’s center of attention.

What happened with the four of us? I’ll tell you that later. It didn’t really matter to me though. Mr Kingston, he was proven guilty and he was sentenced to death. Within one more week, his sentence shall be carried out.

As far as I am concerned, I shall be released in one year. Just because I cooperated with them and helped them uncover a huge criminal mafia, they favoured me by reducing my sentence.

Another reason, why I would be released sooner is my mental condition. This amnesia that I was suffering from convinced the court that I was closely similar to an insane person who wasn’t aware of the rules and laws of the state.

While I was all alone in my prison cell, I remembered how the close relatives of the three people who died because of me forgave me while understanding my mental health condition. Although,

I haven’t forgiven myself completely but the burden on my conscience is reduced to a huge extent and I am thankful to God regarding my current blessings.

One lesson that I have learnt in my life is that one must not trust strangers. Even the two girls were complete strangers and I shouldn’t have trusted them in the first place.

RELATED POST

COMMENTS