Next day, Ronald was out of his home but was about to return. His wife Emily was with J.L. in guest room. J.L. was giving her a bundle of dollar notes and they were having a conversation:

‘You talked about abortion again,’ J.L. says, ‘that made Ronald believe that you really don’t love him. And now he’s looking forward to die. This is what Megan wanted and you’ve done this for us.

Thank you.’

‘But J.L., are you sure that Ron will eventually commit suicide. What if he over comes? Because I can’t get married to my boyfriend unless he dies.’

‘Don’t worry, he will die…’

‘And who’s Isaac?’ she asks. ‘I’ve heard a lot about him.’

‘Well, he’s Ronald’s suicide partner or you can say just a friend. But we want him to die because he has greed of our money.’

The doorbell rings. They both get alert and stand up realising that Ronald must have arrived. Emily points towards another corner of the room and says:

‘Go and hide behind those curtains, Ron won’t be able to find you there.’

J.L. does as she says so. Emily stands up and walks towards the door and opens it. It was Isaac on the gate. J.L. gets surprised seeing him as they weren’t expecting him. Emily says to him:

‘Who are you?’

‘I’m Isaac Silken, Ron’s friend.’

‘Oh, come inside please,’ she says out of mind.

Isaac comes inside and walks around. Emily remains the door opened and looks at Isaac. Isaac comes straight to the point and says:

‘I’m sorry ma’am, I don’t want to do this. But whoever ordered me to do this offered me great amount of money. And I couldn’t refuse.’

‘What are you talking about?’

Isaac takes out a revolver from his coat and aim’s her forehead. Emily gets breathless in fear. J.L. looks at him from behind the curtains and wonders why he was doing this. Isaac presses the trigger and fires a bullet on her fore head.

Next moment, Emily was lying on ground with an injurious hole on her fore head, bleeding all over. J.L. gets astonished and did not believe his eyes. The only question that arose in his mind was that why did Isaac kill his friend’s wife.

At that very moment, Ronald arrives at his home and sees his wife lying dead. He was already distressed and now he was out of his mind. He understands that Isaac has done this but gives no reaction. He falls over his wife and tries to wake her up without saying anything. But he was crying at the same time, still hoping that she would wake up.

Isaac leaves his home, seeing his friend cry. J.L. also leaves following Isaac. J.L. hears Ronald cry out aloud and feels painful for him.

Outside in streets, J.L. stops Isaac and asks:

‘Why the hell did you kill her? Have you lost your soul?’

‘No J.L., I was penniless and I needed money to recover. Someone offered me money to do murder, so I had to do this without thinking about Ron.’

‘You don’t care about your friend?’

‘I never did,’ Isaac replies firmly.

Saying this Isaac walks away from him. Seeing him go away, J.L. wonders who must have ordered Emily’s murder.

Time for vengeance

That evening at the backstage of Megan’s Theatre, J.L. narrates the entire incident of murder to Megan. She gets quite stunned and says:

‘Well, it is unbelievable. But at the same time it’s good for us.’

‘Good for us? Our person Emily has died and…’

‘…Listen to me,’ Megan interrupts, ‘look, now the love

of Ronald’s life is dead and

now when he won’t be able to face this tragedy. He’ll only commit suicide.’

‘Oh you’re right.

But what about Isaac?’

‘He’ll also die, because he committed a murder crime. The police won’t spare him.’

‘But Megan, that requires strong evidence.’

Megan stops and thinks for a while that strong evidence could only be found if the person who hired him is found.

Few days later, at Ronald’s home, he had just finished his wife’s funeral. He had nothing except for furious anger in him. He was filled with vengeance against Isaac and had taken an oath that he wouldn’t die unless he would kill Isaac

with his own hands.

One day, J.L. comes to his home but Ronald doesn’t

allow him to enter inside and directly says:

‘I can’t allow you here. Neither do I want any sympathy. Just tell me what do you want?’

‘Well…’ J.L. says pretending to be honest, ‘I’m really sorry for your loss, but before doing anything harmful at least tell me what you are up to?’

‘I’m first going to find and kill the person who was behind Emily’s death and then I’ll kill Isaac in Megan’s Final Challenge.’

‘You’ll end up getting hanged.’

‘When I have nothing left to lose, dying is the only thing

left to do.’

Ronald shuts his door.

Isaac surprises Megan

Next morning, Isaac was in a restaurant having his breakfast. Megan and J.L. arrive at the same place following him and sit next to him,

‘So, what brings you here?’

Isaac asks.

‘We want to know two things from you,’ Megan replies, ‘firstly, if someone gives you my final challenge, will you accept it.’

‘Yes, I definitely will, because I have the escape plan. Why are you asking is anyone about to challenge me?’

‘Yes, it’s your new rival Ronald.’

‘As I was expecting, because I’ll show him that his vengeance is of no use.’

‘You killed her wife Isaac, don’t you feel bad about that?’

‘Many people get killed and hanged in your show, didn’t you ever feel bad about that.’

‘That’s not your concern,’ Megan replies angrily.

‘Well, there’s one thing I like about Ron. He is against your show, he wants your show to be banned or closed forever.’

‘So?’

‘So, Ma’am Megan Smith, I’ll do my ex-friend and current rival a favor, I’ll keep a condition of getting your show closed if I survive your final challenge… And I’ll also keep the second condition, which is that I’ll get your entire wealth after surviving.’

He stands up, keeps his bill and goes away outside the restaurant.

Angry Megan still follows him and sees whatever he was doing. Isaac was standing outside lightening his cigarette, but he stops when someone aims his fore head with a pistol from left.

It was Ronald.

‘What do you want?’

he asks Ronald.

‘Revenge, my wife and my child died with your hands.’

‘Then challenge me on Megan’s Theatre. And for your information I didn’t do that murder on my own will. Your unfaithful wife’s boyfriend ordered me to do this.’

Megan, who was standing afar, gets shocked as she learns that her own worker got Emily killed.

Isaac removes the revolver from his head pushing Ronald’s hand and leaves him alone in mockery.

The last challenge

On Thursday at Megan’s Theatre, the owner of The Suicide Game comes to Megan’s Hall on her request. He was Mr. Ethan Troy. Megan and Mr. Ethan were on stage next to a table with a paper document kept on it. He signs the agreement in front of everyone and says:

‘According to this agreement, if our next contestant who is going to be B in Megan’s Final Challenge survives, then my show will be over forever. My signature’s done here, and Megan’s signature in this agreement means that if the B contestant escapes Megan’s Final Challenge performing any escape trick fraud or honest, then she’ll hand over her entire wealth to B.’

Megan closes her eyes in fear of realising that her wealth and career was on a bet.

‘So, Megan will continue the show, but first I want the two contestants A and B on stage.’

Isaac and Ronald come walking towards the stage

and audience gives them a great applaud.

While they both are on stage, Megan stands next to Ronald and says:

‘He’s A contestant.’

Then she walks towards Isaac and says pointing him:

‘He’s our B contestant.’

The audience claps for both of them. Isaac and Ronald slowly turn their eyes towards each other. Ronald had hatred and vengeance in his eyes.

And Isaac had competition against him.

Megan declares out loudly:

‘Mr Ronald which means A contestant will get a machine gun with one fierce bullet. And he’ll shoot it straight on B’s head. No one has ever managed to survive this challenge. But let’s see what’s about to happen.’

‘Tell us something about your trick,’ Mr Ethan says to Isaac.

‘Well sir, I don’t want to make it useless’ Isaac replies.

‘But I got to tell you one thing, that I’ll be applying a fraud trick to escape death.’

The audience likes this and cheers for him.

As the show was over, Megan and J.L. were following Isaac secretly as he was going towards his home. He turns around and sees Megan. She comes closer to him and asks:

‘Isaac, on Sunday it’s going to be the biggest moment of your life but you are supposed to tell me your escape trick after you have planned it.’

‘Well Megan, my escape trick is simple. Listen carefully, Ronald will aim my head with the machine gun and then as you’ll fire the pistol, the lights of your Theatre will be turned off.’

‘Turned off? Who’ll turn them off?’

‘My man who’s going to be standing at the power place of your Theatre.’

‘So?’ she asks.

‘As the lights will go off, I’ll move aside immediately on my left side. Ronald will fire not knowing that I won’t be standing next to his gun’s aiming point. And then when the lights will be turned on, I’ll be found alive in front of everyone.’

‘What if Ronald doesn’t shoot?’

‘He has to. You know why. It’s because it’s written in that agreement that the A contestant has to fire his bullet the very moment he hears your gun shot’s sound.’

‘Well, your trick may be clever. But it’s riskier,’ she replies.

‘I’m not exactly dodging the bullet. I’m making a fool out of Ronald’s aiming direction.’

‘Well, remember that it’s your last challenge, all the best!’

Ronald joins hands with Megan

Next day, Ronald was at his home preparing himself for fierce competition. He was intended to kill Isaac and knew that he would be hanged later onwards. He was not worried about himself but was afraid that Isaac might not escape his death this time.

His doorbell rings, he goes to see and it was Megan.

He allows her to enter inside and asks:

‘So, how can I help you?’

‘Actually, I’m here to help

you Ron…’

‘How come?’

‘Your rival has a very clever

trick, and I’m here to disclose that to you…’

‘I thought you weren’t allowed to do this according to your rules,’ Ronald says getting suspicious on her.

‘Look, you want your revenge by killing him. He’ll die only if his escape trick fails. And it’s only if we both work together then his trick will fail.’

‘Okay, I have no problem joining hands with you, but there’s something else that brings you here. I’m sure you have no such thing as sympathy for me, then why are you going against him?’

‘For the obvious reason Ronald. Because my money and entire career is being gambled, if he survives on Sunday, then I’ll lose everything I have.’

‘I see,’ Ronald says getting a clear picture. ‘He must be surviving by cheating,

and you’re double crossing him as well.’

‘Yes and he shouldn’t know that we both are affiliated.’

‘So, what’s his plan?’

‘He has done arrangements of getting the lights closed as competition begins. He believes that you’ll shoot him as you’ll hear my gunshot’s voice. But you won’t shoot him.’

‘Wait, hold on,’ Ronald says getting confused,

‘I’m not getting it, who’ll turn off the lights?’

‘His man…but here’s what you’ll do. He told me that he’ll move towards his left side as the lights will go off. So, his left side means your right side. So, as the lights shall go off, you’ll change your aim towards right and then fire your bullet.’

‘Well, your idea sounds accurate. But what if we stop his man who’ll be turning off the lights.’

‘We are doing this,’ she says, ‘J.L. will be following him.’

‘Oh, so you aren’t leaving any stone unturned.’

‘Well, did you catch the person behind your wife’s murder?’

‘Yes, I killed him a day ago,’ Ronald says standing up and going to another room.

Megan gets shocked hearing this as she realises why he wasn’t attending her calls. She tells herself that Ronald was also a fool who never understood that she always wanted him to commit suicide. Likewise, Ronald never understood that Megan always wanted Isaac to die as well, which was also a major reason why she was helping Ronald by double crossing Isaac.

to be continued...