I got angrier and realised that something was going on but according to someone else’s plan. So, I just left this restaurant and moved outside of the area.

A minute later, while I was standing outside, a tall young man who was having a coffee came by my side, and asked me:

‘Excuse me, Mr can you please tell me about a location…’

‘Okay but what location?’

‘I’m new here and so I have to meet someone at this restaurant,’ he said while showing me a piece of paper in which a location was written.

I told him about where to go and then he seemed pleased and said:

‘Thank you very much sir! By the way my name is Alex…’

I didn’t respond and looked away. He meanwhile threw his coffee on my shirt and said to me:

‘Listen, I’m Linda Morton’s boyfriend as well.’

While saying this he walked away very fast. I got stunned for a minute and then realised that this guy was the reason due to which my wife had dumped me. So seeing the scenario, I understood that things were about to get worse. I then immediately thought of following Alex but I stopped, and began walking towards the other side.

I walked on the other side of road and went to a taxi. I sat on a taxi and asked the driver to take me to Petunia’s house.

As I reached Petunia’s bungalow, I gave the driver his due amount and walked towards the gate. I knocked her gate many times but no one came outside until fifteen minutes passed. So realising of some trouble, I just banged the door that it burst opened. I entered inside and checked around but no one was at home.

I began to walk outside, but on the inside of the main door, I found a note attached with tapes. I read the note:

‘Petunia Hick Has Been Kidnapped and If You Want Her Alive Wait For My Call!!’

I got frightened and realised that there was danger around. According to me there was someone very mysterious behind these troubles, so I just left her house and rushed straight towards my hotel.

That evening, before nine o clock, in my room, I made a direct phone call to Clark. He answered:

‘Hello Graham, what’s up?’

‘Clark, I’m in danger. Today, at first, my car glasses were busted, then I wasn’t allowed to book a room at the hotel, and then again someone threw coffee on me. And that guy who threw coffee on me was no one other than my wife’s boyfriend.’

‘Hold on! Wait a second! You’re saying that you met your wife’s boyfriend?’

‘Yes, and other than this Petunia’s also been kidnapped.’

‘Oh, my God, Graham do as I say. Just wait for one day, and don’t leave your room. Tomorrow morning I’ll come to your place and then we’ll find the person who’s behind all these troubles.’

‘Okay, see you, bye.’

I disconnected the call and lied on my bed, thinking about the mysterious person who might be behind all this stuff.

The Call that kept me Waiting

That night at sharp two o clock, I was sleeping until a phone call disturbed me form deep sleep. I woke up and saw my cell phone ringing with a landline number. I quickly answered the cell phone:

‘Hello!’

‘Hello Graham Norton,’ an unknown voice replied, ‘How are you?’

‘Who… who is it?’

‘I’m the voice that you’ve been waiting for…’

‘Wait a minute,’ I said getting a little confused, ‘are you the person who is behind all these problems?’

‘Yes, Mr Morton…’

‘Oh boy,’ I whispered to myself, ‘Okay sir, I know you’re someone that is smart and dangerous. So please just tell me who are you and what do you want from me?’

‘Umm may be, a sort of revenge…’

‘Who are you? Tell me your name,’ I asked again.

‘I know you have a friend Clark and a girlfriend Petunia, if you want them to be safe then you’ll have to come to my place alone with the help of an address that I’ll get you somehow.’

‘Just a second, first tell me is Petunia in your custody?’

‘Yes and if you want her to be safe then you’ll not tell Clark about this call or else… your friend Clark will be dead and Petunia will be out of your life as well…’

The call got disconnected. I got quite frightened and realised that I couldn’t ask for any help from Clark because his life would also be in danger. Then I just made a phone call to Clark,

‘Hello,’ he answered in a sleepy voice.

‘Hello, Clark, I’m really sorry to disturb you at this time, but I’ve found the person behind all of this, and I’ll be looking for him from tomorrow.’

‘Really? Who is it?’

‘I’m not allowed to tell you about him so I’ll talk to you after I get that person.’

‘Did he give any details about himself?’

‘No, but I’ll get him eventually,’ I replied, ‘you just don’t worry about it.’

‘Okay then Graham, good night!’

‘Good night!’

We ended the calls, and I then eventually went back to sleep. But I couldn’t sleep well that whole night an was just thinking about that mysterious guy.

The Address

Next morning, as I got up from my bed, I made a direct phone call to my school’s colleague Danny. He answered my call:

‘Hello, Graham!’

‘Danny, I need to talk to you about a matter to be resolved urgently. It’s very urgent.’

‘Okay but why do you sound so tensed?’ he asked.

‘Come to my hotel, I need to tell you about someone.’

‘Okay just give me a couple of minutes, I’ll be on my way shortly.’

‘Thanks, see you soon and good bye,’ I said ending up my call.

After the call, I had my breakfast and thought of calling Clark, but changed my mind and didn’t call anyone.

An hour later, my room’s bell rang. I knew it was Danny, so I went to see, and it was really him. He entered inside as I allowed him to come in. He gave me a piece of blue paper in which I saw an address of an apartment building. He said to me:

‘Someone was standing downstairs who gave this to me and asked me to give it to you.’

‘This is Clark’s handwriting,’ I said examining the handwriting.

‘Your friend Clark? You mean that he sent you this address.’

‘No, it’s quite a long story,’ I said to him, ‘we need to go somewhere in your car right now.’

‘Okay but I want to ask one last thing, did your car had an accident?’

‘Well, my car didn’t destroy like that in an accident, instead it was purposely done by someone.’

We both left my room, and the hotel. We were headed straight to the address given to us. We sat in his car and he drove it fast to reach before anything would happen to Petunia. While looking at Clark’s handwriting, I said to Danny:

‘You know something. The mysterious unknown person can fool anyone by copying anyone’s handwriting. But he can never make me a fool by copying mine. Because I can easily recognise my original handwriting and my original signature.’

‘We all are aware of your pride, but I don’t know anything about what’s going on.’

I told him the entire story of the past few days and the incidences that had occurred.

I Don’t Want to Believe this

As Danny and I reached the location, I rang the bell and we were feeling quite frightened to see who might be the person, and were thinking of what was about to happen with us. Someone unknown to us opened the door and left a way for us to enter inside.

As we entered inside, we saw that it was not such a horrifying place as much as I had expected it to be. So we kept on walking forward looking around everywhere. The man who had opened the gate saw the pistol in Danny’s jacket. He came closer to us and said:

‘Try not to use this pistol okay.’

We got surprised hearing these words. According to us, he was supposed to take this pistol away from us, but instead he allowed us to move on with it. So we just ignored him, even though the situation was quite suspicious. We kept on walking forwards and finally saw someone lying on floor with hands and feet tied with ropes. When I went closer, I realized that it was no one other than Petunia.

All of sudden, some unknown voices began to come from the speakers attached on to the walls, the voice was saying:

‘Hello Graham Norton, you’re doing great. You’ll enjoy this very much. I’m very much excited about what is about to happen right now.’

‘Who are you?’ I asked getting frightened.

‘Do you remember what I told you? That if you’ll tell Clark about this, then he will definitely die and Petunia will be out of your life

as well.’

‘Oh God, he knows,’ I whispered realising that this person had kept a big eye on my every act.

Then, I heard some footsteps approaching towards me. I felt sort of goose bumps, realising he was coming.

As he showed himself, to my life’s biggest surprise ever, it was my friend Clark Hay. I got a shock that my heart beat went faster and faster and I sighed in heavy voice:

‘Cl-Clark, tell me it’s not you…please someone tell me it’s a dream.’

‘Okay just shut up now!’ he exclaimed, ‘So all these incidents that are happening with you are my actions or you can say that they are being done under my order.’

‘I know but I don’t believe this, because I don’t want to believe this…I just want to know why, why are you doing this with me? What do you want?’

Clark took out a knife from his pocket and cut both the ropes that were tied on Petunia’s arms and legs. And then he said:

‘Do you remember that I said I want a revenge from you?

I lied…’

‘You just said,’ Danny said to him getting confused and angry, ‘that Petunia would be out of his life, and Clark which means YOU would die, how’s that going to happen?’

‘I know and I’m about to die, right Graham?’

I got a little angry thinking what Graham was up to or was he playing any tricks with me, so I said to Danny:

‘Shoot him!’

‘Are you sure Graham? We might be in danger afterwards…’

‘I don’t care!’ I exclaimed, ‘He deserves to die, and to stop all these strange troubles occurring in my life, I have to kill him.’

‘Okay, I’ll just shoot him,’ Danny said taking out his pistol.

‘One moment Graham, I’m warning you,’ Clark said showing his knife, ‘if you’ll kill me right now, you’ll escape from here easily. But later, you may be in great danger, think about it.’

‘I don’t care,’ I said firmly.

‘Anyways, I would like to tell you that there’s a very important note kept inside the drawer of your side table, read it and don’t just regret after reading it.’

I heard what he said and then held Petunia’s hand and began walking away with her. Danny snatched the knife from him and stabbed him somewhere around in his body. As Petunia and I were walking away, we heard Clark screaming in pain. As I looked behind, I saw Clark’s body on ground, with blood on his chest.

I opened the exit door from where I entered and left with Petunia. Danny followed us from behind. As we were on the corridor, Petunia stopped and hugged me tightly,

‘Oh Graham, thanks a lot for saving me. I’m so sorry for leaving you away, please forgive me.’

‘Oh, don’t be sorry,’ I replied, ‘I still think of you every moment. I’m not upset with you. And there’s no need to worry now, because Clark’s dead so there aren’t going to be any more problems happening to any of us.’

As we left each other from hugging, I saw a look on her face after which I sort of developed some feelings for her.

to be continued...