How did the door get unlocked? This has only one explanation. Mr. Kingston came here after he dropped me.

I don’t care. I just have to be by myself right now.

I turned on the lights and walked inside. I was hoping that Mr. Kingston would be seated inside, so I called out:

“Hello! Is anybody here?”

I checked all the rooms briefly and found no one, so I came to this conclusion that no one was here.

I went to lie on my bed and as I did, I felt really comfortable. I felt that the cops would never catch me here.

Surprisingly, my guilt had decreased and my craving to discover my identity had woken up again. Maybe because of passage of time, the wound had healed.

I woke up from my sleep after three hours. Everything that was going on in my life was coming up one after another in my mind. One thing that I wanted to get rid of was not sparing me; and that was my desperation to discover my true identity. I just couldn’t give up desiring it. This curiosity was my destruction signal.

I left my bedroom after a while and switched on the television to see what was going on in the news channels.

I surfed different news channels but only one was talking on the affair I was interested in. This was not usual, this was a news that snatched the ground away from me. The news reporter claimed:

“The investigating officers have stated that they have found the CCTV footage of the criminal who planted the bomb. The video is not clear at the moment but it will be quite soon and the criminal’s face shall be revealed soon”

Oh my God. I exclaimed quite soundly. I am so dead. What am I going to do?

I switched off the television and flee away from the lounge heading towards the exit. I don’t know why I was leaving my house as it made absolutely no sense, but I climbed up the stairs until I reached an open terrace. I stood there alone and felt a bit cold. It was seasonal shiver or frightening shiver, I don’t know. But it sure felt hard on my bones.

That moment I heard someone making his way upwards. I don’t know who it was but I seriously didn’t want anybody who knew me to be by my side.

Anyways, he came up and revealed himself.

“Oh God. It’s you” I said to the person I recognized.

As the mysterious person who was following me came up and revealed himself.

“Oh God. It’s you” I said to the person I recognized.

It was Luke.

He moved forward slowly representing that he was not going to harm me in any way. In a very inaudible and tender voice, he spoke:

“How are you Henry?”

“Excuse me?” I answered trying to pay attention.

“I’m just asking as a friend…How are you doing?”

“I’m as usual”

“I see. Do you think your memory is improving or recovering?”

Now the two of us were standing quite close. I was looking up at him since he was quite tall heighted. I answered:

“No my memory is the same. Can I ask you, what are you doing here?”

“I’ll leave if you want me to. But I just want to make sure that you are doing ok”

“Actually I’m not” I answered looking aside. “How about we have a little chat?”

“Sure. Great” he answered. “Why not?”

I went by the railing of the terrace and he followed me. He was acting absolutely like a normal gentleman, but I had unfortunately lost faith and confidence in humanity. Or probably it never existed.

Anyways, while the two of us were standing looking outside at the city, I asked him:

“So how are the girls?”

“They are fine actually, I had to ask though. What was all this creating terror bringing one of them to your house and holding a knife?”

“I don’t want to talk about it. Tell her I’m sorry”

“Ok fine” he said folding his arms.

“What is your opinion about the recent bomb explosion?” I asked after a short instance of silence.

“Well I feel really bad for the three of them. It was very tragic for Roald, his wife and his sister”

“Roald?”

“The owner of the house. The one who died with his family”

I felt deeply upset on this and also understood that he had quite some awareness about these people.

Ask him. Ask him what he knows. A voice came from my heart.

“Who were these people? Can you tell me about them?”

“I know some stuff, like they had recently moved”

“I want to know in detail about these people”

“Actually I think I can help you but for that you’ll have to come out of the building”

“What do you mean?”

“I was with some friend of mine, he works for a magazine company. He told me that some brother of Roald, he came. He came to his office and gave them a detailed interview”

“Oh”

“Yeah and they recorded his interview. I mean his voice. We can listen to that audio. Actually I’m not quite interested, but I can ask him to share it with you”

That moment I remained silent for a while and then a cunning idea came to my mind and I asked him:

“Do you remember once I told you that I don’t trust you?”

“Uh yes, but let’s move on”

“No, wait. Listen to me first. You can gain my trust again, if only you can arrange that audio recording for me”

He seemed quite surprised and gave an expression of absurdness. He asked me:

“Why do you want to know about these people so desperately?”

“I saw the news and I am curious, like everyone

else is”

“Ok, sounds fair” Luke replied expressing fairness from my side.

“So you will arrange it?” I asked anxiously.

“Yes, yes I will. I need few days though”

Two Days Later

Inside my apartment during the night, I was seated when I heard the door knocking. I stood up to answer the door and quite as expected it was Luke. He was holding a USB right in front of me.

“Thank you” I responded.

Minutes later, I was looking at some cheap cell phone in Luke’s hand,

“The entire audio is in this phone as well” he told me, “if you want you can listen to it on this and keep it for one day”

“Are you sure I can keep your phone for one day?”

“Yes. I have no problem with that. I will collect it tomorrow or maybe day after tomorrow”

“Ok, I hope it won’t be difficult for you to…”

“…Don’t worry” he answered before I could finish my sentence, “I have another phone, I’ll manage”

“Ok thank you. Very generous of you”

He stood up and said:

“Ok I have to run some errands”

“Ok”

“I’ll leave”

I stood up to show some respect and walked with him to the exit. He asked me what really annoyed me:

“By the way Henry, I want to know why you are so desperate to know about these people”

“Please Luke, my name is not Henry”

“Excuse me?”

“Alright, please don’t call me Henry” I was trying to avoid the actual subject.

“Ok, I’m sorry”

“No, thank you for your kindness”

I shook hands with him and politely shut the door while he was outside.

Several minutes later, I was looking at the phone that he just gave me and I asked myself:

Have I been rude? What difference does it make? I have destroyed human lives, should hurting someone’s feelings matter to a person like myself?

I don’t know what happened but I felt very heartbroken quite suddenly. My own answers were hurting me.

I had become an animal. I did not like this at all. Hurting others is not a good thing. I knew this subconsciously. I should make up for my mistakes.

This crying and sorrow was not going to get me anywhere, which was why I diverted my attention back to what I had in my hand. This cell phone, either I should listen to it or I should not.

I just know that it might really break my heart. I won’t be able to live peacefully once I hear out about these poor people that I have killed.

I’m not living in peace at the moment as well, so what difference might it make.

I found the audio I was told of and saw that it was one hour long. I played it for few seconds and heard:

“Alright Mr. Jonas, we will not interrupt you. Start your narration from the beginning”

I paused the audio and kept the phone aside.

Instead of listening to it in the lounge, I had to hear this in my bedroom. Keeping my body balanced was very important right now.

My body was now resting on the bed and I was listening to the audio. The narrator began:

“I was related to Roald and Martha as their brother. Roald recently moved to that house with his sister Martha and wife Lisa but unfortunately he was unaware of the fact that his enemies would find him there. Let me go back a little and start from the beginning. Roald and Lisa lived with their parents in Las Vegas, but since the lifestyle of people there was not suitable for these teenagers, their parents shifted their kids to this city. Roald was managing everything by himself. He found a job and completed his bachelor’s education. Later however, he found this girl Martha and after falling in love with her, he married her. The couple was spending a peaceful time until they came across some criminals. There was a gang that used to smuggle arms and weapons of all kinds. These were people of the underworld; they had a huge network as far as I know. A small group of these people simply favored Roald in some way and then they asked for a huge favor in return. The criminals wanted him to hide their arms and weapons in his house’ basement; not the house that was exploded but his previous house. Poor Roald reluctantly accepted and helped them but it got worse one day. One day Martha who lived in a separate apartment came for a visit. That very day, those criminals brought a dead body to Roald’s house and asked him to hide it. Roald did not want to do it, so he took a stand. He simply refused and scolded these people, this got worse and the criminals started blackmailing him. The three of them were quite upset and wanted to redeem for his mistake. Anyways, they arranged a separate house for rent and secretly shifted during the night. Unfortunately the criminals discovered about them. All this time, I was unaware completely. I was informed two days before the blast. So the three of them were living a stressed life.

I blame my brother for this but what has happen cannot be prevented. The criminals kept on blackmailing from their different networks, but Roald believed that they would never find them there.

The family stayed there for four months, or probably less. One day finally the incident occurred. The house blasted in an explosion”

I stopped the audio and threw the phone aside. I was literally crying and hating myself for what I did.

What have I done? I asked myself loudly.