It Yahya’s home, he was sitting with his two friends Usman and Shan in his room. They were drinking some soft drink and eating snacks as if they were celebrating. Yahya spoke excitedly:

“That insurance company’s officer has won my heart. It is because of him that more than fifty per cent dislikes of my recent video have turned into likes. And all those subscribers who unsubscribed my YouTube channel have returned.”

“Yeah, that’s great” Usman spoke, being happy for his friend.

“And the best part is that my forecasting is being praised and most of the negative comments have been removed.”

“So what do you say?” Shan asked him. “Should we make another video as a response after this?”

“I don’t think we should.” Usman suggested.

“Why not?” Yahya asked looking at him.

“It would appear as if the comments mattered to you.”

“Sorry? Come again?”

“I mean to say that if you would respond then it would appear to your viewers that their opinion matters to you.”

“Oh yeah, right. Now I get it. I agree you’re right.”

“But we can include this content in some other video…” Shan recommended.

“Yes, we’ll think about it later.” Yahya spoke picking up a glass of soft drink.

“Right now it’s time to enjoy the day.” Usman chuckled having a sip.

Meanwhile, at Professor Shahrukh Rizwan’s house, he was sitting in his luxurious room. He was watching videos on YouTube in his large sixty inches LED TV. He heard his room knocking. He spoke, raising his voice:

“Come in.”

His eighteen-year-old son came inside. He looked at his son and said:

“Hey, Arshad, where have you been? I haven’t seen you for a while.”

“I was going to say the same for you,” his teenage son said to him. “Dad, why do you stay out all day? You hardly spend any time at home.”

“I know dear. Its work that keeps me out. Believe me, I want nothing more than spending time with my family.”

“But even months back when you were banned, you hardly had any time for us.”

Shahrukh smiled and said to his son:

“Come here son, sit with me.”

His son went closer and sat on the couch close to him. After a moment of pause, Shahrukh pointed his finger towards the large library with more than a hundred books in its shelves. He said to his son:

“You see that Arshad? I’ve spent several years on that. It took me more than a decade to be what I am today. This is what is covering our house’s expenses. This knowledge is generating my salary today. Do you get it, son?”

“I know that Dad, but I’m just saying that family is also an important part of your life.”

“I know Arshad. I agree with you. But what you need to understand is that you can’t waste something that you earned out of a lot of hard work. Reading all these books multiple times and memorizing the important parts requires a lot of effort. And you can’t just waste that. You’ll understand someday”

“I hope I do. Because of the way I see, I think no matter what you do, blood relations are always more important… than any other thing.”

“You’re right son. You’re absolutely right. The world thinks of me as a bad person. In fact, everyone in this country thinks that I am not a good person. It’s you, my family, who values my greatness. You are the ones who acknowledge my positive side. I do value you. Trust me I do.”

Arshad smiled and looked at his father.

“You are my only son Arshad,” he said quite honestly. “I really wish that I had another son like you. When I was your age I always thought of having two sons, who would grow up to be like their father.”

“Why two? Why not three or more.”

“Two is a team. Three is a crowd,” Shahrukh chuckled.

Several weeks later.

Yahya was sitting all alone in his classroom. He was waiting for someone. Moments later, he received a text message. He read the text message:

I’ll be there in a minute.

It was from a girl named Javeria.

Minutes later, the room’s door opened and some girls of his age entered. He stood up as he looked at her and asked politely:

“What took you so long?”

“I’m sorry Yahya, I really am sorry. I just wanted to get everything out of my mind before being here with you.”

“Anyways, let’s sit at the cafeteria.”

“Sure, why not.”

They left the place.

Inside the cafeteria, the two of them were seated face to face. They were having lunch together. Javeria said to him while they were about to start:

“I’ve seen your videos. And one thing’s clear to me…”

“And that is?”

“That you analyze very deeply. You think with different perspectives. And you think ten times before coming up with a conclusion.”

Yahya smiled and didn’t respond. She then said to him:

“But aren’t you afraid of threats? I mean there’s a possibility that people who are offended by your words might attack you someday.”

“Yes, there is. But I’m not afraid. I’m not afraid to speak the truth. My motive is nothing but to reveal the truth.”

“Wow, nice. I like that you are bold.”

He looked aside feeling a bit arrogant.

Next day’s morning, Yahya and Usman were walking together on some footpath. The road was quite empty and there were hardly any vehicles. Usman asked Yahya:

“Do you think it’s safe here?”

“No, it is not. We must leave immediately.”

While they were walking as fast as they could, they saw two police officers walking in the opposite direction. They ignored them and walked past them. Yahya and Usman however stopped and turned to see what they were up to.

Behind Yahya and Usman at some distance, there was a boy and a girl who were around eighteen years old. The police officers stood in front of them as if they were enquiring about something.

“Let’s get out of here…” Usman suggested.

“Wait, let’s see what’s going on”

Usman following Yahya’s lead hid behind a large mailbox that was close by. Usman asked Yahya as he was peeking:

“What do you want to see?”

“Let’s see what the cops are up to?”

One of the police officers asked the boy:

“Who is this girl? How are you two related?”

“We are siblings” the girl replied. “We’re headed towards our home”

“Siblings? Brother and sister?”

“Yes we are twins,” the boy replied a bit angrily.

“Prove it.”

The brother took out his phone and said:

“I can call our parents and they can testify. That’s all that we can do.”

The cop demanded his phone by saying:

“Hand me the phone!”

“I’ll call my parents.” the boy spoke politely.

The other cop snatched the phone from him. The sister spoke up raising her voice:

“You have no right to do that. Give it back.”

The cop took out his gun and said to her:

“You also hand over your phone. Now!”

The terrified girl moved back a bit. The brother got closer to his sister and said:

“Just do as they say. I don’t think they are real cops.”

She took out her phone from the purse.

Yahya and Usman were looking at them anxiously and were expecting something bad.

“Should we do something?” Usman asked worriedly.

Yahya didn’t reply and paid attention to the cops.

The police officer tried to snatch the phone from the girl. She however resisted and refused to hand it over so easily. The two cops pointed their guns straight to their faces and one of them said:

“This is our last warning. Hand over the phone or you both are dying.”

“Oh boy.” Usman uttered in panic. “I don’t think they’re real cops. They are criminals in disguise of police.”

“I know.” Yahya replied. “Keep quiet or else they’ll hear us.”

“Shouldn’t we do something to save them?”

The fake cops reloaded their guns. The brother snatched the phone from her sister’s hand and immediately handed it over to one of the criminals. Quite unexpectedly, the two criminals pressed their triggers and shot the siblings on their foreheads.

Usman closed his eyes and Yahya’s eyes were left wide open in shock. The two murderers left the spot. The dead bodies of siblings were lying on the ground. Usman began to weep. Yahya was looking at the dead bodies and was kind of traumatized.

Minutes later, the two of them were sitting in a rickshaw. Yahya was feeling very uneasy and was wiping off his sweat. Usman was weeping and he wanted to say something but he wasn’t able to. Yahya spoke in a low voice:

“We have to stay quiet and keep this to ourselves.”

“We are criminals. The two of us.”

“Okay, just shut up for a while. We’ll talk later about it.”

“What do you mean shut up? Two innocent people died in front of us. We knew this was about to happen. And what do we do? We escape like cowards.”

“Just wait till the evening. We’ll report to the police or do something to make it better.”

“How can we make it better?” Usman cried. “Their parents don’t even know that they are about to hear this bad news within few hours.”

Yahya closed his eyes feeling deeply upset for their parents.

Twelve hours later, Yahya’s mother was watching television. Her husband walked by and asked while walking:

“Is everything ok with Yahya? He seems a bit down today.”

“Yeah I know, he is upset about something.”

“Should I talk to him?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think he’d share anything with us.”

“Yeah maybe so.”

She watched the news channel and as she saw the title ‘Breaking News’ on the screen, she raised the volume. The breaking news revealed:

“Two Siblings Found Murdered”

Her husband also paid attention to the news report.

“The CCTV Camera Footage Proves that it was Two Police Officers who Shot Them”

Yahya who was walking towards the kitchen also saw the news. He stopped and felt a bit surprised that this incident became breaking news. He stood and watched the news by himself. He saw that some CCTV Footage was showing the scene that he himself witnessed earlier today. The video was a bit censored. He was however concerned as to whether he was visible in the video or not. But as the video played several times he was relieved that they were only showing the two cops and the two siblings. He realized that he wasn’t captured in any video.

Thank God, he whispered feeling relieved yet stressed.

He saw that his parents were watching the news quite anxiously. His mother spoke:

“Isn’t that tragic?”

“It is.” her husband agreed.

Yahya left the spot as he was really worried now.

He went back to his room and thought for a while regarding his role in this entire scenario. He asked himself:

Are you responsible for this? You staying silent like this. Is it any less than a crime?

He spoke out loudly:

“I do not have any answers to these questions. And neither should I try to answer them.”

Meanwhile, his parents were watching the tragic news on different news channels. One of the news channels revealed:

“Two Police Officers were Involved. This means that the Entire Department is Responsible”

Another narration followed:

“The faces of two police officers have been captured in the video. The investigation department is looking out for these criminals. And the conspiracy behind shall also be looked upon.”

Yahya who just shut his room’s door dialled Usman’s cell number. He kept the phone next to his ear and waited for him to answer. Usman, however, didn’t answer his call. Yahya felt a bit angry so he threw his phone aside on the bed.

Next day’s afternoon, Yahya who was waiting outside on the footpath for some public transport, felt his phone vibrating. He saw that it was Shan’s call. He answered the call:

“Yes, Shan?”

“Hey Yahya, did you see the siblings' murder case news?”

“Yeah, it was tragic”

“I know. But anyways it is a hot topic to discuss. What do you say? Should we upload any video?”

Yahya felt really uncomfortable on this so he just spoke:

“I’ll let you know afterwards.”

After a little conversation, he disconnected the call. He sat on the bus stop and gave it a little thought. He realized that every news channel and every TV anchor must be talking on this issue. He understood that for a few days this incident that he witnessed with his own eyes won’t be easy to ignore. But more importantly, he had to worry about himself. He had to make sure that he and his friend Usman wouldn’t get caught through any other CCTV video.

Oh my God, he uttered. I must make sure that Usman doesn’t speak out. He needs to keep his mouth shut.

He took out his phone again and dialled Usman’s cell phone number.