At the graveyard, Hannan was sitting by his father Tariq Yasar’s grave. He was looking at his father’s grave as if he wanted to talk to him. He began the conversation in front of the grave for his own satisfaction,

“Dad, our family matters are not getting any better.”

He paused for a moment and then continued after taking a deep breath,

“I never demanded anything from you dad, but I need you to guide me today. Tell me, how I should get my hands on your murderer.”

Hannan got a bit emotional and said,

“You were such a peace-loving person, people were so proud of you, they admired your virtues, and they followed you whenever they needed guidance. But today, those people have killed you.”

Hannan wiped off the tear falling from his eye and continued,

“These people are not your well-wishers, they never were. But I don’t get it, what did they have against you? What did they demand? You had no wealth, nor were you a threat to anyone of them, then why? Why have you been wronged like this?”

He waited for a while, hoping he would hear something. He was left hopeless, he uttered,

“Dad, those prophecies, I don’t know much about them but I do know that they must be true.”

He further said,

“I can assure you dad, I am confident about the fact that you are not wrong. My analysing skills are not that strong but I do know that whatever you have claimed before your death is not going to be proved wrong. It shall happen, it shall. It most definitely will happen.”

He kept on sitting for a while until he had this feeling that said,

You shouldn’t sit like this, you should go and do something. Go and discover what your father’s prophecies were.

Hannan stood up as he heard the voice of his conscience and decided to leave the place. But before leaving, he said to his father,

“Dad, I’ll be back soon. But I will definitely take some necessary action. I promise you, I will not step down unless I found out your killer.”

***********

Next morning, one of Rizwan’s servants Maqsood was holding a bottle in a transparent forensic bag. While looking at it, he was wondering,

I didn’t know, I would find this one day but whoever is the culprit. He will be in jail soon.

Two and a half hours later, Hannan was at a restaurant waiting for someone to show up. He saw Maqsood making his way all the way from the entrance of the restaurant. As Maqsood came and stood by him, Hannan asked a bit angrily,

“Where have you been and why have you called me here?”

“I’m sorry, I was stuck in the traffic.”

“I’ve been waiting for almost half an hour, you said it was very urgent, that is the reason I came on time.”

“I am sorry, sir,” Maqsood replied sitting on the chair opposite to Hannan, “I have something very important to share.”

“Okay, you better start now.”

“Yesterday, I was cleaning the kitchen at our home. I started cleaning the backside of the stove, can you guess what I found?”

“What?”

He showed the forensic bag to him and said,

“This bottle,” he said.

“Oh, my God!” Hannan uttered while taking the bag from him.

“Yes, I was shocked as well.”

Hannan kept on looking at it for a while and then opened the bag to get the bottle. Maqsood stopped him saying,

“No sir, don’t.”

Hannan looked up at him. Maqsood responded,

“Sir, don’t touch it like this, your handprints will get on this evidence. Use a tissue paper.”

“Oh, you’re right,” Hannan said while closing the bag again.

Hannan kept it on the table and asked,

“So, what do you think it is?”

“I think its poison, I smelled it when I found it and I had a strong feeling that it is poison.”

Hannan’s eyes opened wide as he was getting angrier.

Maqsood added,

“The bottle doesn’t seem that old, but one thing that makes me sure that it involves your father’s death is…”

He stopped speaking. Curious and impatient Hannan asked,

“Why have you stopped? Finish what you were saying.”

“I was just saying that two days prior to your father’s death, I cleansed the spot behind that stove. And I did that because a pack of oil had slipped from my hand. The interesting part is that there was no bottle behind the stove that day.”

Hannan was amased for a moment and listened to him impatiently. Maqsood ended his sentence,

“It has been around two weeks only, and this bottle is found.”

“Oh, dear!”

Hannan gave his words a thought and said,

“And its not two weeks, it is less than two weeks.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

Hannan asked quite reluctantly,

“Whom do you think is responsible?”

“I don’t know, I don’t want to create any trouble by accusing anybody.”

“I know, I understand. I’m just asking your opinion.”

“I’m sorry, I cannot make such a claim.”

Hannan didn’t push him any further. Maqsood said any way,

“But the person who has had personal grudges against your father would be responsible here.”

“Responsible?”

“I mean the one who would be a beneficiary of your father’s death.”

“I see,” Hannan replied listening to his opinions calmly.

“But, I would strongly say that Rizwan is not the culprit here.”

Hannan nodded his head and replied,

“I’m listening.”

“It’s because I have observed depression in your brother’s tone. He doesn’t cry much about it, but he is deeply upset.”

“He and I are not brothers.”

“Yeah, I heard that day something about it. I don’t know what the exact truth is though.”

“The truth is that Tariq Yasar only had one son. One day he found a baby who was physically abnormal. He realised that a couple had thrown their child because of his strange physical structure.”

“Oh, dear, what was wrong with his body?”

“The legs of the child were turned like a coil. Anyways, the saint Tariq Yasar picked up that child and gave him everything he could. He spent a fortune on his body’s operation and adopted him as his own child.”

“Oh, wow.”

“This child was probably given extra care, but the love was equally distributed. Rizwan and this other child received the same amount of love from Tariq Yasar.”

“Were you that adopted son of Tariq Yasar?”

“Yes, it was me,” Hannan said as tears fell from his eyes.

“Oh, you sure have a reason to be so sentimental about him.”

“You think so?”

“Yes, and you’re doing good. No one is really concerned about the cause of your father’s demise, but you are. And I’m sure your father would be really pleased about this.”

“I hope so.”

“Don’t worry, things will be fine.”

“No Maqsood, things will not be fine. I have to resolve this matter on my own.”

“But don’t rush sir, please.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m just saying that don’t make judgements. Don’t jump to the conclusion. Wait for the right time. Investigate properly and then take action.”

“I will, I know I shouldn’t rush like this,” Hannan agreed.

They both got silent for a while until Maqsood said,

“Okay, I think I should leave now.”

“Yeah, sure.”

They both shook hands and Maqsood left the place.

***********

That evening, Rizwan was reading a book in his room until he heard the phone ringing. He stood up and walked to answer the phone.

He picked up the phone and answered,

“Hello?”

“Hi, Rizwan, it’s me uncle Taha.”

“Uncle Taha, hi, how are you?”

“I’m good. Listen, what are you doing today? Are you free tonight?”

“I think, I am,” Rizwan said. “Is it something important?”

“Yes. Your father’s prophecies, I know four more of them. If you really need to know, then I don’t think this should be conversed on the phone.”

“Yes, I completely agree, let me think what I can do.”

Rizwan kept on thinking until he remembered some errands. He however decided to skip them by handing some of them to his servants.

Rizwan said,

“Okay, I will come. And I hope that I will get maximum information.”

“Yes, you will. You won’t miss a thing as far as the information I have is concerned.”

“Okay, I’ll leave in 15 minutes.”

Rizwan kept the phone back. He called out his servant after few seconds,

“Sartaj!”

Sartaj came running towards him and asked,

“Yes sir, what is it?”

“I’m leaving for Mr Taha’s house, you have to monitor the house and get the mails from the postman.”

“Okay, are there any mails expected?”

“Yes, two are expected.”

Rizwan walked towards his room as he answered him.

One hour later, Rizwan and Sidra were seated with Mr Taha in his garden. Mr Taha began the conversation,

“Look kid, I haven’t read your father’s diary myself, but I have heard about the prophecies from the guy who was really close to him.”

“It’s okay, I understand. Please tell me, what you know.”

“I will, but before that I want to know how things between you and Hannan are.”

“Well, things are not really fine, he has left the house.”

“What?”

“Yes, he thinks that I am involved in my father’s murder.”

“Oh no, may God forbid. No one had anything against him, no one is to be blamed for this. And more importantly, he died a natural death.”

“Exactly, that is my argument as well.”

“See, the thing is I knew about one prophecy which was that you two brothers are going to be broken apart. This one is the base of all the prophecies and the horrifying ones would occur because of this.”

“I see, well what were the prophecies?”

“Okay, now the first prophecy that I’m going to share will be a little hard on you so please hold yourself together.”

Sidra felt panicked but she paid attention to what they were being told. Mr Taha began,

“One of your father’s prophecies was that your daughter will see a lot of torment and suffering in her life.”

“Oh, my God,” Sidra uttered.

“But we don’t have an offspring yet,” Rizwan replied to Uncle Taha.

“I know, you don’t but it’s not like you’ll never have one.”

“Yeah, but now I’m thinking… Hold on, can you repeat the words of that prophecy once more.”

“I was told that Tariq Yasar’s elder son’s daughter will face a lot of pain and torment. I don’t remember exactly if it was pain and torment or pain and suffering.”

“Which daughter?” Sidra asked.

“That detail wasn’t shared.”

“And this prophecy is stated in his writing?” Rizwan asked.

“Yes, in the diary,” Mr Taha answered.

“Okay and what are the other prophecies?”

“Hold on, Rizwan,” Sidra interrupted in between, “We have to do something about this prophecy. I mean, there has got to be some way.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t think we can prevent this,” Mr Taha responded.

“We can’t?” Rizwan asked.

“Come on, you tell me. Do you think it is possible to overtake your father’s prophecies?”

“Well, I don’t think it is possible, but we can do something like I mean we won’t extend our generation.”

“No, Rizwan,” Sidra said in between.

There was an awkward moment of silence for a while until Mr Taha said,

“Listen to me, both of you, please. Your problems are not going to be resolved like this, no matter how hard you try you cannot prevent what has to happen.”

“Why can’t we?” Rizwan asked getting a bit enraged. “I mean, the two recent prophecies have been like thunderstorm over us.”

“Exactly,” Sidra added.

“Think about it,” Rizwan continued, “My father’s grave getting crushed, our daughter getting tormented, how can we endure this. Shouldn’t there be a way out?”

“I agree, some solution should be proposed but I personally think that it is just a waste of time and effort.”

“Why?” Sidra asked.

“You know what,” Rizwan interrupted the mode of conversation, “Just finish the prophecies first, then we will talk about solutions some other time.”

“Sure,” Sidra suggested.

“Okay,” Mr Taha said, “Now, as I was saying the second prophecy stated by your father was that a two-faced person would capture the land that belongs to your family.”

“Two-faced person? He’ll do what?” Rizwan asked.

“He’ll illegally capture a land that belonged to this family initially.”

to be continued...