Chapter 2

Richard then drove out to Charles’s house in his brand new Lamborghini Gallardo. It was his most preferred car and had paid quite a fortune to buy it. But not just this, he had a huge collection of other cars, belonging to the most prestigious and expensive car-makers. Of course, his wealth meant that he could buy almost anything.

Charles lived in a pretty remote area in New York. Usually there was no traffic on the path to his house which was pretty odd, for New York was always bustling with traffic. You had to travel at least for 15 minutes from his house before you could reach the city. Charles usually kept to himself and it was only Richard who had been his one true friend. They both had been friends since high school. Charles was liked by no one, owing to his weird behavior, but it was the gamer in him that attracted Richard to him. Charles lived alone in his house while his parents lived in London. Charles seemed to have completed all video games known to man and was a professional hacker which enabled him to thousands of games at absolutely no cost. He would game for days together, subsisting solely on chips and Coke. Richard had been part of these gaming sessions many times and each time he completed a game, he fell on the couch and went into deep sleep for 1 day and 1 night. Life was pretty crazy with Charles along.

Reaching Charles’s house, he parked the car and knocked on the door. No one answered it. He rang the doorbell continuously but no one answered. Strange, he thought. After waiting for five minutes he tried the door knob and surprisingly it opened. He then knew that there was something fishy going on. He walked inside the house.

Charles’s house looked very dark as there were no windows which were open. Richard switched on the lights. Charles’s house was very dirty with clothes and stuff lying all around. Then he heard a bottle fall down somewhere upstairs and the doors close all of a sudden. He wanted to open the doors but first decided to investigate why the bottle suddenly fell down. He walked upstairs.

He entered Charles’s room and saw Charles lying on his bed, face down. Relax dude, he told himself. Nothing is wrong. Then he said “Wake up buddy. How long are you going to sleep?” On seeing him lying motionless he pushed him out of the bed as a joke. But he was not prepared to see what happened next.

The area under where he was lying was covered with blood. Eyes registering shock he looked at Charles and saw that he had slit his wrist. He had stopped bleeding but judging by the blood on the sheets Richard could see that he had lost a large amount of blood. He put his hand below Charles’s nose to see if he was still breathing. He was not. He checked for a heartbeat and found none. He thought to himself, oh my God I was late! What will I do now? Call 911 his mind said.

He fumbled for his phone and while he was still dialing the number, Charles suddenly moved. Richard immediately knelt down and said to him “C’mon dude, talk to me. Stay with me.”

Charles looked like he wanted to say something desperately so Richard leaned his head towards Charles’s head.

“Happy birthday, Rick”

Then Charles started to giggle wildly. It was then that Richard realized that Charles was just playing a prank on him. He playfully landed a punch on Charles’s chest and shouted “Damn you Charles. Do you know how frightened I was? I was scared out of my wits. Why did you do that?”

Charles replied with a chuckle “Relax dude. Today’s you’re 21^st birthday. Thought that you should be initiated into adulthood with a kick in the teeth”

“Damn you. Get up, you lazy bugger.”

“Relax dude, it was only a prank and I can still sense your heart beating wildly.”

“Of course, I am. You know you should be called Satan and not Charles.”

“Guess we can’t change my name now, can we?”

“Oh we just need to insert an “a” to make you Satan.”

“Okay then. Do you know that GTA-V was released a week ago?”

“Yeah I do know. What about it? You bought the game or something?”

“I have the game but did not buy it. You know why buy it when you can have it for free.”

“You know that’s illegal, Charles.”

“Bullshit. Are they going to arrest thousands of people who downloaded it from piracy sites? No. then why are you so anxious.”

“Alright then. Pirated version or not let’s go and play that game.”

“Good for you, Rick. Here give me your hand and help me get up.”

Richard gave a hand and helped him get up. Then on their way downstairs Rick asked him “How did you stop your heartbeat Charles? I didn’t understand that”

Charles answered “I looked it up on the Internet and saw that there is some thing in an exercise called yoga which is practiced in India that helps you stop your heartbeat for a few seconds. I only stopped my heartbeat for a few seconds when you leaned your head to check whether I had a heartbeat or not.”

“It looked very convincing, you know. I have to give you credit for that.”

“Thanks dude.”

Charles and Richard then reached the living room where Charles’s laptop was kept. Then he asked Richard “Do you prefer to play here or in my room?”

“I prefer to play somewhere where there are windows and fresh air and light. Some area which doesn’t look like a darker version of Prince of Persia.” Richard said this with a grin.

Charles saw this and said “Okay playboy, I’ve had enough of your jokes already. Let’s play this game. And $2000 to the guy who completes the game first.”

“What you want to do this on my birthday? I am for anything but I have a formal party today in the evening with all of my parents” friends coming over. I can’t stay. Maybe we can do this tomorrow.”

Suddenly a cut appeared on Charles’s throat out of nowhere. Charles appeared to be struggling to breathe suddenly. Blood flowed out of his exposed neck. And then out of nowhere his neck snapped due to some unknown force. Charles crumpled motionless onto the floor making no sound at all.

Richard was stunned at what happened. It all happened in an instant. One second Richard was talking to Charles and the next Charles was on the floor neck bleeding. Richard then came to his senses and panic set in. This time, he was sure, that Charles was not playing a prank. But first he had to check. He checked for breathing, pulse. No luck. Charles was gone.

He then heard a voice from behind “Pity isn’t it?” said a man who had red eyes. “But he was useless the second you said that you couldn’t wait.”

“Who are you and why did you kill my friend?” Richard still reeling from the shock was actually more shocked and frightened than angry and sad.

“Relax kid. I am not going to kill you. Another person who is more important than you and I are wants to do that himself.”

“What are you speaking? Are you drunk or something?”

“Come with me kid. We have an important appointment to keep and my master doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”

“I sure as hell am not going to come anywhere with you. I am calling the cops right now.”

“You think that coppers can stop me. After what you’ve seen you think that cops are capable of that? You cannot escape me kid.”

On hearing this Richard became worried. He started to think that this person is either a delirious psychopath or something more than that of a human. He decided to run away.

“I can read your mind kid and you’re not going to escape me.”

Richard made a wild dash for the door. The man did nothing but smile. Richard reached the door and tried to open it. Locked. Things were not going to be good for him.

The man chuckled and said “How many times should I say to you. You may run and run but you cannot escape me.”

Richard thought of a mad idea which might help him escape this man. He thought to himself that’s a ludicrous idea Richard. Again it was the only way to escape this man.

Richard did not at all have any knowledge of how to fight. He moved forward and it was only a matter of seconds before the man threw him down. “Now that is just ridiculous. Do you think that you can beat me just like that?”

Damn it, he thought to himself. Time to think of Plan B. He needed a brainwave before this man beat him to a pulp. He had one more idea but it was even more foolish than the first. Doing it would be plain suicide.

Still, looking at the way this man was talking it was the only possible way to get out of here. The man looking at him thinking with much concentration taunted him saying “You cannot flee. Surrender to me. It’s the only way.”

Richard replied to him, determination in his voice “You don’t have me yet. Try to catch me.”

With that he broke into a dash, heading for the terrace. The man unaware of his plan just walked behind him. “Where are you heading for, Richard?” he said.

Reaching the terrace he turned back and saw that the man was still behind him. Realization dawned on the man’s eyes and he ran to catch Richard. But Richard looked below and estimated the distance between the rooftop and the ground. He calculated it to be at least 15 feet. He knew that he might break a few bones but this was the only way out.

Few years ago, Richard had jumped from the top of a double storied building to win a bet. The experience ended rather painfully for him and he remembered his doctor advising him to stop risking his life for such silly bets. In turn he had asked the doctor whether there was a way to reduce pain while jumping. The doctor pretended to be offended but on seeing that it was not working, said that if he ever went for such mad activities, he should fold his legs on landing. It reduces the force exerted on your knees and therefore you don’t have to undergo much pain. Richard had never given heed to his advice.

Richard hoped that this was true. God save me, he thought to himself. And then he did it.

He jumped.

When he landed, he felt a sudden jolt of pain in his legs. The pain was overwhelming. Miraculously it didn’t look like he had broken a bone. He then turned back only to see that the man too jumped.

Adrenaline pumping strong, he ran from there to the gate. He had parked his car outside the gate and ran towards it. He jumped inside the car and tried to start the engine. But it wouldn’t start. He tried again and again but couldn’t succeed. The man was swift and nearly reached his car when it started. He immediately drove away at top speed hoping that the man did not have a car. He heard him scream “No” in anguish.

    A quarter mile later he turned to see that no one was following him. 

    Then he turned ahead a second late to see that a truck headed his 

    way had crashed into his car. The last thing that he saw was that the 

    truck driver had red eyes and then he blacked out.