One Shot One Kill
Episode 1
The city of Bollywood, the centre of fashion and the land of Indian parties is a place where success and failure thrive in the same air. It is a place which houses the largest number of multimillionaires, as well as the one known for the largest slum. It is the financial capital of India — the city of Mumbai.
The Roy household was located in the heart of this city of dreams. Mr. Roy had died in a car accident many years ago and it was his wife, Rithika, who had brought up their two sons, Raj and Vinay. Roy — popularly known as “The Three Pointer” — was a professional sniper. This profession paid better on a contract basis, as opposed to being done as service to the nation. Hired killings did hit the top of the black market more often than not. The lust for money lured Roy into this immoral way of life and due to this, his family was considered an outcast by all.
Raj’s physique was exactly the same as that of his father. He was a handsome, broad shouldered, 21 year old youngster who had just completed his engineering course. Vinay was a 17 year old tall, thin and athletic high school student. He was part of his school’s football team and one of those body conscious people who would hit the gym almost thrice a week. It had been just a few weeks since he had completed his twelfth standard finals.
Presently, he was back from his usual evening walk and was daydreaming about his favorite type of weapon — the gun. The childish enthusiasm on his face was wiped away and his face shrunk like an unwatered rose as soon as his mother asked him to prepare for entrance examinations. He ignored his mother, ran into the opposite room, grabbed his brother’s laptop and signed into Gmail. The bright childish spark was back on his face as he opened up YouTube on a parallel tab. His entire playlist consisted of various videos on weapon technology. This had now become a condemned profession in their household after what had happened to his father. His father had not failed to pass on his traits to his younger son. A few minutes later, his mother came to his side, hugged him lovingly and kissed him on the forehead. However her actions were not signs of approval.
“Beta” she said in a soft but stern voice, and Vinay knew exactly what she meant.
It was six in the evening and Raj was back home, tired both physically and mentally. He was in no shape to attend any more interviews. His mental strength came crashing down when he had to tell his mother that he had failed to clear yet another job interview. Thoughts from the past four years; all the struggles to get an engineering degree whizzed past his mind in the form of images, like bullets shot from a machine gun. He threw his bag down with a sense of frustration. The chances of him earning his own bread seemed to be so hopeless that even his dreams failed to portray him doing so.
“Take that pen drive in the front zipper and come to the printer shop”, he thundered at his brother, knowing fully well that there was no point in venting out his frustration on Vinay.
Vinay nodded sincerely as he knew that any form of dissent now would aggravate his brother’s frustration.
However the walk wasn’t bad at all. The fresh evening breeze took his mind off his studies. Plus, the sight of a large number of luxury cars on the main road coupled with the weight of a brotherly arm over his shoulder put a wide smile on Vinay’s face. His mind dived deep into the world of the rich and the famous as he pictured himself stepping out of one of those high-end cars with fancy automatic doors one day. However, in reality he was treading along a narrow, poorly lit, pothole riddled street, from where the main road was visible.
As the night carried on, the absence of the moon had a heavy bearing on the visibility along the street, which had no source of artificial illumination. The only lights visible were the headlights of vehicles passing by. The intense front lamps of racing bikes looked like stars shooting across the ground.
The lights shot off into the darkness instantaneously. There was not a soul on the street and after forty five minutes of walking along the old, narrow road, they took a right-turn and finally saw a bright source of light. It was the printout store. The luminosity appeared heavenly to Raj’s eyes, which had seen only darkness for quite some time now.
Raj said to Vinay, “This is the printout of the fifth draft of my resume. I don’t know how many…”
A gunshot riddled through the silent air.
Vinay could feel something wet splatter over his shoulder.
Continue to One Shot One Kill: Episode 2
