“You don’t have to do this.”

The politician, Byra, stood on his knees with his hands tied behind his back.

Karan looked at Byra with a sadistic smile, “Well, then you shouldn’t have planned to take things from me!”

They were in an empty cellar of a long-forgotten building, too close to the forest. Sudhama stood behind the politician. He didn’t like kidnapping Byra and tried to persuade Karan against it, but Karan was hellbent on it. Sudhama was loyal, and he delivered the job very well.

“What are you talking about? I don’t plan to take anything from you!” replied Byra.

Byra was sweating from the heat in the cellar. He was wearing his usual white khadi clothes and was on his way to the parliament before he was nabbed by Sudhama’s men. Thankfully, Byra was in the opposition, it would have been tough to keep his kidnapping a secret if he was in the ruling party for long. Also, Karan was a billionaire; things that were possible for him were only a faint dream for most.

Look at him, lying right to our face!

Karan sat on his chair, the only one in the cellar. “Sudhama, please go up. I want to talk to him alone.”

Sudhama hesitated, but Karan looked sternly at him. He nodded and left. It was important that Sudhama didn’t hear this; if he heard, then he would think Karan had gone mad, and it would not be possible to get more work done from him against his wishes. Karan had a gun in his hand, so there was nothing to worry about.

“A few nights ago, I woke up as someone banged on my main door. Usually, I have a lot of people in my house to protect me and my family, but none of them have woken up. It was like no one could hear the loud banging other than me!” said Karan trying to explain why Byra was here.

Byra nodded unknowing where this was going.

“I went down and opened the door. The person banging on the door was none other than me! My other self, so this other self, is always inside my head, but this one time, he somehow went outside of me and was banging on my door. Can you believe it?”

Byra was visibly surprised, “have you gone mad?”

“Let me finish! So my other self told me that politician Byra wants to take everything from you. I thought about it, real hard. I agree with my other self; you have always hated me and tried to expose me and my company!”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“That’s because you have done shady business! You have used your money and power to help the ruling party stay in power so they protect you from all your bad deeds!” said Byra angrily.

See, I told you! He is the one who wants everything taken away from you.

Karan’s face turned serious as he aimed the gun at Byra. Byra was too shocked to react, and before he could say anything, he was on the ground with a bullet in his head.

Sudhama and his men ran down to the cellar with their guns in hand after they heard the gunshot.

“Don’t worry, the evil man is dead. I am unharmed.”

Sudhama was confused, “Boss, why would you kill him? His disappearance would cause problems for us!”

“I know you will take care of this. Trust me, If I could tell you, I would.”

If we told him about us, he would stop believing in anything we say.

Sudhama had been with Karan for more than ten years and had grown from a worker in a small grocery shop to having crores of rupees. He believed Karan wouldn’t do stupid things without a good reason, so he followed his Boss.

“Okay, Boss, His body will be disposed of carefully, and no thread will come back to you.”

***

“Mysterious murders of eminent people of the state have caused emergency alerts in the state and have placed immense pressure on law enforcement,” said the lady reporter on TV.

Karan was seated in his comfy chair in the morning, and this news might as well have been the most melodious song he had ever heard.

Finally! They are all dead!

A few days ago, the day after Byra was killed, Karan had woken up early and had taken out his journal, tore a page out of it, and began to write names. Names of all the people who had ever crossed him. These included mundane people and well-known businessmen, police officials, and judges.

Once these people were killed, no enemy would be alive to take anything away from Karan. Arjun’s curse would no longer come true.

He had given that list to Sudhama and told him to kill them all, ensuring nothing came back to them. Sudhama protested, but Karan convinced him and promised him that the list would be the last list to kill and that he would no longer have to do the killing. Sudhama had agreed to do it.

Since then, with every kill, Karan’s sleep paralysis and nightmares seemed to reduce in intensity.

Based on the morning news, Sudhama had done it splendidly. The last person on his list was dead. Karan officially had no more enemies. He had nothing to worry about anymore. No one was going to take his hard-earned money away. He hoped it would be a goodbye to sleep paralysis.

Karan considered giving Sudhama and his men hefty bonuses for their fantastic job. His son and daughter had got ready to go to school and were about to get in the car. Karan realized that he had forgotten to talk to his kids in all this killing business. It had been a while, and they seemed to be afraid to even speak to him after the incident with Gautam.

Karan walked towards them with a gentle smile on his face, but they both rushed out of the house before he could get close. They ran, sat in the car, and asked the driver to hurry up and leave.

Karan felt a pang in his heart as he realized that his children were scared of him. Mohini came up to him, “This is what happens when you don’t care for your children!”

The car left with his kids.

“We are losing you, Karan. This is not the husband I knew nor the father my children deserve. I want you to deal with whatever is going on in your head as quickly as possible and come back to us.” said Mohini. There was sadness in her voice.

“I promise, I am done with the other things. From now onwards, all my focus is on the three of you.”

Karan promised silently that he would no longer worry about someone stealing his things away, and he would no longer focus on killing people.