Vardan’s bruised and tired face loomed over Ru Meng as he sat on the ground. The teenager’s breathing was heavy and erratic. He could hardly smile, but he still tried his best as he pulled Ru Meng to his feet.
“What was that? What happened just now? It was like everything that could possibly go wrong went wrong,” said Vardan as he stumbled over the mess in the living room to help Hakimi.
“Like we were really unlucky,” added Ru Meng.
“Yea, like we had the worst luck ever!” said Vardan.
“Or like Rayyan had the best luck possible,” Hakimi remarked coolly.
The three of them immediately looked at each other like a bat had just hit them in the face
“Seriously? There’s a spell that makes you lucky?” Vardan said in disbelief.
Hakimi winced from a bruised rib as he stood up and said, “We have to assume so.”
Ru Meng looked out the window. He could make out the faces of the armed men now.
“Guys!” he said and turned to look at the other two boys. They looked back at him, the relief on their faces quickly melting into solemnity as they realised they had no more time.
They had to do what they came here to do. The boys looked at each other, locked in silence as the magnitude of what they were about to do slowly dawned on them. Ru Meng’s hesitant eyes drifted to Rayyan’s unconscious body on the ground, while the lines hardened on Vardan and Hakimi’s faces as they steeled themselves to do what needed to be done.
Hakimi stepped forward and glanced at Ru Meng’s waist. The boy gingerly drew the sword and handed it to Hakimi by its handle. Hakimi gripped it tightly and kneeled down beside Rayyan.
He pulled the man’s head up by his hair and placed the blade by his throat. He pulled the dagger. Blood gushed out like a fountain, staining the carpet red. Drops of blood splattered across Hakimi’s face as he kneeled there in silence. The man who had kept him a slave for three years was now dead.
Ru Meng watched Hakimi’s sharp eyes and emotionless face, his heart feeling a mysterious pang of agony for the scrawny boy. He wondered what thoughts were running through his mind.
The three of them stayed there in silence for a brief moment, all of them half-expecting something to happen. It had been easy. Far too easy. Rayyan had been alive one moment and dead the very next. He said nothing and had nothing to say, not a single word uttered from his mouth from the moment the fight began to the moment his life ended. No quip, no comment, no sinister threat.
They were all waiting for something else to happen, but there was nothing.
Just then, there was a wooden creak.
“Honey?” said a shaking voice.
Two pair of eyes leaned out of another room and looked upon the carnage. A young Malay woman dressed in nightclothes appeared in the doorway. A child stood beside her, rubbing his bleary eyes while holding onto her mother’s hand.
The three boys stared at the woman in shock as they realized that they had just murdered a husband and a father in front of his family. A wave of guilt washed over Ru Meng. His feet wobbled and he had to lean against the wall to avoid falling over. He saw terror in their eyes, the same terror in his eyes when he saw his father push a blade into his uncle’s throat. He wrapped his arms around himself, shivering as he remembered the way his uncle had trembled before his death.
He looked at his hands. What had he done? All he wanted to do was save his father and his friends. How did it come to this?
Vardan’s face had turned pale as a sheet and the smile was long gone. He stood there hesitantly until the woman let out a bloodcurdling scream.
“Ma’am…” he said, stepping forward and reaching out with one hand, hoping to console the woman somehow. But the woman only screamed even louder as she shrunk back into the shadows, the fear in her face giving way to something more. Something hateful. Vardan stood there at a loss.
The boy started wailing loudly.
Outside, the armed men were almost upon them.
It was Hakimi who leaped onto his feet and barked at the woman and the boy in Malay, “Get into your room!”
He waved the dagger in his hand around, blood dripping down the hilt and coating his fingers as he advanced. The woman pushed her child back into the room and slammed the door shut. The sound of a latch snapping into place came from behind the door. Hakimi approached the door and pulled the latch on his side as well.
His shoulders dropped like a deflating balloon as he turned around. He took a deep breath and said calmly, “The boys are waiting for us, Vardan. Go search the room. You know what to look for.”
Vardan nodded and went away to search the room.
Hakimi walked toward the door and grabbed Ru Meng by his shoulders, turning the boy to face him, “You want to save your father, don’t you? Then pull yourself together!”
Ru Meng was still too deep in his panic to understand a single word coming out of Hakimi’s face. The realization that his actions had led to the loss of someone’s life, someone who loved and was loved by others had scarred him, deeper than anyone could imagine. It didn’t matter that that person was someone as horrible as Rayyan. What mattered was that he was responsible for his death. The young boy’s sense of self teetered on the brink of collapse as he tried to reconcile his intentions with the consequences of his actions. Nothing could get through to him.
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
The fact slowly dawned on Hakimi as the boy remained unresponsive to his words and only muttered to himself. Hakimi gave Ru Meng a light slap across the cheek and the boy still refused to look anywhere else but down. An involuntary and tragic sigh escaped his lips, but he quickly moved to action. He pulled Ru Meng away from the door and brandished his weapon, just as two men burst through the entrance with swords in hand.
“Nobody move,” Hakimi spoke calmly as he stared down the two men who were much taller than himself.
The men stopped at the entrance, not out of compliance to Hakimi’s demands, but out of sheer shock at what had happened. Their faces were stoic and expressionless, but behind their stony appearance, turmoil churned in their minds. They knew who Rayyan was and how important he was to the boss. Now this same man was dead, barely minutes since three children broke into his house. The men exchanged looks and stared at the children warily, prepared to make a move at the slightest hint of an attack.
Hakimi stared back at the two guards and let the tension stew between them. He looked closely at their faces, posturing himself as if he would strike at any time. Finally, when it seemed the men were finally about to strike, he tossed the dagger onto the ground and raised his hands.
“I would like to see your boss. I suggest you make sure we make it there safely,” Hakimi said in an imposing tone.
“Do you know what you have done?” said one of the men, ignoring Hakimi’s request entirely.
Hakimi looked him in the eye and replied, “I know much better than you could understand. Which is why I know your boss will want to talk to us, unharmed.”
The guards said nothing, but Hakimi knew they had bought it by the way they hesitated. Just one last push.
“You know this matter is beyond your pay grade. You know your boss is going to be mad. Now, here’s the question. You can either show up to your boss with the bodies of Rayyan and three children with no explanation, or you can show up with Rayyan’s body and three children who can explain themselves. Which do you choose?”
The guards looked at each other and Hakimi knew he had convinced them. One of them nodded to the other, before sheathing his sword.
“Follow me, all of you. And no funny business,” the guard said, scowling at Hakimi as he did so. The scar across his face and his bristling beard didn’t scare Hakimi at all.
Hakimi looked back and saw Vardan emerge from one of the other rooms inside the house. The teenager shot him an inquisitive look and he nodded in reassurance. Vardan nodded back at him and stepped into the living room.
The guard turned and walked away. Hakimi followed after him, grabbing Ru Meng’s hand and leading him out of the house. The other guard still had his weapon drawn and shoved Vardan on the back as he was walking out. Vardan gave the guard a charming smile and a middle finger as he exited.
The walk down the Red Cliff was long and silent. The guards were too worried about what punishment would befall them for failing in their duties to think about anything else. Meanwhile, Hakimi was trying his best to prepare himself for the meeting that was about to happen; Ru Meng had withdrawn into himself; and Vardan was simultaneously fretting over Ru Meng and trying to come to terms with what just happened.
The narrow winding road was steep and long. The earth here was of a striking red color and surprisingly soft to tread on. Even though it was still in the wee hours of the morning, the lamps had come alight in many of the houses. People stuck their heads out from windows or peered from behind half-closed doors, but the motley crew of two guards and three children was drawing their attention. There was an air of unease in the Red Cliff.
Hakimi walked with his back as straight as an arrow at all times, an idiosyncrasy of his own that even he was unaware of. His mind went over the words he had prepared again and again. He had planned everything in advance, but he could not see the future. Anything could happen, especially when it came to dealing with that man.
The group eventually came across another set of guards patrolling the lower levels of the Red Cliff. They raised concerned eyebrows when they saw them approaching. The guard leading the children at the very front stopped in front of the other guards. He took them aside and whispered something into their ears. Their faces changed dramatically, first into one of shock, then into one of abject horror, before they rearranged their faces to hide their fear.
The two of them immediately took off, one sprinting further down the Red Cliff ahead of the group, while the other ran in the direction they had come from.
These occurrences, so far out of the ordinary, drew even more attention from the residents. More and more people came out of their houses and watched curiously, their morbid minds wondering what exactly had happened so early in the day.
The massive stone building at the bottom of the Red Cliff became even larger and clearer in view as they moved closer. From this distance, they could finally make out the finer details. The building was a large hall made out of carved stone blocks, painstakingly stacked together and decorated with ornate carvings and sculptures. Vardan recognized strange scripture carved into the walls in Devanagari, though he did not understand the words they meant.
Two gigantic men with ferocious expressions on their faces stood to either side of the building’s main entrance. These were gate guardians. Curiously, one of the statues resembled a general in elaborate armor wielding a mace in each hand, while the other was a Buddhist monk with bulging muscles that rippled across his exposed chest. Two blazing braziers roaring with fire stood in front of these statues.
There were fewer and fewer houses as they got to the bottom. Instead, there was a set of large and wide steps carved directly into the stone, winding for hundreds of steps until they reached the outside of the building’s compound. The steps were well-illuminated. A lamp hung from the wall every ten steps, illuminating their way brighter than the roads of the Red Cliff.
Finally, after twenty minutes of walking, they arrived before two giant bronze gates. The gates stood taller than all of them put together, at over fifteen meters tall. An equally looming wall surrounded the compound, casting a dark shadow over them. Strangely enough, there were no guards at the entrance and the gates were wide open. The giant building they saw from above waited in the distance, the fires of the brazier burning bright enough to hurt their eyes.
The guard passed the gates and still, to Hakimi’s surprise, there were hardly any guards in sight. Only a small group of a few men stood there on the walls, gathered together and playing cards on a wooden box while passing a bottle of wine between themselves.
The guard leading the children stopped in front of the main building. It was only now that the three boys could fully appreciate the scale of the structure. Up close, its great wooden doors seemed large enough it would swallow them whole. Meanwhile, the two statues that flanked them stared at them with such intensity, it almost seemed like they would come to life and crush them beneath their granite feet.
Hakimi and Vardan did not know it, but their hearts were already beating faster. It was a strange atmosphere that permeated this place. The grand architecture and the menacing walls contrasted with the lax and easygoing guards couldn’t be more unusual.
Hakimi turned to check on Ru Meng to distract himself from the nervousness that had taken over him. Ru Meng was still muttering to himself, staring off into blank space. He gripped the boy harder on the wrist and prepared himself for what was to come.
They waited there in front of the entrance for a long time. The guards stood straight in place as they waited and the children couldn’t help but follow suit. A few of the guards on the walls glanced over a few times, but looked away as if the whole thing was none of their business.
Finally, after what seemed like hours, a loud thud could be heard from inside the building, rumbling through its stone pillars and into the caves. A ferocious gust of wind blasted the heavy wooden doors open as a voice boomed from within, “Come in.”
A large, muscular man sat upon a throne carved out of stone, staring down at the three children who had trespassed upon his sanctuary.