The Contract

The day was drawing to a close. For 30 year old Manu, it was about to begin. He was sitting in an old garage not far from the town waiting for his boys to come.

He liked his profession. There were no timings for his job. They were just random, planned at the last moment. It was not a tension-free job, but he liked it. He liked killing.

Most people in the town avoided talking to him as they knew that he was a professional killer. He was so professional that the police never had any evidence to prove it. And the people who saw him do it were never brave enough to tell it.

He led a care-free life. He would spend the money from the contract killings on booze and girls. He never saved money and bank accounts never interested him.

Nobody knew about his family background. And neither did they care for it. 

But, he did have a family once. His father was a government servant. He used to hate school and his father. For his father was a strict disciplinarian. At the age of five, he decided to run away from home. And since then, there was no looking back for him.

He could heard the faint sound of a jeep coming from a distance. The boys were coming.

They stopped the jeep in front of the garage. They dragged a man out, gagged with a tape over his mouth and took him inside the garage. They made him sit on a plastic chair and tied him to it.

Manu gestured his men to move aside. He looked at the man's face. The frightened, trembling face of a man who didn't know what was in store for him.

He pulled out the contents of the man's shirt pocket. He was just interested in one thing. An identity card. He wanted to make sure it was the right man. He took a glimpse of the photo on the card and the man before him. The same striking bald head. This was the man.

"Good job boys. He is the guy." he told them. He could start with his job now.

He took out a new shaving blade. He folded it in half vertically and made 2 pieces. He took one of the piece.

He smiled at the man's face. He went behind the man and pushed his head forward so that his neck pointed to his chest. He wanted to get it done quick.

He positioned his right hand with the blade in front of his neck. Then he slit his throat.

Blood started spurting out from the man's throat. But it would be over soon, Manu thought washing his hands from a bucket of water.

Then he felt a strange sensation. As if someone had pushed a hot iron rod from his back. He saw the bullet go past his stomach and hit the wall in front of him. He had been shot.

The bullet must have torn some of his intestines as he started throwing up blood from his mouth.

He felt weak and dizzy. He knelt on the ground with his face down. He saw the identity card lying before him. He remembered this face.

He fell dead, face down on the identity card. The identity card that once belonged to his father.