Second last chapter

___

The young boy looked at his father, his eyes widened as he clutched at his sleeves.

"Don't kill her please", he begged and cried but Nawab Khan didn't stop.

His cries silenced along with his mother’s. 

His father was a monster. That's what he had believed all his life.

Now he could hear her voice ringing in his ears, "You are just like your father".

And he wanted to silence the voice, but it wasn’t Seher's anymore. It was his own.

The little boy wasn’t him, but Musa. And his father’s image changed with his. He was the cruelty now. The Monster.

And he did what his father did years ago.

Killed his wife. The mother of his child.

Saad sobered up, walking towards his father's grave.

He bent down, "You turned me into this... this Monster. But unlike you I killed for love, I love Seher and I want her in my life".

He felt like he couldn't survive without her, because Seher was just like his mother, quiet resilient and honest.

"I love you, Saad."

Ayesha's voice echoed in his ears.

"Shut up!"

He felt a weird sensation in his body, as if someone was trying to pull him. "No..."  he felt dizzy, his eyes went to the grave and he found his name, 'Saad Nawab Khan' he looked at the year and date, then gasped. It was today's.

He was alive. How did he reach here? He was at his father's grave, wasn't he?

Saad pulled a shovel and started digging the grave, to see if it was actually him inside. He dug and dug until he was six feet under, when his shovel stopped, a skeleton.

Saad looked at the skeleton and screamed in fright. As the skeleton turned into his father, "How could you let her go? Saad go after her, prove to me that you are a man. Find her and burn her alive", Saad was dazed as he heard his father's command but nonetheless nodded. As if in trance he tried to climb up, but the slippery mud wasn't letting him, it was raining heavily, the clouds thundering as Saad fell back into his father's grave. His clothes, face all muddy. He looked scary, evil, with the blood, mud and crazed look.

In his mind he thought to himself, those were his wives, he could kill them if he wanted. He was getting weak for no reason.

Slowly, Saad stood up, the mud caked on his skin, heavy like the weight of his sins. His hands, stained with the blood of his past, trembled as he wiped the dirt from his face, smearing it into an even darker mask. The storm raged around him, but inside, a colder storm brewed, one of rage and madness. He was beyond redemption now, lost in the fog of his own depravity.

His father’s voice, twisted and demanding, echoed in his mind. Find her. Burn her alive. Prove to me that you are a man.

But Saad was no longer sure who he was. The lines had blurred. The anger, the hate—it consumed him whole. Seher, the one he had once loved, now nothing more than a prize to be claimed, a memory twisted by obsession. He had killed Ayesha. But it was for love, wasn't it? He was protecting them, keeping them, as his father had taught him. His blood boiled with the need to finish it. To make her suffer as they had.

The rain poured down, each drop like the tears of the lives he had ruined, washing over him, mingling with the blood of his conscience. His thoughts fragmented, disjointed, but one thing was clear - he had to find her. She had to pay for abandoning him, for making him feel weak. For making him want to be something better than this. But she couldn’t escape him now. He was the Monster, the one she had feared, the one she had fled from. And now, there would be no running.

He felt his heart pound with a sick excitement, his breath shallow as his mind conjured images of Seher, her face twisted in fear, her body trembling before him, just like Ayesha had. He could see it - feel it - in his bones. He was her nightmare now. The Monster.

And it was all he had ever wanted to be.

He couldn’t even remember when the human part of him had died. Was it the when he murdered Ayesha? Or had it been long before that, when his father’s cruelty had shaped him, when he learned that love was only a tool for domination?

The winds howled as Saad pushed forward, his hands trembling with dark exhilaration. He was no longer the man who had once loved. That man had died the moment he pulled the trigger. This was Saad Nawab Khan - the killer, the Monster, the man who would stop at nothing to claim what was his.

As Seher's death was his to claim. 

___

"What did you see?"

Seher's mother- Rumana sat there, her eyes teary as she spoke, "There was a tall man, when I entered he was fighting with him. I screamed for help but he threw me out of the house locking it, I ran to ask for help but then I heard the explosion... he... he burnt him alive."

The police looked at the call records, "Who did?"

Rumana didn't speak a word then pointed to the newspaper outlet, it was of the election campaign. Saad Nawab Khan waving to the public.

"He was the last one who talked to Jahangir on phone, it looks preplanned."

Apparently this wasn't the first time Saad was arrested, he had murdered many women before. But for the first time, it was a man. A man killing a man was an offence, especially a man as powerful and influential as General Jahangir Shaikh. The police were confused, as they sifted through the conflicting testimonies. Rumana

As the detectives processed the evidence, something in the room shifted—something that no one had expected. Rumana, her face a mask of anguish, took a deep breath and wiped her tears away. She had played her part well, crying in front of them, the perfect widow. But behind those tears, a darkness flickered in her eyes.

"I want justice," she sobbed, her voice breaking. "My husband... my Jahangir... he was a good man. And now he's gone because of Saad Nawab Khan. That cruel man killed him. He took everything from me, from us. And now he's kidnapped my daughter. Please, you must find her!"

She didn't want the police blaming Seher. Rumana painted Seher and herself as the victims, resulting in a search operation for Saad Nawab Khan.

This was the first criminal charge on him. And if he was proven guilty, he would rot in prison for life.

Away from Seher. That's all Rubina wanted.

___

Someone was knocking on their door, banging on it, Maheen was terrified.

"Abdullah kon hoga... is waqt?" She asked, Abdullah put on his glasses, and softly replied, "Mai dekh kar aata hu, tum bahar mat aana."

"Pehle dekhna kon hai.."

Abdullah looked through the hole, "Kon?"

Then he saw Saad, his face covered with mud, and clothes with blood.

"Abdullah darwaza kholo", Saad slammed his body onto the door, "Kya kar rahey ho!"

He went to the cabinet and picked up a gun, "I know you helped that soldier. *** gaddar, you were my friend!!!"

Saad wasn't stopping, he kept slamming his body onto the door, "I am not your friend. Nor like you. Saad if you didn't leave right now, I will fire my gun at you", he said through the gap.

Saad stopped and fell on the floor crying. His eyes teary, "Mujhe kuch samajh nahi aaraha mai kya karu, mere bas m hi nhi hai kuch. Woh Ayesha... ka khoon-" he was blabbering non stop as Abdullah tried to understand what he was speaking.

"Ayesha ka khoon? Kya bolrahey ho Saad?" Saad started hitting his chest, "Galti hogayi mujhse" slamming his hand onto his chest. He repeated the words and wailed like a child. Abdullah's guard lowered as he opened the door, still holding the pistol.

Just then, Maheen exited her room, "Abdullah sab theek haina?"

Saad’s eyes lifted from the ground and then to her, in the next second he had rushed to her his hands on her neck, "Where is my wife?"

Maheen choked, and tried to get loosen his hold. But it got tighter.

She saw a white light flashing, when she was released.

Abdullah was punching Saad, "How dare you!"

Maheen was out of breath, taking in the sight infront of her.

While Saad kept on screaming, "Where is she??"

Abdullah threw him out of the house.

___

Saad escaped the police narrowly and reached back home, stealing his own car. He looked insane with the bruises on his face, unrecognisable, as if he escaped a mental asylum.

When he spots Seher on the road, sitting on the bunker of the car, with Sahil beside her. Laughing with him. His eyes blaze with anger as he gets out of the car. Huffing and puffing with anger. His grey eyes narrow down as he slickly tiptoes and walks to the car, and points the piston to the side of her head.

There was silence.

"You will die today ", Saad announced, Seher looked at him with confusion, "Why?"

He grabbed her by the hair making her struggle, "Why? You are my wife-"

He was cut off, "Man I am not your wife", he had it. His anger, patience reaching to the limit. As he slapped the woman. But somehow he was tackled to the ground, this time as he hit the pavement, he blacked out for a minute. And when his eyes opened police officer was cuffing him.

"Where did she go?"

"Who?"

"My wife", the policeman laughed, "Manav talk to your husband", the man who was earlier attacked by Saad, stepped forward and backhanded him.

"Shut up, I will kill this mother#ucker", Manav kicked him a few times while the other police officer stopped him.

"Ruk jao, double murder ka charge h ispar, ek biwi ka aur apne sasur ka."

"Then who was he trying to kill right now?"

"His other wife".

Saad was slapped, "Oh bhai kitni biwiyan hai teri?"

"I have to find her and kill her..."

As Saad was carted away in the police van, his mind racing and filled with anger, the officers couldn’t help but exchange glances at each other. This man—this absolute wreck of a human—was a force of nature, but not the kind that caused destruction from afar. No, he was the kind that created absolute chaos wherever he went. And right now, he was thrashing in the back of the van like a toddler throwing a tantrum over a lost toy.

"I’ll find her! You can’t stop me! Where’s Seher?!" Saad screamed from the back, banging his head against the bars like he was auditioning for a role in a psychotic drama. The officers sat in the front, clearly not entertained.

"Shut up, man," one of the officers said without even looking back. "We got a murder charge on you, and you're worried about some chick? Good luck with that."

"She's mine!" Saad howled again, only to be cut off by a loud snore from the officer next to him. The police van had turned into a mobile circus, and Saad was now the main act.

"Where did I go wrong?" Saad muttered to himself, ignoring the officer’s attempt to calm him down.

"Maybe when you decided to murder your wife, buddy," the officer deadpanned, rolling his eyes.

Saad’s shoulders slumped in defeat. "I was protecting her..."

The officer raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. "Yeah, protecting her by murdering her? Classic romance movie stuff."

"I loved her..."

The officer snorted. "Right. I’m sure Shakespeare also wanted to shoot his wife out of love."

"Why did you arrest me officer?" Manav turned around, glaring at Saad.

"You’re under arrest for... oh, where do we even start? Murder, attempted double murder, double counts of assault, drugs, and the fact that you're... well, insane. We’ll let the judge figure out the rest."