The night whispered the words of uncertainty, only to be paid back by sheer indifference. Mayank's motion was unbothered by the lack of a precise destination. The dazzling beams of an illusive yearning blinded his mind, whose arm was gallantly stretched toward whatever lived in the womb of darkness. Mayank did not care.

"Mayank." A soft groan dug its way to the addressed guy. "Are you serious? We are walking for almost an hour!"

"No one asked any worm to follow me in the first place."

"Don't you want to kill me anymore?"

"I do."

"Then?"

"Shut your mouth and keep crawling, idiot."

The boy's feet came to rest at once. For a second, his grip tightened around the pebble that he had picked up earlier. It was hurled at his company, and the target was not missed.

Mayank slowly turned around in response. The light from his torch revealed the kid's face, which was red from rage.

"Do I look like a stump to you?"

"If you were a stump, I would have become a pacer just to break you into two," Fayzan fired in reply.

Mayank raised an eyebrow. The unadulterated sternness on Fayzan's face seemed to liquify as he observed him approaching in intimidating steps. He nevertheless maintained eye contact. A couple of moments later, their faces were barely an inch apart.

"Don't bother." Mayank spoke in a freezing whisper as he let his spiritless vision burrow into the child. "You won't live to become one." He turned around and continued to walk toward nowhere. 

The kid's feet, however, remained still. "I'm not going anywhere!" he cried from behind.

"Who is begging you to?"

Fayzan frowned and watched the guy move away from him.

"Hey!" moaned the boy as he put on a sprint. "Wait!"

Fayzan caught hold of him in no time. The all-rounder shot an annoyed look as he observed the kid's palms pasted against his chest a second later. "You aren't going anywhere either!"

"What the heck do you want?"

"You can't just leave me here!"

"Then why don't you just shut up and keep walking?"

"No!" screeched Fayzan.

"Get lost then. You're blocking my way."

"No!" he cried again as he threw a tender punch toward Mayank. "I'm not staying here!"

The all-rounder stood still, unbothered by the assailment. "I'll say it once more. Get lost before I—"

"I want to go to my big brother!" Fayzan cut him off with his pleading words, accompanied by a few more punches. "He must be looking for me!"

The cards inside Mayank's mind were shuffled once again. All of a sudden, he caught hold of Fayzan's arm and yanked him to the side of the narrow path. The kid yelled for freedom as the dragging continued; Mayank, however, looked a good distance away from relenting. The all-rounder let go of his arm as they reached the bottom of a gigantic, eerie-looking tree. Fayzan gasped at the mere sight, not bothering to save a portion of his fear for what was awaiting him.

"Sit!" growled Mayank. "Right under this tree."

"Wh-what f-for?" Fayzan's words stumbled upon each other as he spoke. "Are y-you cr-crazy?"

"I'll ask you once more. Sit!"

Fayzan stared at the guy for a moment before reluctantly setting himself on the spot. He checked out the mess of leafy branches before shipping his vision back to Mayank. Despite everything, the latter somehow appeared to be a more pleasant thing to watch.

"Stay here. Don't you dare follow me again, worm."

"Are you lea-leaving me here? On my o-own?"

"Yes. On your own. I had enough of a worm for one day."

Fayzan's eyes enlarged. "No way! There are wild animals in here."

"Did it make it to the top ten facts about forests we did not know?"

"C'mon!" The kid let out an infuriated yell. "I thought you claimed me to be your prey."

Mayank rolled his eyes. "Well, I have changed my mind."

Fayzan could not convince any more words to jump off his tongue as he continued to observe him with bewildered eyes.

"Anyway," Mayank carried on with a smirk. "If I bump into your friend, I'll tell him where you are."

It took a moment for the kid to work out the meaning, after which a mild groan escaped his throat. "Is there any?"

The smirk grew wider. "You are certainly a dunderhead to ask that," replied Mayank. "Have you ever heard of a forest that does not have tigers?"

Fayzan frowned again.

"Why don't you spend your last few moments recalling the number of trophies your worms have won? It shouldn't take more than a couple of seconds to say they haven't. That's enough time for a python to descend from the tree." Mayank flung one last malevolent glare toward Fayzan before turning around. The kid's eyes helplessly followed his steps as he walked away with the torch, stranding him in the middle of unyielding darkness.

Freedom from the troublesome partner ignited a dim grin on Mayank's lips as he carried on his journey in calm steps. He had a couple of his favorite jobs to do. The first was to wait for the child to be ripped into pieces, and the other was to make sure the devoured body reached his cousin. He knew that the boy would not hang in there for long. Although the pleasure of witnessing Waseef's agony was a little too tempting, he was determined not to dive into the second job right away.

"I'll let you wait, freak," Mayank muttered. "Hope will soothe your pain for the time being, no doubt, but it will also expose the weakest part of your heart to make sure the stab leaves maximum impact. I'll let you wait for the little ape, and I'll wait along, just to entertain myself with the shattered pieces of your heart. You broke me, and in turn, I will annihilate you."

A hefty twist inside Mayank held him back from erupting into demonic laughter. Although the smile gradually faded from his lips, his limbs were not abandoned by the warmth of the wild satisfaction. The pleasant thoughts added life to his motion, abetting him to march ahead in hastier steps. It did not take long for the speed to cease. His feet came to rest at once as a couple of figures, rather unexpectedly, appeared within his visual range.

"Got ya!" Evil laughter filled the air following the two words. "You are screwed!"

Mayank dragged his curious self closer in careful steps as he felt his senses being tickled back to reality. A torch lied unattended a foot away from the drama; the light released from it vaguely revealed the faces of the two creatures. The owner of the voice stood in a confident posture with his knife raised in a threatening fashion, while the other was on his knees, fuming in rage.

"Coward!" The latter let out a compressed growl as he continued to pant. "Never stick to a code, do you?"

The other man chortled. "Look who is talking about ethics."

"There's a difference."

"Doesn't matter now. Prepare for death, you—"

He was cut off by the sudden invasion of a hand that caught him in a chokehold from behind. An infinitesimally small period later, he was knocked down to the ground. The man unsurprisingly lost grip of the knife, and his attempt to regain its possession was blocked by a foot that pinned his wrist against the earth. The knife was sent off to the nearby bush by a swift kick from the twin limb.

"Who the hell are you?" The question was shot by the grounded figure as he struggled to pull his wrist free. As he continued to mutter curses, a smirk spread across Mayank's face.

"That wasn't necessary." The other guy spoke from behind as he got up on his feet. "But I am grateful anyway. You can let him go."

Mayank looked vexed, but he removed the foot from his captive.

The man was pulled up by the one he was dominating earlier before being crushed once more with a massive punch. "Run," he continued, addressing the opponent, "as hard as you can. Disappear from my sight before I change my mind and decide against having mercy."

The wounded guy took advantage of the chance and dashed off in desperate steps, vanishing from the scene in no time. If Mayank had not picked a side earlier, he would have almost felt sorry for the pathetic being.

A handful of the tension seemed to abate with the moment that followed.

"Why did you let him go?" inquired Mayank, failing to suppress the amalgamation of annoyance and curiosity.

"We make enemies every moment in our line of work," replied the man in a somber tone. "Don't worry. He won't be showing up in a while."

"What are you?" asked the all-rounder in almost a whisper as he finally decided to thoroughly scan his company. The fairly broad man was a couple of inches taller than Mayank. Although it was not easy to assume his age, it was obvious that he could not be less than forty. An unusual sleeveless black cloak was hugging his body while a piece of red cloth was tied around his forehead. He was square-faced with shoulder-length hair that subtly added to the overall sternness of his appearance.

"Vaibhav," he replied, followed by a wicked grin. "Leader of some notorious gang of robbers you have most possibly never heard of." He bent down to pick up his torch, awarding Mayank a little time to process the newly learned piece of information.

A short response escaped Mayank's tongue. "Oh."

"That guy wasn't so harmless either. So, don't feel bad about it. But how come you aren't shocked?"

"Maybe I was expecting something like that."

Vaibhav beamed. "And you are?"

The all-rounder took a moment before letting a lie crawl toward the man. "Aavin."

"Aavin what?"

"Sharma," he replied in a rather unhesitant way this time. He knew that his own surname was already safer than one he could cook up at that moment.

The smile on Vaibhav's lips widened. "So, what brings you here?" asked the man as he began to examine the deep gray full-sleeved T-shirt on Mayank's body that was in the company of a pair of jeans. "You look like a gentleman."

"Almost an insult to me."

Vaibhav's eyebrows went up at once. "Pretty impressive."

"Thank you," Mayank let out a hollow response.

"You should. Coming from me, it means a lot. Are you on a run or something? Need a place to hide?"

"Something like that, I guess," the all-rounder said in a mechanical fashion. He did not bother to work too hard on figuring out what was in control of his thoughts.

Vaibhav let his intense gaze dig through Mayank. "Wanna come along?"

Mayank offered a glare loaded with sheer disbelief. "And why would you want that?"

"Because I owe you a favor," replied the man. "Or if you want this straight, you might as well come to some use. If you don't have a destination in mind, you won't regret following me."

Mayank could feel a sudden rush of blood through his veins. A yearning cherished for so long seemed to shake off all the apprehensions as it began to climb up his spine. Watching a moment of suspense glide by, he finally set his words free. "Would you let me join your gang?"

"Only if you can prove you are worthy."

"In that case..." Mayank tilted his head for a second before pulling it back to its regular position. "Lead the way."

Vaibhav sealed the conversation with a grin before turning around to proceed in regular steps. The first few moments of the journey flew past without interruption, following which Mayank's hesitant feet came to a halt. It did not take long for the leader to sense the absence of movement behind him.

"Anything wrong, young man?"

Mayank maintained silence, responding to the disaster of consideration and reconsideration inside his mind. The imbroglio was way too impertinent to leave some space for a flawless solution. After a vain tour of the mess inside, he let a few words secrete from his lips. "I have got someone with me."

Vaibhav turned around with an ambiguous expression stuck on his face. He inclined his head, trying to have a look at what was behind his companion's shoulder. "The one that is clutching at your bag?"

Mayank turned back at once, only to let a thunderbolt strike his spine. There stood the little brat with a foolish yet innocuous attempt to hide his face behind the silly stuffed tiger in his grip.

"I asked you not to—" Mayank spoke through gritted teeth, trying to conceal the scarlet hue of embarrassment on his face.

"I—" Fayzan cut him off. "I knew you would come back for me. See, I wasn't—"

Mayank rolled his eyes. "Have you been following me the whole damn time?"

The boy offered a vigorous nod as he pressed the toy harder against his chest.

"I did notice some movement behind that tree." Vaibhav interfered with a curious smile playing across his lips. "Why don't you step forward, little thing?"

The kid obliged, but stood close to Mayank. 

"Have you kidnapped this boy?" asked the leader with raised eyebrows. "You have got a good choice, I must admit."

"I... I... have... em—" Mayank stammered for a moment before offering a decent reply. "I haven't kidnapped him."

Fayzan narrowed his eyes, but he settled in favor of maintaining silence. He shivered mildly as he felt Mayank's torso gently touching his bag. For a split second, the closeness appeared to be oddly pleasant.

"So," Vaibhav said as he continued to observe the kid, "who is he?"

"He—" Mayank's lips quivered as he suppressed the urge to swallow his reply. The words could coerce time into sprinting backward, the stubborn reality into relenting at once and collapsing in the lap of poignancy, and his entire entity into surrendering itself to what lied in its own core. But the preposterous ruminations dissolved in no time.

Mayank carried on in a sober tone. "He is my brother."

A bewildered Fayzan shot back at once. "I am your wh—?" The sentence was blocked with a swift yet gentle tap on the boy's lips.

"Um, never mind that," Mayank said in a haste, struggling to summon a convincing tone as his fingers descended to Fayzan's chest. "We had a small argument, actually."

"Silly sibling fights, huh?" commented Vaibhav, followed by hoarse laughter. "I am familiar with these. What's the name, though?"

"Lucian," Mayank offered a quick reply.

"And this is Tobias." Fayzan said as he held the stuffed tiger in front of the man, "You can call him Toby."

Vaibhav narrowed his eyes. "You modern people have a very bizarre sense of naming. But that's none of my business, of course. If little Lucifan has nowhere else to go, he can come along with us. Besides, it doesn't seem like you two can stay apart for long."

"Lucian," Fayzan corrected.

"Thanks to you," said Mayank as he offered the kid a quick, indicative pinch. 

The assailed one frowned. "I can't walk anymore," he said stubbornly.

Mayank raised an eyebrow. "What?"

The boy, with a pitiful look on his face, extended his arms toward the all-rounder.

Mayank's jaw dropped. He could not believe his eyes.

"Poor boy," Vaibhav commented. "You can carry him; he looks as light as a feather."

The leader turned around and began to head forward in moderate steps. Mayank directed a baleful glare toward Fayzan before grudgingly picking him up.

"You are going to pay for it, little imp," Mayank whispered into his ears.

Raising his shoulders briefly, the child wrapped his arms around his neck. The consequence could be infernal, but the sense of foreboding was chased away by his exhaustion. He did not know what hell awaited at the end of the path, but he knew he could at least make the devil give him a lift.