Amit approached Ranjit with a specialized, fine-tipped surgical scalpel. He ignored the man's panic.
The Hesitation:
Amit pressed the scalpel against Ranjit's dominant index finger. He closed his eyes. The memory of Riya's small hand holding his flashed through his mind—the softness, the warmth. The reality of what he was about to do—to inflict pain, to break a human being—made his hands shake violently. He gasped, dropping the scalpel. "I can't... I am not this," he muttered, clutching his head. He stood frozen for a full minute, bathed in cold sweat.
Then, the memory changed. He saw the single, dark stain on the living room floor, and the image of Priti's face, cold and damaged by the river. The hesitation vanished, replaced by a terrible, clear-eyed focus. The man who feared inflicting pain was gone; only the calculator of consequence remained.
Amit picked up the scalpel. This time, there was only the precision of a clerk adding a ledger entry.
The Punishment: Disassembly (Prolonged Agony)
Amit's theme for Ranjit was the destruction of the sensory experience—the ability to feel and grip. The goal was to ensure Ranjit experienced maximum, non-lethal pain for over two hours before his death.
1. Sensory Denial (First Hour): Amit used the scalpel not to slice, but to methodically sever the major flexor tendons in the fingers, wrist, and forearm of Ranjit's dominant right hand, one by one. This was agonizingly painful, but not immediately life-threatening. The hand became a useless, claw-like structure. Ranjit's screams were muffled by the sound-dampening blanket Amit had draped around the corner of the mill. Amit spoke over the screams: "You used your hands to take. Now they cannot feel or hold."
2. Pressure Application (Second Hour): Amit switched to the surgical shears. He used them to slowly, precisely crush the delicate carpal bones in the wrist and the phalanges (finger bones) of the left hand. He worked at the joints, applying increasing pressure, listening to the tiny, sickening pops. The non-lethal crushing was a pure agony, rendering both hands useless masses of broken tissue and nerve endings.
3. The Confession and Death: Exhausted and broken by two hours of relentless, systematic pain, Ranjit was desperate for relief. He confessed everything—the details of the crime, the method of disposal, the true complicity of the others. Amit recorded the confession on a small device. Satisfied that his proof was secured, Amit ended the suffering. He did not use a blade. He used a length of the high-tensile steel wire, twisting it tightly around Ranjit's neck. The pressure was maintained until the life was slowly squeezed out, taking a calculated five minutes to ensure complete cessation of function.
The body was left secured, a clear message left with the confession recorder nearby.