I. RAGE:
11:50 PM
Elias slept with a desperation to find the truth. But Antany, on the other side, still waited for his mother to come home.
His eyes were bruised from the beatings he got. His hands were wrapped with bandages from those thorns. The temperature was cold, and his nerves were bulged on the side of his head with anger and nervousness. Empty liquor bottles were rolling all around him. A dim yellow bulb kept flickering, and everything around him felt heavy.
In class, Elias was his enemy, but in his family, his own mother was his enemy.
Antany tried to stop his mother many times, but in order to earn, she used her own body and also became addicted to drugs. So there was no use in earning, as all those earnings were spent only on alcohol and drugs. She even tried to feed Antany drugs, but he was mature enough to resist them.
HONK!
A royal car arrived at the front of his house, and a man in a black coat suit stepped out. He was dragging his mother to the door.
Antany was shouting at that man, "I'll kill you if you treat my mother indecently," and ran towards his mother.
"I don't care," said the man with the black coat, and he left.
"Don't shout at him, you idiot... He gave me money," she scolded Antany.
Antany then helped her to get up and walk. In reality, Antany would really kill that guy, but he won't. He knows that the root cause of all the problems was his mother alone. So there was no benefit for him by fighting anyone for his mother, as he had already experienced this many times.
Antany's blood seeped through the bandages as he helped his mother. His mother's dress was torn, and she was holding an alcohol bottle in one hand and a handful of cash in the other.
"Why are you even doing this job?" cried Antany.
But his mother answered leisurely, "Because it gives me money!"
Antany was in full rage, but he was controlling himself and said, "There are multiple ways to earn money, and this is not one of them."
His mother got angry and said, "If it's easy to earn, then why don't you earn and support our family?" and she humiliated him. She then even brought up Antany's father's death once again: "Your father died because of you. Why didn't you die instead of him, huh?" She was saying that because of his father's death, she chose to do this job.
Antany realized that his mother didn't need him for anything at all. She only spoke about him dying. She even spoke about Clara badly, and she spoke of his worthlessness also.
Antany couldn't hear any more bad things about Clara from his mother's mouth.
"SHUT UP, MOM!" Antany shouted, and his mother got angry and pushed him away.
Antany fell straight away onto the table's corner, and his injuries started to pain. Antany, with full of rage, his face became red, and his nerves around him started to pop up. He went straight towards his mother, and his mother raised her hand to slap him. But Antany grabbed her hand and made her fall down, then dragged her to her room and closed the door.
"Don't talk about Clara anymore. This is my last warning," shouted Antany behind the door.
His mother was full of drugs, so she slept there itself.
Antany and his mother knew about Clara from their childhood.
II. THE UNTOLD CHILDHOOD:
Antany and Clara were childhood neighbors and friends. Antany was an introvert with not many speaking skills, but Clara was an extrovert. They really liked each other very much, and Clara used to tell stories about The Great War fought by the Legend named SAVIOR. Antany was a good listener, after all. He used to imagine every single thing that Clara said. But secretly, Antany also imagined Clara as his future wife.
Clara's parents and Antany's parents were also best friends. They were all happy together.
But one day, when both the families went for a festival celebration, a bullock cart lost its control and ran towards Antany and Clara, who were playing in the nearby sand. The crowd started shouting. Clara's parents were inside the shop with Antany's mother. But Antany's father was outside drinking wine secretly.
When the crowd started shouting "KIDS!", Antany's father noticed everything and ran to save them. The two bulls, running towards Antany and Clara, were five to six meters apart. Clara's mother came outside, hearing the noises from the crowd. Those kids were very scared and were stunned. They didn't move a bit and stood still.
Antany's father jumped on the kids and pushed Antany aside, but when he tried to reach Clara by extending his hands, the bull's horns went through the hand of Antany's father. Antany screamed, and so did his mother and Clara's family. Another bull's horn went right between the ribs of his father. His rib bones were all shattered as the bulls shook their heads aggressively. Clara saw everything closely and fainted from the shock.
Antany escaped with some minor scratches, but his father was seriously injured. His breathing became difficult.
Clara and Antany's father were admitted for treatment. No one knows how the bulls got free.
Antany's father died after two days due to failure of the treatment. And Clara lost all of her memories because of the sudden shock experience. Clara's parents thought that Antany's father only saved his own child and had left Clara unchecked, and because of this, Clara got memory loss. Everyone in the Clara's family misunderstood Antany's father's sacrifice.
Clara's parents took Clara along with them and went to a nearby state. Antany's mother tried to convince them, but they parted their ways.
These incidents made Antany become even more silent. He always wanted to play with his father and Clara, but everything went out of his hands.
But some rumors were spreading that Clara's parents died in a mysterious way after a year or so. And after four to five years, Clara joined the school where Antany was also studying. They were in the same class also. But Clara didn't remember anything about her past. And Antany also had a fear of rejection. So, they never actually spoke with each other. But for Antany, she was everything. Clara also had a good impression of Antany but didn't show anything outside.
Antany's mother lost her job, and she was hopeless. His father's assets and belongings were sold for money. Antany also ran errands and made a small amount of money, but that was never sufficient. So, finally, his mother sold her own body for living and got addicted to drugs also. Every day she used to beat him, and he underwent numerous tortures over the years. Antany used to miss his father, and he always regretted.
III. THE DUEL:
Antany locked his mother inside, and she fell asleep.
DING DONG
The doorbell rang, and Antany opened the door, and there was no one. On the floor mat, there was a letter, and Antany slowly picked it up. He was confused as to why someone would bring a letter to him at midnight.
Then he came inside his room and opened the letter. The letter was nothing but a challenge to Antany with the signature of Elias.
"I dare you for a duel before the School's entry gate over Clara at 10 am. Whoever wins can have Clara."
Antany got very angry as the letter portrayed Clara as nothing but an object. Already Antany's brain was fogged by his own mother, and here came another headache. But this time, Antany was prepared to fight Elias. He looked at Elias' pic on his Wall of Vengeance. He was also mentally prepared to murder Elias. He stroked a cross over Elias' pic using a broken beer bottle, denoting Elias' end. He then burnt that letter and sat in the darkness.
IV. THE LETTERS:
It's morning 7 am, and Elias woke up and opened the door. Same as Antany, Elias also received a letter. He opened it and started reading, and it had Antany's signature. It had: "I dare you for a duel before the School's entry gate over Clara at 10 am. Whoever wins can have Clara."
Elias got irritated and threw the letter into the dustbin and went for school.
But Clara also received a letter with Elias' signature. This time, it was not about a duel but love. In that letter: "Hey sweet heart, come to the cafe at 9 am, and I want to show you a surprise. You should only come alone and don't tag along Gracia... because it is a surprise only meant for you."
Clara got excited and got ready for the cafe. No one knows from where those letter truly came and who actually wrote them.
V. UNEXPECTED:
Antany was waiting for Elias near the school entrance. He held a knife in his shirt, hidden, as his intention was to somehow kill Elias. But little did he knew, Elias already was in the class.
His teacher was taking a history class, and there she told about the participation of the urban legend named SAVIOR. Elias and Gracia were listening to it very carefully, as they were very much interested to know about Savior and his stones. The teacher was saying that Savior had a time stone and with that, he traveled across time and changed history, but however he had his own weaknesses. So he rested and sent his underlings to find THE TWELVE STONES OF IMMORTALITY, and the teacher continued.
Here, Antany saw a figure walking towards him. He thought it was Elias and kept the knife ready. But it was Clara, and slowly his mind changed. He thinks about his past, and his mind had almost deviated from the killing instinct. He however thought that it might be a trap that Elias had set up.
Clara saw Antany and was running towards him. Antany didn't know what to do. He dropped his knife, and his heart had become soft.
The teacher described about an underling which had black thorns all over its hands and it was very powerful. And as Clara was running towards Antany, light started to flicker, and Antany sensed something wrong. The whole street became black, as if it was night.
CRACK!
A black creature, which the teacher was describing, appeared in front of Clara and Antany, cracking through the road. Its limbs were too long, and it had sharp, thorny hands, and it waved its hand towards Clara. Innocent Clara didn't know how to react and was grabbed by it.
Antany was shouting and running towards it with his knife, but then he suddenly stopped. The thorns plunged into Clara's body and was tearing her apart. Her hand was reaching towards Antany for help. Her body bent unnaturally, her voice started to break, and her eyes were about to pop out.
She screamed in her highest voice possible, and Antany came and stabbed the creature with his knife almost twenty to thirty times. Antany's shirt was fully covered with Clara's blood. And by the continuous stabbing of Antany, the creature left Clara and went.
The night became day, and Antany couldn't believe his eyes, as Clara was dying in front of him. Antany was crying and confessing his love towards Clara, and Clara smiled at him, and suddenly her heart stopped, and she died in that instant with a happy face. Her bones and ribs were all broken, and she died in a way that nobody wanted.
VI. THE BIRTH OF ANTANY:
Antany's brain began to shut down all emotions. His all jealousy towards Elias dissolved. His love became grief, and it became rage, and it finally became obsession. This world took Clara, and he would take the world itself.
Antany knelt beside Clara's torn body. He didn't cry but laughed faintly. He picked the knife and took a vow: "I'M COMING FOR ALL OF YOU."
The teacher was teaching his lessons, and the door slowly opened. There came Antany with a knife. He was very much exhausted, and his dress was in a reddish color, mostly covered in blood. The class were in total shock, including Elias, Gracia, the teacher, and the bully gang.
Antany slowly pointed his knife towards Elias and shouted, "ELIASSSS!!!"