The old and unwanted living in this forgotten part of the village survived and prolonged their pitiful life by depending on each other. Of the four living in these shabby make-shift tents, there were always 3 who would go out to in the morning to beg on the side of the road, beg for food, beg for money.
While the 3 went to work, the other one always kept a lookout on the area that was their home, it was another matter that this lookout consisted mostly of the old crone from before shooing away people who came to relieve themselves. Though they lived close to an open toilet, they never wanted to live on it, nor would they want their own huts to be drenched in it.
"I never wanted to hurt her, but I also couldn't trust her." Wyakti spoke as he fiddled with Waahi's hair. He thought of his actions again and what he was going to do, he didn't want her sister's safety to compromise.
Wyakti observed the place while peeking out of the tent for a bit, this small place was generally disregarded and ignored by even the poorest scum of this commerce based village, but now he had planned to make this place his temporary residence, a place to hide his sister while he goes out to earn money.
'Just need to wait for a bit now.' Getting back inside the tent, Wyakti popped a resin in his mouth and savoured the sweet and sour taste. He was going to throw another one in, but stopped while looking at his sister.
"Just wait for now."
*****
As soon as dusk arrived, the turbulent market started to lessen in intensity. The larger business closed first and moved for their residence, while the smaller businesses waited for some delayed customers as their larger competitions were no longer operating.
The dusk was also the time when certain pubs would open their gates to rip off the tired men from their hard day at work, these pubs mostly served alcoholic beverages and was also the gathering place of all sorts of people. There were men who came here to waste away their days earning at alcohol, there were others who came here to conduct off the records transaction, and there were others who just came here to have some fun with their compatriots.
In this pub, there were a group of people with strong arms but weak visage. These men looked ruffled covered in sweat, and while this group of people looked poor and disorderly, the pub owner smiled at them as if welcoming his own sons.
"Huhu! So how was the work today?" The pub owner asked as he received numerous bronze from these man.
"Nothing much!! The same old thing....hmm! but it seems a new brat just joined our profession huhu!!" One of the man who was also the first to rebuke Wyakti spoke with a mocking voice, he didn't like competition to increase in their profession.
"That brat seems to be hiding now, Soonio! You may have scared him." A thin man with a bushy moustache spoke out annoyed, he wasn't irritated because he felt bad for Wyakti, the reason for his annoyance was something else though it was one and the same as his other's compatriots.
"Who would have known that brat would run? I just spoke that I would like to teach him the job." The man answered as he gestured by rubbing at his crotch which caused the surrounding men to giggle raunchily.
Their laugh brought vibrancy to the pub, they drank their mead and drowned their mind in the alcoholic madness, these men didn't have any sense of conservation of their money, instead they usually wasted most of the money in one go leaving only a bit in fear of what if.
"Look at those fools, wasting away their livelihood at something so wasteful." There were 3 old beggars walking toward their home as they knew they wouldn't be able to get any money at this time of day, instead they may get beaten up by drunkards in the night. All these men had a sack bag placed on their waist, there were all kinds of food and come copper coins jingling in them.
"Hmm!! The early days were much better when this devils store was not here, this place has poisoned our once great village."
"Shut up you two, you are talking like you haven't ever touched mead before!!" An old man walking in the middle with a straight back harrumphed tightly, he can see the desire for that same devils blood they so hated everyone drinking.
"I never claimed that I haven't drank any of this stuff, but at least I always provided for my family."
"The same family that threw you out as soon as you married your son." The man on the right commented at his friend's proud claim, it wasn't as if he was clean too but he couldn't help but snicker at his friend on the subject.
"Shut up you bastard, at least my wife didn't ran away with a popper." The man rebuked with an annoying smirk, he wouldn't stand back in this case. He still feels pained and disappointment at his son's action.
"Shut up both of you, we all are pathetic, nothing to fight over such a small subject." The man in the middle flailed his hand has he rebuked and stopped anymore conversation on this matter. It wasn't as if he was the leader in the group, but he had taken the role of pacifier in the small old family.
"Hmph!! You are the one who instigated us!!" The trio went silent, they didn't spoke again and soon reached their small safe haven, it was the same as they have left it, the smell of piss still drowned the small alley, and the tents also remained looked the same.
"Hamagi! We are here!" The man whose wife had ran away called out to the tent where the old crones corpse was, he was her neighbour and also held a larger quantity of items in his back unlike his other beggars. He was the one who usually shared the food with her while the rest of the beggars already put in their part of share before coming here.
"Sleeping?.....hmm… you are getting old!" The man spoke as he moved toward her tent and placed his hand on her tents entrance, the rest ignored him and they moved toward their own resting place, for old people like them sitting under the hot sun by the side of the road always cause them lots of fatigue.
As the man lifted the cloth covering the old crones entrance, he noticed a somewhat red colour illuminated by the orange sky, though the sun was still slanting on the horizon it still had the intensity to provide some light to the closed inside.
"?" Before the man could react, a hand fell on his neck while a small blade entered his neck.
"Blubuchog. Hh!" The old man was paralysed, he couldn't turn his head nor any sound came from his mouth, he only felt intense fear and indignation. 'I am dead?' the old man's eyes went wide and the world turned dark as he felt the night slid from his neck to his chest, destroying everything in its path. The body that had lost its life slumped down on the ground with a light thud.
"Hm?" On the other side of the alley where the other 2 old beggars lived, the man who always acted as the instigator and the concluder of the fights in this beggar family noticed the dull sound, he turned his head to notice his friend slumped down on the ground and a red liquid flowing from his body.
Horror!
The man's face twisted even more as he noticed a small body crouching next to his friend's body.
"Mur…murder!....MURDEER!!!!!!" The man cried as he trembled in fear, his cry startled the other beggar who was just stuffing his mouth with a dried bread. "Murder?" his body shook; his first thought was that it was just a bad prank by his old compatriots who had nothing to do. The abandoned man creeped out his head and also saw a figure, this figure that looked demonic under the orange sky.
*Shwchik
The figure took out a small knife covered in blood out of the body. This simple scene was enough to cause both of them panic. "RUN!!" No one knew who cried first, but they felt a sudden burst of energy flow through their body, the man who noticed the crime first was the first to move.
Wyakti panicked at this, but soon regained his calm. His plan was messed up now, he planned to take out these old men one by one. Wyakti had thought that these men wold first came to their own tent in which he would be waiting for one of them and kill one and then move onto the other, he never imagined that one of them will instantly move toward the tent in which the old crone lived.
He was exposed now.
And so he moved, he moved in a creepy way on all fours, this bizarre scene caused the man who was abandoned and still had eyes on the demonic creature to tremble and shriek in horror, this shriek didn't sound human but something a dog before dying would make.
Ignoring the paralysed man, Wyakti lunged at the man who was the first to make a run. With a knife on his hand and a maniacal smile on his face, fell close to the man but still a step away from grabbing his body, but he didn't panic instead he pushed his right hand against the ground to close in the distance and grabbed the ankle of the man with his left hand. But the old man didn't fall down, instead he dragged Wyakti 2 steps with him forwards
"Don't worry!" A weak sound came from his throat as he got ruffled on the ground, but it didn't cause him much worry, instead he took out the same knife that was drenched in blood and ruptured the muscles on the man's leg causing him to fall.
"Hph!!... don't!...AH!" The man didn't even had the time to speak as Wyakti dragged his body and climbed on his back while lifting up the knife.
"For there is an after-life!" The man was struggling with all his strength making it hard for Wyakti to stab his knife. He felt angered, things were getting complicated over nothing, he had told them that there was an after life, so why was this man still struggling so much?. "I SAID DON"T WORRY!!" Getting annoyed by the man's struggle Wyakti abandoned his slick use of knife and started stabbing the man madly to make him stop struggling.
He was butchering the man alive.
The other man watching this in the corner and seeing that the assailant was a young man didn't calm down, but he made up his mind and willed his legs to stand up, he can feel madness from the young man. 'Get up you bastards!!' though he faltered at the beginning somewhat he still was able to move his legs in the direction of the market, but as he moved his legs slipped in the wet ground and fell on the land. But the man soon recovered and tried moving again.
As for the other man, he was long dead, his back was filled with holes and numerous fluids flowed out from his body.
"The knife broke?" Wyakti looked at the broken knife and cursed at his rashness, in his madness he had accidently hit the bones of the man multiple times causing the already fragile knife to break apart, he also summarised that he may have been just thumping on the dead body with just a broken knife.
As he heard the thudding sound he also looked at the other man. He had lost his weapon of killing and the man had got up and was getting ready to run again.
Wyakti hurried and picked up a stone from the side of the road. He didn't move away from the dead body he was sitting on but he aimed at the frantic man who was barely able to run and threw the stone.
*Pichh
The stone accurately hit the man in the head causing him to tumble on the ground with a high impact, he didn't lost consciousness, but felt his world swirling around himself.
The man felt footsteps closing on him, each of the step reverberated with the man's heart. "Am I going to die too?" The man questioned in his heart, his sight was already blurry but he still looked forward, he thought he could see his family, not the his original one, but the one he lost just now.
The man suddenly felt his feet being grabbed and then getting dragged over towards his home, he didn't know why this demon didn't killed him o the spot, instead he started wondering the words thi demon spoke.
"There really is a life after death." The old man weakly whimpered before his head was smashed by a fist size rock, he didn't die instantly nor did Wyakti stopped beating the old man's head.
He struck the rock multiple times and didn't stop until nothing was left of the face, the brain was cracked opened and juices were flowing out of it.
"I am sorry!! But I need a home for now!" Wyakt spoke at the corpses before he fiddled with tier clothing and removed anything that was of values from these poor beggars, he wiped away the blood on some that were accidently in the way of his killing and then threw all 3 bodies into the old crone's tent.
"Waahi may be hungry...hmm I should also play with her some more before going out for the job." Wyakti spoke to himself as he went into his sister's tent and had a happy meal with her. He told her to not go outside under any circumstance and not even squeak if she feels anyone approaching and jus to remain in the tent until he come back.
"If you will be a good girl I will also bring you a toy!..... Waahi like toys right?"
Hearing the word toys, a smile blossomed on Waahi's face, like a chipmunk she nodded her head in affirmation.
Seeing her enthusiasm Wyakti rubbed her head and spoke some more encouraging words befor stepping out of the tent.
*****
"Oye Hogi! How about we both combine our pay?" One of the man in the bar whispered in his friend's ears as he pointed at the woman standing outside the pub. The woman was wearing revealing clothes, with a heavy makeup covering her true face which was a general sign of danger, but for these men even illness ridden prostitutes like these were luxury to them.
Looking at the woman outside, Hogi felt an itch on his crotch. Thinking that it had been a long time, Hogi nodded with a twisted grin on his face. These 2 men were not that drunk at the moment, for they were already planning to have a good night unlike their friends who were drowning themselves in alcohol.
They wanted to use their money to buy a heavenly 10mins instead of the whole night of drinking. Hence seeing that their friends were already drunk and the night still young both of them got up together and moved toward the woman.
This night will be a wild one.
This night will be their last one.