His eyes closed, his body tightly hugging the tree he focused and the whole area came alive. Sounds were everywhere. He further focused, filtering through the sounds until he made sure the path was clear. Doing this had been useless back in the dungeon as the moss seemed to absorb all the sounds below a certain threshold.
He resumed his journey towards freedom and then barking rang out from all around.
"F**k."
His steps quickened and the ground seemed to shrink. Within a few moments, he was almost at the outer wall. The dogs were truly fabulously trained and it made him wonder, when did they get so serious with their training.
The dogs were incredible, they were not left behind no matter how much he pushed himself. He had no choice but to admire their remarkable speed. A few more moments passed and they could no longer sprint at those high speeds and were left behind. Maybe they got too tired. The wall was in front and he grinned. He did not relax though.
A shot rang out and his body twisted out of the way by itself. He threw himself at the wall, his fist slamming, sending him sideways, he kicked throwing him above the barbed wire and he kicked the pole all while the shots were being fired at him. In mid-air, he rotate and did thumps up at them.
Only the distance made it possible to dodge and even then only because his ears were now even more sensitive. If they were nearer he was sure he would have been hit. It still could not take away from his happiness.
Hands in the air he shouted a long scream.
"Here I come!!!"
His eyes drifted downwards and his legs automatically closed. In the tower he had no time to worry about such things, the constant fighting forced only one topic to remain inside his head, survival. Now? He was in a dire need of clothing.
The sirens echoed through the night and it made him wonder.
'Since when did they become so hardworking?'
Shrugging he ran into the concrete jungle. He ran in the darkness. It was much lighter. Occasional lights and the moon made it a child's play to navigate the streets. He ran through narrow alleyways avoiding the wider roads. He could occasionally hear the sound of police sirens. As he was moving through the buildings a thought came to his mind.
He jumped, grabbed a piece of metal, swung, and then flung himself to the roof. His fingers grabbed and pulled him onto the roof. He started laughing.
'Absurd. Have I come to love it?'
He jumped from one building to the next and now that there was no one out to take his life, asides from the police, he leisurely wandered the city while looking for something to wear. He came across none and in search of this, he looked for the houses and moved in the direction where he spotted some.
'Idiots.'
But then he reconsidered, wondering if he would have been able to capture a superhuman that escape from prison. It was similar to finding the terrorists within the sea of people.
'Nearly impossible.'
He enjoyed the moment and his mind wandered. A flood of memories came rushing. His brows tightened and his mood darkened, the same color as the night. Then he remembered about his wife and the sound of him gritting his teeth could be heard. He tried to reassure himself.
'It would be okay now, especially with the elixir. Surely, if it can bring one back from the doors of death a coma would be no big thing.'
It had been more than six years and not once had he seen her. He wanted to just go straight to meet her and he could but these dark thoughts had been cooking in his mind for years now. He had to clear them or they would become a poison that would eat him from within.
No longer in the mood, he jumped down, running at full speed. The first thing that greeted him was a dump of garbage and then rows of houses. On the outside were brick houses but as he moved inwards the situation started deteriorating, quickly.
Puddles of dirty water and occasional garbage. Still bare feet, he jumped quickly climbing the wall and he was on the roof. He looked around. Nowhere could he see any piece of cloth.
He started moving from one roof to another. It was a pipe dream.
As the winds crashed with him, the light falling from the sky, he rotated 360 degrees mid-air. It was liberating. He was filled with emotions that he could not express.
'Free at last.'
He remained quiet. Just took in the experience. The sounds of dogs barking, the sound of cars occasionally zooming past in the night, the faraway sirens. The very rare sound of people being awake.
His head snapped towards his left, zooming into the noise that was suddenly picked up by his ears. His face twisted as he confirmed the screams. He had been constantly crying out and screaming in the tower and after such a long time he could easily differentiate between the screams and the normal voices.
Housed in between a group of incomplete houses was a lavish castle. He ran, jumped, and fell on the gravel. He gritted his teeth, thankfully they were not the pointed types. Sudden anger burned inside him, anger that was directed at himself. He had been careless. Inside the tower, it could have been his death or worse. As he messaged his feet he wondered why he had never encountered such uneven surfaces in the tower. All his memory led him toward even surfaces. Even inside the forest. The only things he had to worry about inside were the monsters and his idiocy.
'Why was it so though?'
Again screams rang out. He quickly picked off the gravel and then rushed inside, jumping the wall. He quickly ran towards the room where the scream was coming from. The screams were pretty loud but no one had reported anything till now. He ran towards the room and slowly moved his hand to knock but froze. He did not encounter anyone until now meaning they were most likely inside. He stopped his hand.
'Good chance.'
He sat down and looked into the keyhole. It was locked. He took out a torch, lit it, and then made a tither with the flame. Closing his eye he focused. The fire slowly drifted out from the torch, compressed, and went into the keyhole.
A headache struck him which deepened when the fire started moving. As it invaded the small location between the door and the frame he felt the headache intensify again. He could feel the energy rapidly leaving him but his reservoir was massive now allowing him to do this much.
Soundless, it cut through the lock but during that time the drain quickened even further. As soon as he was done he brought back the fire, and extinguished it, breaking the connection in the process.
The lesson was reaffirmed again, that though very versatile, directly controlling the fire was very, very costly. Just this little stunt had left him with a throbbing headache and consumed energy worth multiple casts of the barrier.
'It is useful though.'
He sat against the wall, eyes closed as he tried to rest and simultaneously map out the inside of the room.
"Ahhhhhh!!"
"Our boss is tired of waiting, tell us whether you are going to do it or not. And just in case, here look."
"What did you do to him!"
"Are you going to do it or not?"
"Ahhh!!!"
"Stop! I said stop!!"
His face twisted as he hear a voice, it was at the edge of familiarity but he could not remember it. Then a connection was made in his mind but he could not believe it. It was dull now, seemingly without any will. It was completely different from what he had last heard.
He took out a pair of knives and stormed in. His arms exploded, knives flying. One burst out of the head while the other barely managed to turn, the knife slamming into the wall. He jumped, a punch smashing into the person while his eyes shot wide open as though unable to comprehend what was going on.
"Don't worry, he's safe now."
"Who are you?" asked the man on the other end of the video chat.
"Just because I was in jail for a few years you forgot about me, Mamun."
He adjusted his position stepping away from the light, allowing the camera to capture a clear picture.
A gasp rang out from the mobile and his brain momentarily froze. The gears started turning the next moment and then his eyes landed on his fingers. Completely scarred, not a single inch of flesh was safe from the mark. The same was the case with his whole body.
"Look like I have put on too much makeup, how do you like it, junior."
The eyes opened wide.
"How did you get out? Rather what happened to you."
"That I will tell you in person. Where are you now?"
"Lahore."
"Excellent. Gather everyone at the usual spot."
"Li… okay. Please bring my son alive."
"Don't you worry."
As he looked at the boy, unconscious, his finger and toenails were torn out. Blood was dried on his chin. Slowly he opened his mouth.
"Bastards."
Only a handful of teeth remained. Anger burst forth, head snapping towards the torturer. His eyes opened wider when he saw the 'K' surrounded by snakes, tattooed on the right arm
He dragged the man into the room further in the corner and closed the door behind him.
***
He came out, his anger only burning higher. But he bundled it up, stuffing it in the back of his mind.
'Just have a bit more patience after all these years."
"Bring me a set of clothes and where is the bathroom."
Out came behind him the gangsters, completely fine but his body was trembling. He could not utter a single word correctly. It took him multiple tries to correctly answer.
He quickly took a bath and wore the clothes. He felt uncomfortable when the clothes rubbed against his body. Still, he bore through the discomfort and moved out.
He looked at the black colored bottle, an elixir that these guys had.
"How many more do you have."
"I don't know. The supplies are sent from the headquarters." Gangsters' voices trembled, unable to flow out correctly.
"How many?"
"Just this one. There were strict orders to keep the boy alive."
"You sure did a good job, well done."
The gangster was quiet, body trembling, while his arms constantly rubbed different parts of the body.
"Start the car."
He went into the room and pressed the button. The lid opened up. He gently opened the boy's mouth and the boy woke up, screaming. He let him get the emotions out. It took a while but the screams transitioned into quiet sobs.
His fists clenched and unclenched. the boy shook when he came near. He stopped.
"I am a friend of your dad. Just calm down this pain is going to go away quickly."
The boy still shook with each step but he slowly put the lid in his mouth. As the elixir slid down the boy's throat the miracle repeated and this time he could observe it.
The nails regrew as did the teeth, and the cuts on the arms and chest snapped close as the flesh came alive resetting itself back into its place. Where there was non, new quickly grew out.
In a blink, he was whole again.
He grinned looking at the boy touching everywhere on his body.
"What's your name?"
"Afzal, the hell did you do?"
"Don't you know about the tower? You can buy things like this there."
"Really?" He asked while he messaged his arms and legs, "but how do you know that? Hasn't the government strictly prohibited going near them?"
"When did that happen?"
"Don't you watch the news?" Afzal stood up, jumping up and down.
"You want to be left behind?"
"My father has a few friends but they won't do anything like that."
His tongue was loosed by a long period of isolation so he started bickering with a boy much younger than him. He was smiling throughout the endeavor.