Sunnie, while moving down to the common, perceives Robin sitting all alone on the sofa. He moves closer to her and asks in a low tone, "Robin! Why are you sitting here? The night is going deeper. You must go to sleep."
Robin, with her upset face and disturbed eyes, glances at him and says, "I am not feeling well! I am missing my dad! I don't even have a friend who can update me about his condition."
He turns astounded, feels incapable to help her but still feels sorry for her. After keeping silent for a while upon her words, he says "Well! You can discuss it with Heartless. I can't say anything."
Robin raises her head up towards Sunnie, "I have to discuss something with you."
"To discuss with me?" He asks.
"Yes, because you are a very close friend of his." She adds.
"Are you talking about Heartless?" He guesses.
She replies frustratedly, "At Least, you should not call him heartless."
He speaks forcefully "What do you mean? It is his name."
"I never heard such a name before." She retorts.
He replies with a question, "What do you want to discuss about him?"
She asks about his view "Don't you think that it is weird to stay at someone's house whom I don't know, just because he saved me from the kidnappers!"
Sunnie admits "Mmm… for a girl, it might be! But … "
Robin asks innocently "Why doesn't he talk to me?"
Telling about the nature of his friend, he retorts, "He speaks less."
She adds, "He has a frightening personality. He has a gun and killed a lot of people. He doesn't seem to be in the army but he says that dad trusted him. How can I believe him?"
He feels irritated for asking too many questions, "You must have asked all such questions before coming with him."
Robin reacts with frowning at him angrily then turns her face aside, seems to have tears in her eyes. Sunnie sits on the sofa near Robin with an exasperated sigh.
"If you want to know anything about him, you should ask him only. I just know that he is helping you. You can trust him." Sunnie stands up with the intention to go but he suddenly stops when catches the sight of Robin, who closes her eyes and conceals her face with her hands. Still feeling sorry for her, he advises her,
"Look, Robin! I think you must prefer life over money."
She abruptly moves her hands away from her face, "What are you talking about? I didn't understand."
A soft reply shows his calmness "No, nothing! I think you are a sensible and practical girl. You will handle the situation very well. May God bless you."
Robin explains "I just want to go back to my dad! He will guide me much better than anyone else. I want to ask him about that… your friend … Heartless… by name!"
He tries to change her mind "Why do you want to know about him? He does not want to tell anybody about himself."
Telling the reason, she says, "Dad ever said never to believe in strangers. I don't know the person with whom I am traveling for two days."
His voice turns a little bit angry, "Hey! don't speak like that! He is saving somebody for the first time in his life. He might have left you with the kidnappers or have killed you with that gun! But he saved you and he killed them all just to save you!"
After a few minutes of silence, he continues to say with a mixed condition of anger and sadness.
"I am worried about him, about his safety, and … he is not even talking about his pain. God knows what he is doing. I am already too sad. I am hardly controlling my emotions… He is my close friend. In fact, he is the close friend of all four of us, but he does not …"
She interrupts with the eagerness to know "he does not… what?"
He continues, "You are right! He is not Heartless … He was a very caring and loving guy… but something went terrible and … he lost his temper … it was fiercely scary!"
Standing up, she says in a low voice, "Sorry! if I hurt you! I didn't mean that!"
He moves forward and speaks enthusiastically, "Robin! Promise me that you will not tell him that I have told you anything about him until he will not tell his story by himself."
"I swear! I will not tell him anything but I am sure that he will never tell me about himself." She firmly states while sitting back.
Taking a deep breath, he looks at the closed door of Heartless' room then he settles himself over the sofa and begins to say,
"A young boy is playing cheerfully in the garden with his two younger and one elder sister. This young boy loves all three of his sisters but he is more closely attached to the elder one. Meanwhile, their rude father, who is a short-tempered, cruel man, and a drug dealer too,is seen entering the lawn who begins to scold them. He shouts strangely and orders them to go back to their home even though the garden is their own. All four of them, scared and frightened, run to their home and tell their mother. The names of the two younger sisters are Lavisa and Lubreshia while the name of the elder one is (a tear drops from one of his eyes) ... Julian. She studies in a medical college while all the three younger ones study in a school. The boy has four best friends in his class who are his neighbors also."
"One day his father saw him playing with his friends. He went to him and slapped him, held his hands firmly, and pulled him back to the house just for the reason that he was playing on the lawn near his illegal sitting. He seemed as if he didn't like him or he was afraid of being disclosed by his smart son. The elder sister, Julian and his mother ran to cover him behind as a defensive shield. The mother requested his father in the best way she could, to leave him because his father's anger was shooting high and he was very rude to his family. The younger sisters stood frightened in the corner. His father, named Mr. Thomson, ordered that he was not allowed to go to the school again, not even go out of the house again. Julian, his elder sister who was very caring about him and closely attached to him too, commenced fighting for his right against his father by abhorring his decision, Mr. Thomson, who turned blood red out of his anger with her. He steadily locked her in her room as punishment and girded iron chains on the lock and warned everyone else not to open the door. That young boy who was facing these situations was, … HEARTLESS… Hah! (Laughed mirthlessly) … that time, he was not heartless."
Sunnie becomes silent for a minute, and cleans his wet face.
She insists on saying, "Please continue!"
He continues while taking a deep breath, "His actual name is… Tiger!... But nobody knows his actual name except his four friends and now you too… His mother had used to say that "My son is as strong and brave as a Tiger!"
"His father was a cruel and greedy man. He had a lot of money but he commenced to set out illegal ways to get more and more money. Actually, he should be named as heartless! When he detained his eldest daughter, Tiger cried a lot and got seriously depressed. He left to come outside. Even he left his school. He loved his sister a lot and could not bear her absence. One day, his mother came to know that, out of anger and depression, Heartless set the building on fire, which was one of the storehouses of drugs owned by his father and that was the worst step he took!"
Sunnie continues, "That time, he was only 12 years old, pretty young to attempt such an act. It was almost 4:00am when she swiftly headed her way into his room and was astonished to find it empty. He was not present in his room. Perceiving the opened window of his room, she understood that the news she heard was damn true. Having no other option, She sat there and waited for him with her mind suffering with multiple thoughts and heart beating at faster rate for the safety return of her only son. She became too worried for him and began thinking about how to save him from the worst anger and revenge of his own father. She steadily packed a bag for him within 10-20 minutes and caught sight of his son who climbed up, back into his room through the same window. He turned a bit astounded when he perceived her already present in her room but instead of giving multiple explanations, he kept quiet and saw her giving him some money. She sent him to his uncle who lived abroad. There, he continued his studies and lived peacefully."
"He thought that his father would have left crimes and would have started spending more and more time with his family instead of spending with his friends. As he passed the college exams, he decided to move back to his house after the passage of five years. He was then 17 years old. He was roughly in contact with us during this duration because there were different issues related to network signals, timing differences, and more probably, Tiger was very busy because of his studies."
"Except Tim … as we weren't able to contact Tim. Saim and I went to the airport to pick him up. There, we came to know that he returned back with lots of positive expectations about his father and his family and we became surprised that he did not know anything about what the hell has been done with his family. All three of us became worried and got tangled in eye discussion. We were not getting the way to tell him the whole story. Saim forced him to go back to his uncle but he had made up his mind and he was not going to change it. Well! We had no choice except to bring him back to his home and Saim asked him to follow him to proceed further. We went to the backside of the house.``
"There was a small wooden entrance door which gave the view of the prison. Saim knocked on the door in a particular way to produce specific notes on which the door was opened by his younger sister Lubreshia. She was astonished to see her brother, Tiger, whom she readily recognized. Tiger was glad to perceive her. All of us went in and she closed the door. Tiger commenced asking multiple questions but she was not replying to anything. Tiger looked curiously at the house."
"Its condition seemed terrible, telling many tragic stories. There was absolutely deep silence prevailing over the house. He swiftly headed his way up to see his mother and caught the sight of Lavisa sleeping in the room, adjacent to his mother's room. He steadily moved towards Julian's room and found that it was still locked and girded with chains. Perceiving that, he was left unmoved, his eyes went red and his face turned pale. His forelimbs became chilled and mouth left open. His condition seemed as if he had an outright trauma."
"He remained in such condition for a few minutes then he steadily made his way to the garage, sought a saw, returned to the door, and began to strike at the wooden door with that. Saim and Lubreshia tried to stop him but he pushed them away valiantly. He tried a lot to cut the door but his entire hard work was useless. Suddenly, he turned towards Saim and abruptly slapt him."
"Saim remained quiet and didn't react violently because he knew how his beloved friend was feeling. Tiger began scolding us about why didn't Saim and I help his family. Why did we not tell him anything about his house? Why didn't his friends do anything? Lubreshia then cried aloud that he must stop shouting because they were afraid of his father. At the same moment, little Lavisa was seen standing frightened on the stairs. As soon as his eyes caught her, Tiger ran to her and asked about what happened after him. She did not answer but kept looking at her elder brother, as if she wanted to speak with her eyes. Lubreshia told him that she can neither speak nor listen to anything which was another sudden trauma for him. Tiger seemed entirely broken and behaved madly."
"He was seriously shocked because he had no idea of the situation. He swiftly turned his way up and ran to the room of his mother. He found her sleeping but she woke up as soon as she smelled the presence of his son. After setting his eyes over her with great affection and admiring her, he requested her to say something. Her eyes were opened but she was neither moving nor replying to anything, except reacting with love and same admiration for him with all of her words and tears dropping, in every moment of his presence with her. Tiger covered his face with his mother's hands and let his tears shed away."
"She suddenly repeated her usual sentence which hummed up the silent room, "My son is as strong and brave as a Tiger." Hearing this, he became too enthusiastic and his temper rose as soon as his father crossed his mind. His displeasure exhibited fearlessly over his face and his facial expressions were thoroughly turned into daring anger and he looked extremely horrifying. He stood up and went to his father's room. Its door was already open and many useful things were missing and the room seemed almost empty. He picked up an ax, ran back to the chain-locked room and began breaking the wooden door instead of breaking the iron chain. Finally, the door progressed into breakage and we were able to enter the room. Lubreshia was not strong enough to face the dead body of his elder sister, Julian. She tried to stop him too but he just ignored everything."
"We saw her decayed and almost entirely decomposed dead body, hanging from the fan. Everything in the room was covered with a thick layer of dust and the room was filled with an unpleasant odor. That scene was … really dreadful! Those pictures are still in my mind! We forced Tiger to come back outside before the arrival of Mr. Thomson, while Saim and Smartie put the dead body down to the floor but the shivering Tiger remained unmoved. Lubreshia came closer and sat by him. She was very frightened."
"She said "We are also your sisters. Do you want us in the same condition?" All four of us became shocked and scared by her words."
"Tiger looked at the sweet faces and wet eyes of his sisters, then said firmly in a low voice,"He ruined the peace of my life. He killed my sister for no reason. I will … I will kill him. I will ruin him. I will destroy everything!!"
"He looked very enthusiastic and full of anger. Saim held his hand and asked him to come out of the room and promised to tell him everything. Tiger decided not to leave his family anymore."
"Saim said "We are also with you bro but try to understand the situation. We are looking at the matter of your… our sister." Tiger looked at him angrily and stood up."
"He pushed him away and shouted, "Why didn't you do this before?"
"He pushed him again and again, shouting aloud and striking him with a blow. Saim tried his best to calm him down. Finally, we were able to take him to another room. Saim and I began looking after Julian's dead body while Smartie told him the entire story which was like this "At night after your mother sent you abroad, your hot-minded father came home loaded with anger. He began calling your name but as your mother was very frightened, she asked the reason for calling you. He told her that you set the building on fire and he was sure that it was done by you because many people saw you over there. Everybody knew that you were Tiger, the only son of Mr. Thomson. As he didn't receive any response from your mother, he turned and asked Lavisa about where you were. When she didn't reply, he struck her head on the stairs with great force which forcefully led her to tell him that, your mother has sent you abroad."
"Her head began bleeding but your father ignored her and swiftly went away. Since then, he left home and didn't even place any groceries in the house. Lubreshia hurriedly called Saim, because she was unable to handle the situation all by herself. All four of us approached her and tried our best to take her to the hospital as fast as we could but consequently your mother had a heart attack when she heard the dreadful, ear-splitting scream of Julian who was still listening to the entire conversations going on outside".
"Nobody knows what she got but she attempted a suicide." Each of Saim's words broke him more strengthfully than the last one. I still remember his face with wet cheeks and bloodshot eyes, tightened lips and shivering hands, his head aligned straight and erect backbone." Sunnie inhales an exasperated breath while taking a short break during the story to clean his wet face. He turns and gives a short glance at the closed door of Tiger's bedroom in order to authenticate that he is not listening.