It was in the middle of the fateful night. The city was asleep and the lawn of the bigshot billionaire's palace was filled with blood and corpses, failing to do the 'job'.
Mr Brooke Wilson was all alone in his lavish mansion, with no servants or bodyguards alive to serve under him anymore. He was spooked, sweating and shivering in his bed, fearing the inevitable.
After all, he was marked by the 'Devilman' and the order has been passed. Now, no matter wherever he runs off to, it will be just a matter of time before the 'Ghost' catches up with him.
Tears dropped out of the soured eyes of Mr Brooke Wilson as he lamented the fact that he could have walked away from all this. He had the chance.
He was warned a minimum of a hundred times by the 'Court' and the 'Adjudicators'. Everything would be different now if he simply had the patience to listen and the brains to decide. It was a simple deal.
Now, because of his delusional ways, the men under him paid the price, lying dead in every nook and corner of his mansion where they were positioned to protect him actually.
*CREEK* the sound of the front door opening echoed all around the empty mansion. And along with it came the thundering sound of boots.
The sound only continued to grow louder, implying that whoever it was, he was nearing Mr Brooke Wilson at a quick pace.
"You already killed my men I positioned within the mansion... Now you formally entering my place through the front door?" he helplessly chuckled, asking the question.
Slowly the door of his room opened and all Brooke could see was a pair of eyes, staring at him, like a tiger watching over its prey.
Turning his head towards that pair of eyes, Mr Brooke smiled peacefully. It was a smile of acceptance; acceptance of his death.
"You really came, huh? The man with thousand names. The Devilman? The Ghost? The Grim Reaper... or the famous one they use, right now... The Uncrowned—"
--
"Ramika!!!!" screamed the professor aloud, startling Ramika Ray, the new student of the Achievers' Academy and 'Class B' to snap out of the deep and crystal-clear imagination of her reading.
She quickly shoved the tattered book back into her bag and stood up from her seat, smiling awkwardly at the bald, tall, angry professor.
"Sorry, sir... Just zoned out a little."
Though the professor was boiling with rage, he wanted to cut some slack for the new student; for the sake of her background.
"Don't do it, again... Sit down. Keep in mind, Ramika. You're a student of Achievers' Academy. Have some ambition and focus." He said, moving back to the drawing board to continue explaining the functions of the liver once again.
After a while the class ended and Ramika went to the canteen for the lunch break. It had been a week since she moved to this new town and new college, and fortunately, she made a few friends for herself. If only they were normal.
"Rami! Here! We're here!" shouted Aryan, the geekiest kid in the block, sitting along with the rest of the gang - Sharmi, Rory and Sana, the abnormals of the *Achievers' Academy*.
Rolling her eyes, embarrassed, she awkwardly waved to her 'friends' and walked to the table, cursing herself.
"I should have been more careful in choosing people."
She sat with the others, and remained silent throughout the entire lunch period, letting them talk, discuss and argue about the lamest loads of stuff she ever heard.
But one topic struck her ears - The Mystery regarding the legendary assassin.
"Yo! The Uncrowned King? Absolutely fucking insane, man. People spun various myths around this guy... Immortal. Vampire. A man who slayed an army of thousand soldiers—Look, do I look like an idiot? How can one even maintain a straight face while writing about such stuff?" Rory, the pseudo-intellectual cool guy of the trio said, while Sana nodded, silently sipping her cold coffee.
"But there were sightings of him... A muscular tall man drenched with blood. The photos of the 'Midland Party assassination' went viral, remember? It was not a thousand, but still, it was way too many people for a single man to kill." Sana placed her point.
Though Sana was on his side, Sharmi fired on her. "Don't be a bitch, Sana... He clearly killed a thousand people. He's real. The government is lying to us. They were rooting out anyone posing a threat to them and their ideologies by using these assassins. Working for the riches, doing their dirty laundry, hiding their—" Sharmi stopped his tireless rambling when he felt the sharp gaze of Ramika pointed towards him.
A mixed feeling of blush and fear gripped him.
"Sharmi, if you don't mind... Do you have any proofs to support your view? Soft, hard, any type of evidence or proof is fine?" Ramika politely asked Sharmi.
Though her question was simple and her tone was polite, Sharmi never felt that ashamed in his life. She was simply too logical for him to keep on spamming his nonsense theories. And worse was he had a massive crush on her.
"Anyways, I had my lunch... Return to your classes on time, guys. Don't waste time discussing useless things..." She said, bidding adieu to her 'friends', and walking away to her class.
The feeling was mutual. Though the three tried to act cool and try to wash away their geekiness, they collectively agree that Ramika is the true coolest member of their gang.
But what they didn't understand was Ramika's past. A past filled with miseries and blood.
'These kids think they look cool when they chase around myths and conspiracies... But I, out of all, very well knew the harsh reality of chasing the truth.' She thought to herself, returning back to her seat.
--
Far away from Ramika and her college in the city, 'Oasis', there was a peaceful-looking palace built on an empty island. And under the palace, there was an echoing scream of a man, suffering from endless violence in a room.
Tied to a chair naked, he was covered with salt on his bruises, flesh wounds and blood, while moaning and wailing in pain.
"LET ME OUT! WHAT DO YOU GUYS EVEN WANT?" he screamed again.
In front of him was a lady dressed in a long black coat, sporting straightened black hair, and minimal makeup while feasting on burgers and popcorn, enjoying the 'show'.
"Are you frustrated, son? Being tortured for a week yet no questions were asked? In the dark of not knowing anything but suffering in pain?" She sarcastically said, while munching the burger.
The man stared at her helplessly. He was barely awake and the pain was numbing his consciousness at a steady rate. Yet he forced himself to listen and answer.
"I can't focus fully, you bitch... Just ask the real questions... I—" His words slowed and slowed further due to the fatigue and the lady nodded to him, content with the 'torturous' procedure.
"Okay, we can talk now... You reached the maximum. And now you want nothing but peace and relief, don't you?... You don't have to answer that, a nod is enough."
And the man nodded furiously, which evoked a sadistic smile from the lady. Throwing the remaining burger aside, she slowly walked towards her captive and ran her fingers over the injured skin of the man, deriving some gratifying pleasure from it.
"You know what? I really love the sensation of poking my fingers into rotting flesh... That's why I always chose to kill my targets by my hand. The feeling is... mind-numbing. Anyways..." she paused and buried her pointy nails into the man's shoulders, piercing the skin, and making him scream once again.
The man screamed aloud again, but not as loud as before as he was already tired from feeling anything. So, wasting no time, the lady asked her questions.
"Where did she run off to? What is her new identity?" She hissed to his ears.
The man replied nothing for a moment. He processed the question slowly. But his answer infuriated the lady further.
"I have no idea... who? Who ran off to... what?" he replied. The lady got no time to cross-check whether he was feigning ignorance or he really didn't know. But her method of asking was fixed.
Raising her other hand, she gouged his eyeballs in a split second and asked the screaming man her questions again.
"The GIRL! You simpleton! The girl who knows the 'truth'! You got that?... Where did she run off to? Somebody helped her to change her identity... Someone helped her to escape. Some fucking nobody helped her to leave her past life behind... Now she's living her life under a new name and in a new place. And I want to know what they are!"
"Why... why did you think I know?" he said while tears dropped from his remaining eyeball.
"Well... we have contact with all the crooks who create fake identities for a living. They work under us. Except you!" She grunted, thrusting her finger into the gouged eye, causing him to scream again.
"So... you tell me. Where did she go? Let me give you a clue. Her original name was 'Diana'! Diana Daemon... Did you get that name? Did you? Now tell me her new name?"
Sobbing endlessly from the pain, the man finally broke out of his shell.
"It's Ramika... Ramika Ray. She came to us under someone's instructions. But I declined... I declined, saying she was a target for the underworld... But 'he' ordered us."
The lady's eyes widened. "He? Who's the 'he'?"
Internally the lady knew very well who the 'he' was. But her heart and mind refused to believe.
"He! The one... Come on, you know him... We all knew him..."
The lady's heart pumped faster than ever. Her breathing turned hot like steam and the sweatdrops dropped down from her head like waterfalls. Not just her, even the 'monitors', monitoring the interrogation via cameras got stunned and felt the heat.
"No way... It's not... possible. Come on, he died!" she said to herself in a meltdown and lost her footing, tripping and falling down.
Seeing her in denial, the man chuckled at the lady.
"Died? Rubbish... Even if you went after him with an army... He cannot be killed... You remember, right? He's the one...*coughs* he's the one who stood before all of you guys. The rebel. The one... The uncro—"
*SPLASH* Blood splurted out like a broken tap, as the angered lady sliced the man's throat without a second thought, not bothered by him or his reveal.
Her eyes were burning in rage while tears dropped from them. She was angry and happy at the same time. Happy for learning the truth, but angered because of the possible repercussions that were going to follow after.
She chose to live in denial turning her eyes away from the truth all these years. But the time had come; The time to stop her bullshit denial and finally face the 'reality'.
Her men quickly flocked around her after the sudden murder she committed, but the lady keeping her face stoic ordered them in a loud tone instead.
"Get ready, dear children... We are going to hunt one of our lost legends. A tough guy, if you ask me. You may have heard him via some fancy names like... The one, the Grim-Reaper, the Ghost...
Or the stupid name like... THE UNCROWNED KING OF ALL THE ASSASSINS!"