The Veil Of Darkness

Retaliation

After 30 min they landed outside a dense forest. Leo standing just in front of the forest lighted a cigarette. And motioned for the team to go for the hunt. Before the group left, he said while smirking “Leave the old man alive, the boss wants to have some fun with him”. Just as he had finished his sentence, all the men rushed forward. “So energetic, I hope they remember the orders”. He lazily smoked the cigarette. After finishing his cigarette, he entered the forest and started to move towards his target. As he went deeper into the woods, he began to see piles of dead bodies everywhere. He felt a bit disappointed after walking for a few moments as none of the bodies were of his men. “And these people wanted to kill the boss,” he thought. Soon he was in front of a mansion. The mansion was more like a fortress but what fortress is strong enough to hold against the grim reapers. This is what the elite squad of the boss was called. It was led by Leo and had been trained by Leo himself. It never once failed to make its targets miserable and never left any survivors and hence were named as grim reapers. Leo entered the mansion and saw all his team making themselves comfortable, seeing this Leo let out a chuckle full of amusement and asked, “Where is he?”

“He is holed up in his room on the first floor” one of the boys replied. Leo nodded and went to meet the mysterious attacker who dared to even think about harming his boos. Just thinking about this made his blood boil and a hideous smile made it was on his face. Soon he was in front of the room where that sly person was hiding. He opened the door with such force that the door almost broke free of its hinges. “Well well well, some people never learn,” Leo said, making a disgusted face and after walking across the room for a couple of seconds he sat on one of the chairs present in the room. “You should have learned the lesson after what happened to your son, old man,” he said almost growling towards a man sitting in one corner of the room. The man was not old. Instead, he was in his late ’40s.

“Did you really expect me to stay quiet after what that son of bit……” he was cut off by another loud growl like voice “DON’T YOUR DARE CALL MY BOSS SOMETHING LIKE THAT”, Leo’s voiced boomed throughout the room. He closed his eyes to calm his nerves and sighed “you should have been a careful old man. I was thinking to save you from the wrath of the boss but looks like you deserve to face it after all” he looked him in the eye. “What would happen to my family?” the old man asked feeling concerned. “You know what happens when the boss is pissed at someone, especially someone who came after his life” Leo replied, his voice void of any emotion. “PLEASE, leave my family out of this, I beg you” the old man replied almost letting out a cry. He was not afraid of death; he was already prepared for it when he sent those men after the boss. But the thought of his family made him anxious. “It would have been best if you had thought about this before coming after boss” Leo looked at his watch. “It’s time to go, old man, come quietly so that we both don’t have to face any more trouble,” he said getting out of his seat. The old man looked at the young man in front of him, he felt conflicted for a moment then he stood up and went for his drawer took out a cigar, lit it “better go out in style and in pride” he thought. And smirked at the young man making his way toward the door. “How much I would love to make that smirk of yours to disappear from your face old man but alas boss asked me to bring you to him,” he thought to himself as he followed the old man outside.

When they reached downstairs, Leo called his team, “Time to pack up boys”. “At least let us enjoy a little bit Leo” one of them replied. “Have you not had enough fun already, Alex?” Leo asked. “Not enough,” Alex answered. “If we had enough time, I would have let you people have your way. But you do know that boss is waiting for us to bring this old man” Leo replied, pointing towards the old man who was busy enjoying his cigar. At the mention of boss all the grim reapers suddenly become stiff, they left everything and started to return to their helicopter. It was as if they have been hypnotized, but the reality was much horrible. There was only one thing, one person, one entity all of them feared, and that entity was their boss. Just as they were about to leave the house the phone rang, Leo told others to go as he would catch up with them. After they left, he reached for the phone that was wringing continuously, and before he could say anything the caller said “is everything okay there? You never take that long to attend my call” Leo remained quiet for a moment and then replied. “The person you are trying to reach is no longer available”, and with that, he put the receiver on the table and went towards the helicopters. As they reached the helicopter, Alex brought a red jumpsuit and gave it to the old man, “Hurry and change in these clothes” Leo said emerging from the forest behind them. The old man walked towards a tree to change into the clothes he was provided. “Leo, what about all the mess that we created?” Alex asked, looking at the old man as he walked away. “Let it be,” he said, also looking towards the old man. “I have a feeling someone needs to see it,” Leo thought to himself. He was still thinking when the old man came back wearing the red jumpsuit.  There was not an ounce of fear on his face. He looked as if he is the one who captured them. His eyes were covered with black cloth, and his hands were handcuffed. “Why didn’t you do this before? I could have attacked you or tried to run away,” He asked. Suddenly everyone except him was laughing. “You attack us?” another round of laughter “You try to run away?” and another round of laughter, fiercer than before. “You are almost on the verge of dying, and you are still able to make such a good joke. I almost feel bad for your fate,” Alex said. “hey Leo, can`t we show him mercy and just kill him here” he continued. “Don’t give the old man any hope” Leo said, gaining his composure. “Enough chit chat everyone, we don’t want to make boss wait any longer” he gestured everyone to get back in helicopters. “And old man, we didn’t tie you before because we wanted you to enjoy the last moments of your freedom. And you are really underestimating us. If you think you could have attacked us or successfully ran away” he said emphasizing his last three words with a bit of arrogance in his voice. If someone else had spoken those words in such a tone, he would have been pissed. After all, this old man was one of the best fighters in the world. And his soldiers were feared throughout the underworld as well. But he knew Leo wasn’t arrogant, it was his confidence speaking. And even he couldn’t deny that he deserved to have such confidence. Especially after seeing how his once feared soldiers were massacred in his own home in a mere 10 min, you couldn’t even call it a fight. No one said anything after that. The journey was made in complete silence.