THE PAIN

In the darkness, there are chains - dozens of them. Some end in hooks, with pieces of skin, and others are dripping blood. A person tied in chains yells for mercy. His hands and legs are chained to the wall. A man with a mask on his face enters the chamber. On the left side of the mask, an angel is drawn and on the right side of the mask, a demon is drawn. The man takes a chain with hooks and pierces it on the back of the person. The person screams in pain and the blood rushes out of the wound. He begs for mercy but the man doesn't stop. He takes another chain with the hook and pieces it on his stomach. The person screams again, louder this time. 

The man says, "Don't think about the hooks or the chains or the blood or the wound or the pain. You all people just start screaming and crying when you suffer any wound. Have you ever thought about why you feel the pain? No! You dumb humans just start crying even when you get pricked by a needle…..

The person interrupts with a scream, "Shut up! Free me. It's hurting. I am losing blood. I don't want to die."

"Who's killing you? I am just telling you that your concept of pain is wrong."

The man goes and grabs the chain with a hook. He pulls the chain, tearing the person's back skin. He then grabs the other chain and pulls it, tearing the stomach. The material inside the stomach falls on the ground with a lot of blood and the person dies. The man keeps looking at the face of the dead person which is wide open in shock. 

The phone rings in a local police station and the head of the police station Sylvester picks up the call, "Hello?"

He listens to the call for some time and then cuts the call. An assistant policeman asks him, "What happened, sir? Why are you shocked?"

Sylvester replies, "Got a call from another police station. They found the dead body of their station's head in an abandoned building."

"So, why were they calling you? That area doesn't come under our jurisdiction."

"They called to warn me. They are saying that I may also be on the murderer's list. You take care of all the cases, I am going home to take some rest."

Sylvester leaves the building and glances over. He notices a man wearing a mask with half angel and half demon watching him from a building. He ignores him, sits in his car, and starts driving. He keeps driving for some time and then notices that someone is chasing him. He accelerates his car and the car behind him also accelerates. He gets a little bit tense. 

He keeps driving and stops his car. The car behind also stops. He decides to interrogate him and steps out of the car. He starts walking towards the car. The driver starts driving backward and speeds up. Sylvester starts running but all in vain. The driver cuts and accelerates leaving Sylvester behind. He notices that the car doesn't have any license plates. He gets in the car and drives to his home. 

In the evening, he is watching television in the bedroom. He looks outside the window and is shocked to see the same car standing in front of his house. He grabs his gun and runs toward the door. As he opens the door, he watches the car leave. The car accelerates and gets out of his view. At night, Sylvester goes to his room and lies on the bed with his wife, Rosy. His wife is in a good mood and kisses him. He hasn't told her about a person chasing him. He doesn't want to worry her. He also kisses her back and both of them make love.

Sylvester wakes up, tied in chains. His vision is blurry. After his vision gets clear, he glances around and finds himself in an old and empty warehouse. His head is spinning a little bit. He thinks, "Where am I? What happened?"

He finds that his hand and legs are tied with a chain that is attached to the wall. There are other chains in the room with hooks. He starts getting anxious and worried. He starts screaming, "Help! Let me out of here." He hears some footsteps approaching. He gets furious. He sees a shadow approaching him and then a man with the same mask on his face comes with a gun in his hand.

Sylvester starts yelling, "Why am I locked here with chains? What do you want?"

The man shoots Sylvester in the knee. Sylvester screams in pain.

"Lesson number one. Don't scream when you feel pain. You allow your brain to believe that you are feeling pain. Don't you have control over your brain?"

"What the fuck do you want and where am I?" Sylvester screams in pain.

"I don't think you need to know where you are. Here, no one will come. Here, only my rules are applied. So, it will be better if you keep your fucking mouth shut."

"You psycho. I will kill you," Sylvester spits on the mask.

The man wipes his face with his hand and starts laughing, "You can't do anything. It's all your perception. You can think of me as an angel or a demon. You can think of this place as heaven or hell. It's all about your perception."

Sylvester doesn't say anything and again tries to spit on him but the man punches him in the face before he could do that.

"Save your saliva because you will not be getting water here. You are not a guest here."

"What the fuck do you want?" Sylvester shouts.

"What do I want? I want… hmmm. Let me think… I will tell you later… Fight for your survival till then," the man laughs.

"Do you think you can fool me? You will say all this rubbish and I will be scared?" Sylvester shouts.

The man ignores Sylvester and leaves the room and locks the door from the outside. Sylvester keeps shouting but there's no response. 

After a few minutes, the man enters the room, takes out a knife, and makes a cut on Sylvester's chest. He screams in pain. 

The man shouts, "What did I tell you? Not to scream even if you are feeling pain. Don't you understand fucking english?"

Sylvester keeps screaming. The man leaves the room and comes back with a needle and thread. He grabs Sylvester's lips and sews them. His lips start bleeding. 

The man shouts, "Now, scream. I will not leave you until you stop screaming when you receive any pain. You need to keep in your mind that whenever you suffer anything, you should not feel the pain. You should observe the situation and think about why I am feeling the pain. Is it worth it?"

He leaves the room again and Sylvester keeps shouting. After some minutes, Sylvester loses some blood and passes out.

At the police station, Rosy is crying and the assistant head of the station, George, is calming her down. 

"He slept with me last night and when I woke up, he wasn't there. The entry door's knob was broken," Rosy says while crying.

"The main question is how did they take Sylvester out and you didn't even get to know about it and why didn't he try to wake you up."

George looks toward his team and says, "Go to Sylvester's house again and look, we are missing something. See if there's any object missing that could have been used to hit him."

The team arrives at Sylvester's house and starts checking again but does not find any object missing.

Sylvester wakes up on the bed with blood and glucose drips. He touches his lips and finds that thread has been removed and his chest has been bandaged. He sees around and rubs his eyes. The man with the mask arrives inside the room and greets him, "Happy to see you healthy again."

"You need a psychologist. You are out of your fucking mind. One time, you try to kill, and other times, you act as a savior. What's going on with you?"

The man doesn't say anything. 

"Are you deaf now? Or have you lost the ability to speak? Or do you only know the rubbish you were saying about the pain?" Sylvester raises his voice.

The man says, "Take proper rest. You will soon leave for your house."

The man adjusts his mask and leaves the room. Sylvester tries to stand but fails. He remembers that he was shot in the knee. He starts screaming and after some time, he starts feeling low and falls asleep. Sylvester wakes up and finds himself tied in chains in the same old and empty warehouse.

He thinks, "What the fuck? Not again. What does this man want?"

While he's thinking, the man with the mask enters the room and shouts in anger, "So, are you ready?"

Sylvester doesn't say anything.

The man again shouts in anger, "I said, are you ready?"

Sylvester again doesn't say anything.

The man takes the chain with the hook and shouts more loudly, "Are you ready?"

This time, Sylvester shouts, "No. Please no."

The man shouts in anger, "That's not the answer I want to hear. I am asking you again, are you ready?"

Sylvester shouts, "I said no."

The man shouts, "Say that you are ready. Say it. Say it. Say it. Say it. Say it……..

Sylvester interrupts, "No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No……..

The man interrupts, "Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes," the man comes running and pierces the hook in Sylvester's stomach. Sylvester screams in pain.

"You motherfucker. I told you to not scream when you are receiving pain. Can't you understand one simple thing? What's so difficult about this?" The man shouts and pulls the hook, tearing Sylvester's stomach. Blood and other things fall on the ground. The man pierces the hook on Sylvester's neck and pulls it, tearing his neck, and shouts, "Don't you understand what I said?"

The man inhales loudly and exhales with force. He takes some minutes to calm down and then looks toward Sylvester whose body is full of blood and torn at the stomach and neck and is now dead. 

The man breathes uneasily, takes the hook, and pierces it into Sylvester's back. He laughs and says while taking a long breath, "See? Now you understand. You didn't scream. I am a good teacher and I taught you well. Someone rightly said that practice makes a man perfect and now you are perfect. Congratulations," The man continues laughing. He leaves the building.

At the police station, the news of Sylvester's death has reached and a murder case has been registered. The police station of another jurisdiction calls every other police station to tell them that the head of the station is also missing.

"When you cut the skin, blood comes out. What's its color? It's red as you can see yourself right now. When you see blood coming out of your body, you should not be scared. It's a natural process. When people see blood, they start shouting "blood", "blood". If you observe your wound, the blood coming out of it, and then think about how the blood is coming out and why are I feeling the pain, that time you will get the answer to the question, "Should I be feeling this pain and if I am feeling the pain then why am I feeling it?"

A person's arm and legs are tied with chains and a hook is pierced into his arm out of which blood is coming out. The man with the mask is sitting in front of him. 

"So, what's your name?"

"Why should I tell you, you fucking bastard," the person says in pain.

"Well, I have your id with me. I was just being polite but I don't think you deserve it," the man with the mask says.

The person screams in pain.

The main smiles, "Lovely! Your name is Evan."

"So Evan, tell me. What's your concept of pain?"

Evan shouts, "Like you are a pain in the arse."

"That didn't feel good. Let me ask you again, what's your concept of pain?"

Evan doesn't say anything. The man stands and comes closer to Evan and asks again, "Tell me. What's your concept of pain? Or I will show you with a full feeling what the concept of pain is."

Evan doesn't say anything. The man keeps staring at him for some time and then picks up a knife. He opens his shirt and cuts his chest. The blood starts coming out of it. He doesn't say a single word and just stares at the cut and the blood coming out of it. After some minutes, he looks toward Evan and says, "This is what I am talking about."

Evan doesn't say anything. 

The man asks, "Have a look at the cut on my chest."

Evan tries to look but closes his eyes. The man says in anger, "So, now you are not able to see the cut and blood? You are so weak-hearted?"

"Please, stop this madness."

"I cut myself to teach you something and you ignored it. I am giving my best to explain to you and you don't want to see it?" The man grabs the hook and pierces it in Evan's right eye. Evan screams and with a passing second his scream fades away. The man looks at the dead body of Evan and keeps standing there for a few minutes before leaving.

The news of Evan's death comes out as a shock as in the last few days, three heads of the police station were found dead in a similar manner. The police headquarters place a high-rank officer, James to investigate the murders and catch the criminal. James asks the officers of all the jurisdictions to start searching their areas and look if they found any hideouts. The police of all jurisdictions start immense searches.

James sits in the car and arrives at the crime scene of Evan. He arrives near the body of Evan which is in horrendous condition. James asks the forensic doctors on the site, "Any fingerprints doctor?"

"We are trying our best to find one."

James comes out of the building and asks one of his assistants, "Did you get any information about the last time Mr. Evan was in the house?"

"Yes sir. His wife told us that he came home last night and he slept immediately after drinking. When the wife woke up the next morning, Mr. Evan was missing."

James thinks for a moment and then says, "Same happened with Sylvester and Damon. They both were also found missing by their respective wives when they woke up. Also, there were no signs of struggle in any of their houses. This proves one thing murdered is a single person. Now, the question arrives how the hell the murderer kidnapped them?"

James keeps thinking when he gets a call from headquarters. He picks up the call and listens for some time. After the call cuts, he runs toward his car and drives it to his house. He enters the house and finds that no one is in the house. He calls his only boy, Charlie but he doesn't pick up the call. He again receives a call from an unknown number. He picks up the call and says, "Hello?"

From the other side of the call, "Hello Mr. James. Hope you are doing great with your investigation. Well, it's just a waste of time but you humans will do it anyway. Those three humans deserved to die. They didn't know the concept of pain. I tried to teach them but they didn't want to learn. You know, in a classroom a good teacher removes bad students from the class. In the same way, I removed those three useless humans from the earth. Now, I tried teaching all aged humans so I thought why not give it a try to a teenage human? So, I brought your boy… What is his name? Alan…. with me and now I will try to teach him properly and I promise you that when Alan will return home, he will be a stronger man who will know what real pain is," the call cuts. 

James calls the police headquarters and tells them about the latest events. He calls the communication department and asks them to trace the number from where he received the call. After some time, he gets the report of the call location. Without wasting any time, he leaves in his car without telling anyone. 

Alan is hanging upside down with chains tied to his legs and hands. The man with the mask is sitting in front of him. He asks Alan, "Alan, do you know anything about pain? What is pain according to you?"

Alan says in a discomforting tone, "I want to go back to my father. Please, leave me."

"You will go back to your father but I promised him that I will send him a stronger version of yours who will know what real pain is. So relax."

"My head is feeling heavy. Please."

The man says, "You know what happens when a person stands upside down for a long time? It can cause blood to pool in the skull and pressure can build up inside the brain and eyes. This will result in congestion in the blood vessels causing strokes or even rupturing of blood vessels causing bleeding. And when that bleeding will start, I want you to not scream as I want to teach you that pain is not a simple concept as you humans think. You start crying and start screaming when you get hurt physically and mentally. I am here to teach you how to be strong. How you should not let pain empower you."

Alan becomes unconscious. The man laughs, "You are too weak."

"Hands up, you motherfucker."

The man raises his hands and turns around to find James standing in front of him. James is breathing heavily and pointing a gun toward him.

"Don't you try to do anything, you smartass," James says while pointing the gun.

The man starts laughing, "You police people are such a joke. I don't give a shit about you people. What will you do? Shoot me? Then go ahead, shoot. I will not scream like those officers. I will not beg for mercy like those officers. I will not suffer any pain like those officers because I know the real concept of pain."

"I don't give a shit about your pain or whatever. You are just a psycho who murdered three head officers. You will be arrested for it and will surely get hanging orders," James shouts.

The man starts laughing, "You think I will be scared? Humans are scared of all this shit. I am not a human. I am a messenger."

"The concept of pain is not easy to explain. I made an effort to teach the lesson of pain but that effort is still in progress. You know the concept of pain is not easy to understand so I try to put the person in that situation to make them understand what I am trying to say. Why did I select heads of the police station to teach the concept of pain? Well, that's a good question but it has a simple answer. Do you want to be my student? I am willing to teach you. Say it," the man says while facing James.

"I will take my boy, arrest you, send you to prison, and will try my best to get you death punishment," James shouts.

"Do whatever you want to. I am not scared of anything. I am not human, I told you. I am both an angel and a demon. My angel side tells me to teach you what pain is. That you should not be scared of pain, blood, or any wound. My demon side tells me how to teach you about pain in a brutal way. A person doesn't learn anything if done easily, you know that" the man laughs.

James takes out his mobile and calls his team. He tells them the location and asks them to reach there. 

"I already said. Enough of your bullshit. My team is coming. Your game is over."

The man doesn't say anything for some time. After some minutes of silence, he grabs his mask and removes it. James gets terrified after seeing the man's face, "What are you?"

"I told you I am not human but you did not believe me."

James doesn't say anything but keeps his gun pointing toward him. The man smiles to which James thinks, "His smile. It's so terrifying. What is this person? His face," James' hand starts shaking.

"I know what you are thinking. My smiling face. This is the face of both an angel and a demon. Now, you have also witnessed it and those who have seen this face have never lived long. So you can decode what I am trying to say," the man keeps smiling.

James doesn't say anything and tries to keep his gun pointed toward him. The man lowers his arm and starts walking toward James.

James shouts, "Stop and raise your hands."

The man grabs the chain with a hook and keeps walking toward James.

"Stop whatever you are doing. This is my last warning."

The man doesn't stop and starts running toward James. James shoots him in the chest. The man doesn't stop and keeps running. James shoots him again in the chest but it doesn't affect him. The man grabs James by his head, pierces a hook into his neck, and falls to the ground. James grabs the hook pierced into his neck. Blood is rushing out of his neck and he begins to fade. He takes out the hook and falls on the ground with blood rushing out of his neck and covering the floor. 

The police team arrives at the scene after ten minutes. They check James who is lying dead on the ground and Alan, unconscious but breathing tied with chains. There's no sign of the man. There's only a mask lying on the ground. This news spreads like fire and heads of the police stations of all jurisdictions are now asked to brace themselves and their security is beefed up. 

After a week, the family members of all the dead policemen are sitting in the police headquarters when the head of the operation, John arrives and sits in front of them. He says, "I asked you all to come here to tell you about the murderer."

Sylvester's wife Rosy asks, "What do we have to do with this information? Catch that bastard."

"I think it's important to know about the murderer. I did a detailed investigation about this person and got a lot of details about him. Let me tell you."

He opens a notepad and says, "His name was Fred. His childhood consisted of hardship. His father was a sadist and loved torturing people for his pleasure. He would chain Fred and would torture him by cutting his skin, especially his face. He loved him screaming with pain. Growing up under an abusive father, he developed repressed mental illnesses of his own, such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. He made imaginary friends and told them about his pain. The pain of having an abusive father, the pain of losing his loving mother, the pain of getting tied to chains every night, the pain of getting his skin cut every night, the pain of losing blood every night, the pain of not getting any help, the pain of loneliness, the pain of feeling unwanted. He developed a mindset that everything is against him. This continuous talking of pain with his imaginary friend made him mad. When he was found in the basement, he was taken to the hospital and his father was arrested. He is still in prison. After a few days, Fred escaped from the hospital and descended into madness. He became obsessed with duality and opposites and developed a second persona, the messenger who has come to earth to tell people what real pain is and to make them stronger. He wanted the world to show the pain they suffer when they get small wounds is nothing. 

Fred wakes up in shock. He sees the injury he got due to gunshots. There's a piece of mirror in front of him. He picks up the mirror and looks into it. His whole face looks like it's never been cleaned. There are some hairs left on his head and it looks like someone plucked his hair forcibly. His head skin is also torn badly. On the left side of his face, there is very little skin and his facial bones can be seen. The right side of his face is full of scratches. His nerves are exposed and blood has dried on scratches as if no one cleaned them ever. All the wounds on his face look old. He starts staring at his wound, stands up, and moves forward into the sewage chamber.

"Sir, I think I cracked it. See these reports. All these officers who were killed by Fred were the heads of prisons where his father was held. His father got transferred five times. Nowadays, he is in his fifth prison. As you know the heads of the police station are also the heads of the prisons. So, Fred targeted the heads under whom his father was in prison," an assistant policeman tells John.

John says with amazement, "Excellent! That's a great connection. This means that the fifth head of the police station… What's his name? Ben. He must be in danger. Alert him and increase his security."

"Sir, one more thing."

John raises his voice, "What is it?"

"Sir, we found traces of halothane which is a sleeping gas from the houses of all the heads. Fred used gas to make them unconscious and then took out the heads. And due to the gas, all of the wives were also unconscious they didn't know what happened and when. This also explains why there were no signs of struggle as all of them were unconscious."

"Nice work. Keep it up. Now, I will go to TBC prison where his father is being locked," John leaves the room.

It's raining outside. Fred comes out of the sewage chamber and in front of him is the TBC prison. He keeps staring at the prison and doesn't move. He watches a car coming towards the prison's gate. After some minutes, the car enters the premises. John parks the car and leaves to meet Ben. Fred opens the car's back bonut and comes out. He takes out a piece of glass from his pocket and starts walking by the wall's side. Due to rain, guards are not standing outside. Fred enters the gate and finds two guards sitting there. He runs and slices the neck of both the guards. He continues walking and turns toward the prison cell where prisoners are locked. Another prison guard asks him to stop but he doesn't stop. He keeps walking and throws a glass piece which pierces the guard's eye. He screams and grabs the glass and takes it out. He screams more loudly. 

Fred grabs his mouth and whispers, "No. No screaming. This pain is nothing. What did you lose? An eye? So what?"

The guard gets scared seeing Fred's face from so close. He keeps screaming but his scream gets suppressed as his mouth has been covered. Fred slices the guard's neck. Fred keeps walking and stands in front of a cell. An old man is sitting on the floor. He looks at Fred and smiles, "So, you are here. They took you away from me but see, you came to papa again."

Fred smiles, "I tried so many people but I never tried you. So tell me, what is pain?"

The old man says in a confused tone, "What? What is pain? What question is this?"

Free continues smiling and says, "Come closer to me. I will tell you."

The old man stands and starts walking toward Fred. Fred continues smiling and picks up the glass when a bullet hits him on the side of his neck. Fred doesn't scream or shout. He grabs the neck and checks his hands which are full of blood. The smile has gone from his face but there's no emotion on his face. The old man jumps back. Fred turns sideways and finds a team of policemen along with John coming running toward him. John again shoots and this time a bullet hits him in the head. He falls to the ground. 

John comes near Fred, "And the chapter is closed, at last."

"You can't kill me," Fred shouts. John gets scared and jumps and shoots Fred again. 

Fred's vision blurs and he sees a dark empty room with chains hanging from the roof. The door opens and a shadow approaches. The shadow with chains tied to its neck says, "Humans have become weak and you tried your best to make them stronger but the mission is not yet over. I became your friend as I saw some fire in your eyes. Because you know what real pain is. Now, it's time for you to take a rest. You have suffered a lot from the very beginning. The concept of pain will be taught to everyone. It's not over."

Fred's eye closes.