The White of Snow

It was supposed to be the happiest day of their life. After a confused and completely nightmarish week, they would get time to take a breath of relief.

 He was sitting at his doorstep, looking towards the mountainous terrains in the east. The sun was just visible above it; the wind was nominal; the weather was in their favor. He stood up from his doorstep and tightened the straps of his backpack. He went inside the house, a concrete house of four rooms; giving shelter to his two younger brothers and his paralyzed parents. He looked at them briefly and stood in front of the mirror and shaped his hair, and went out of the house.

She was dressed in her best robes; every strand of her hair in place. Her beetle black eyes scanned her whole body in the mirrors, for the conference’s sake. It was one of the rarest days, where she looked this perfect. Not a single flaw in her petite face. Her low budget apartment room was nowhere close to neat or disciplined, as it used to be, every object out of their places, the complete inverse of her hairs. She didn’t care to look at it, or else she would make herself lose her most precious of time in it. She came to the main road and took a cab to the auditorium.

By the time she reached the hall, Henry had already settled himself in his position as the chief speaker. She raced towards him and sat next to him. The auditorium was nearly empty except for them.

“Oh, you’re here I thought you would never come,” Henry spoke cherished on seeing her.

She laughed, “You wouldn’t have seen me if I would have bothered to clean my room.” Lara continued being a little serious, “Has Martha arrived?”

“Nope, I haven’t seen her till now,” Henry said.

“Better she would hurry,” Lara spoke a little tensed. She was feeling a little uneasy about Martha’s absence. In other times she arrived at work even before the gatekeeper would be awake. Delays never suited Martha. She rested her anxious thoughts, and let go a heavy breath. Henry unaware of Lara's uneasiness started talking happily, “The last days were really dreadful, thank the holy heavens for gifting me with two wonderful brothers to take care of my parents. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here talking with you.”

Lara nodded with not much interest, “Hmm.” As Henry continued talking about his family, silent tears started to roll down her cheeks, the hell of days started to tingle her memories. Her mother was baking a cake in the kitchen, the snow was heavier than usual; her sister was wrapped in blankets, reading books unaware of anything outside. She herself was 2 miles away from her home in the market. The market was almost empty, with hardly a vendor insight. She, tired of sitting alone in the cosmetic shop with no one to talk to, rang her father for a video conference. Her mother looking happy, called her home early for the feast. Her parents were preparing dishes for Christmas. The war was over, peace prevailed if not for always, then only for some years. Anyways, no matter how much time, but peace prevailed. People could go out safely without any fear of getting killed.

              She and her father were cracking jokes over the phone until they heard her sister yelled. Her father gripping the phone tight took his rifle and ran towards her room. The book, titled ‘Death in silence,’ laid open on the corpse of her dead sister; a terrible scream escaped her lips making every bird in the market area fly away. The blood-soaked blanket made her mother faint, she kept shouting hastily ‘mother, father I am coming.’ But the masked, red-dressed goons didn’t give a damn to her screams. She sped past the main market, and boarded her car, placed the phone on the dashboard, and raced to her house. The supporters of nefarious organizations haven’t stopped their raids even after ending the war. She was crying until her eyes became red, but not a voice of her pleas carried to those terrorists. She could hear her father screaming; the cries of her sister's departed soul to save the family somehow, but she was clueless except to race her car at the maximum speed. The video stopped after a few minutes. Her first thought was the phone may have cracked. She started to shiver in fear and panic. “Everything will be fine, trust the gods.” She started calming herself. “Oh god please help us. How many tests we need to pass, I lost my brother, my brother-in-law, my own sister, and no more please God please save my parents. Pl…ea….se” she cried out loud as she uttered the last plea. She could see her locality, filled with corpses, from a distance. The white of the snow tainted by fresh dark red blood. She left the car and ran towards her house, on her way, she stumbled upon severed heads, legs, hands and she couldn’t afford anymore to watch. Her eyes started to protest to take no more of it. Her senses started going numb as she advanced towards her house, through the field strewn with dead bodies. Finally, she reached her main door, no sound was to be heard from inside; her heart rate increased dramatically. She gathered all her courage and opened the door only to see her mother lying wasted, devoid of any life, and her father’s head pinned to the wall with a nail in his forehead. The last thing she knew was screaming at the top of her lungs and then her senses went silent for a few hours.

“Hey, hey why are you crying. Is everything okay?” Henry asked as he saw her tears rolling down her cheek. She didn’t respond. He called again. And no response, the third time he shook her.

“Oh, were you saying something,” Lara said wiping her tears, trying to hide she was crying. A fake smile creased on her face.

“Don’t try to hide, why were you crying?” Henry asked with worry in his eyes.

“Never, I just remembered that dreadful day. The day I lost everything.” Lara said wiping her eyes properly with her handkerchief.

Henry cursed himself for not being careful with his words. He asked reassuringly, “Do you have any images of your parents?”

Lara nodded. She was about to pull out the photo, just then the press members arrived with the guests. Lara and Henry stood up, and looked around, if they could find Martha, to share the happiest moments of three of their lives. But she was nowhere to be seen. They could not afford any delay; both stepped forward and greeted the guests and the press members with a warm welcome. The guests took their designated places and Henry entered the stage with his collar mic.

              “As we all know, why we gathered here today. To celebrate the uniting of the world and analyze the blueprint of earth.” The audience clapped, Henry continued, “I am grateful to announce here my colleague, Lara who worked with me to make this plan successful, and I would like to call her on the stage to explain about the blueprint briefly. And I also must regrettably announce that our third companion, Martha who has the same share as we have on this project, is not present here. We tried to communicate with her but she didn’t respond. Anyways let’s carry on with our program.”

After nearly three hours, the conference ended with 193 countries signing in the peace treaty to unite as one. Henry was in the seventh heaven of happiness. He with Lara was resting in the green room waiting for Martha, she was about to arrive. After a long try, they somehow communicated with her. Henry opened a bottle of champagne, a post-conference party.

“Here, look at it,” Lara said giving him one of her family photos. Henry took the photo, the bottle of champagne slipped from his hand as he looked at it. He kind of got traumatized after seeing the photo. They were his last kills. He couldn’t contain himself from reacting, he shut his eyes tight, drops of water started to spill from his eyes. Lara was shocked to see him crying. From her earliest memories with Henry, she never saw him cry. She gripped his hand tightly with both her hands and asked assuring, “What is it?”

“Nothing.” He said clasping the photo in his palms. He made his mind; he couldn’t stay with the burden of a secret this much related to Lara.

“You are not going to lie to me, common tell me what is it?” Lara said forcefully.

“I was thinking the same thing,” Henry continued his voice a little weak than usual, “You know I too was once, before starting our project, a red goon.” He waited to see Lara’s expression but her face was calm, “for three years I worked under them. I with this very own hands of mine killed thousands of people with not a sign of remorse or regret. And Martha was with me too, we worked under the same agent in Nevada.” Lara’s face started to become a little creased as he continued on Nevada, “the people of Nevada were simple peace-loving, but where would we understand the language of love, we just killed them one after another.” He gave a weak smile and continued, “And on my last day as a Red Goonwe arrived at your locality…..” Henry couldn’t continue anymore. Lara held him tight comforting him in his uneasiness. Streams of water started to flow from her eyes. She spent years with a man working who killed her family. She herself was shocked to see her acting so calm. Gradually she strengthened her over the time Henry kept his head buried. For a few more seconds Henry sat burying his head in his hands. And Lara just sat holding him without speaking anything. Gradually he lifted his head and asked her a little surprised, “Aren’t you going to do anything with me?”

“What is the use of doing anything the past is gone, I can never change it by doing anything with you. So, I believe in concentrating on the future rather than mourning for the past. Sure, I am not happy with you, but then you were a monster but know I don’t think you are a monster.” She said withdrawing her hand from Henry.

“Thank you, thank you...” Henry started to cry again.

This time Lara stopped him from doing so. Henry again lifted his head and said, “You know, Martha too was with me but she resigned together with me, she was the one to kill your family but now she….”

He stopped in mid-sentence as a bullet entered tearing his chest. Martha was standing on the door holding a 9 mm pistol. As Henry’s soul left his body, Lara screamed. After a few moments, she asked regaining her voice, “Why you did this?”

“He spilled all our secrets. He needed to die. No Red Gooncan say whom they killed after they leave their job.” Martha said simply, withdrew her pistol from Henry, and aimed at Lara.

Lara’s eyes turned red she was trembling in anger she spoke with contempt rage, “He got over from his evil acts, but you are as same as you were then killing my parents, and now even your hands didn’t shake once while killing the man you worked with, for more than 15 years.”

“We obey our duty before anything. That is our rule of law and I follow it. And don’t think I am not a red goon. I am as much as a Red Goon now, as I was while killing your parents. I never resigned. And by our law, the person who recognizes an undercover Red Goon is destined to die.” Marth said loading her pistol. Her face was inscrutable. Lara got over her shock of seeing Henry dead and pushed Martha over the chair. She stumbled upon the chair's leg and fell. The pistol from her hand went flying and landed near Lara. Lara picked up the pistol instantaneously and aimed at Martha. Martha laughed openly, “Believe me you are not a killer, and we always have spare guns.” She pulled out a hidden gun from inside her belt. Martha’s voice made Lara’s blood cold, without thinking for a second, she whispered, “I can kill the one who took everything from me.” And pulled the trigger. Warmblood covered the wooden floor, red hue splattered across Martha’s white dress. The white like snow was covered with the red of blood. Lara slumped in the chair before she lied two dead bodies.

 Martha was right, she was not a killer, her blood lust eyes couldn’t hold any more of her tears. They flowed freely on her dry skin. She was too shocked to react to her deed. “Martha was right, I am not a killer,” Lara said shutting her eyes, but by then it was too late.