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In a small dusty room, a person lays in bed in his pyjamas. Half-eaten food is on the coffee table with empty beer bottles. The ceiling fan makes a sound like nut bolts being scratched on the wall each time it rotates. A phone rings. The man doesn’t flinch and the phone keeps ringing for a while before stopping.
The man seems fast asleep; a loud voice blasts from the speaker and the person wakes up as if he was being pulled out from the ocean, grasping for breath. His eyes are bloodshot red and his hands cover his ears. He looked around for his phone and picked up the video call.
“Who the fuck is this–” asked Atharva and realised what he had done.
He quickly tried to fix his hair and wake up for the call.
“Oh I am sorry, did I wake you up from your sleep, pretty princess?” said the voice on the phone.
“No, I had a long night and did a lot of work.”
“Oh so are you ready to send the files over, the boss wanted it last week,” said the voice on the phone.
“Look it’s almost done, just need to cross some T’s and dot some I’s, why don’t I call you in the afternoon?” asked Atharva.
“You haven’t got shit, if you don’t get the contracts done in twenty four hours, you are dead meat, that means eternal damnation, you are zapped, then you can sleep all you want.”
“No, I just want one last chance please, I am the best you got in centuries.” said Atharva.
“You were the best, now you can’t even reach your targets.”
“Look Raghav after the divorce it has been rough on me, you understand me right?”
Raghav smiled and said, “Firstly, it’s Raghav sir and secondly, I don’t, I am giving you a task to get this woman to sign a contract and if she does you get to keep your job for a few weeks, otherwise, no more Atharva.”
“Okay, yes a chance is all I need,’ said Atharva.
Raghav hangs up and Atharva plops on his bed, a notification pops on his phone and he slides it across in the air and the whole screen appears to him in mid-air like a projection.
Atharva reads the files on the girl, her name is Tripti, and she is a bank clerk but had huge gambling debts for which she betrayed her family, and her last known location was at an SBI bank where she works.
Atharva gets ready, and wears a white shirt with a black blazer and before heading out looks at the picture of his ex-wife on the table. Atharva taps his device which looks like a smartphone. It’s pouring down rain but being a lawyer for gods comes with its perks. Atharva taps his device before he exits his building and a thin layer of fluid gas-like substance appears around him. He reaches his hand in the rain and it no longer gets wet. He starts to walk rapidly on the street and reaches his destination in ten minutes.
Atharva looks at his watch it shows 2:08 PM, he enters the bank to see a poorly lit room with a few benches and some compartments that hold chairs for clerks and managers. Atharva looks at a pic of his target, it is a middle-aged woman of thirty-four wearing specs and cream colour kurta, and she has a whitish complexion and an average height of 5’6.
Atharva approaches the woman and calls out, “Ms. Tripti Pandey?”
Tripti looks up from her specs, ‘it’s lunch time come back later,’
Atharva says, “no I am not here for banking related work, I am a lawyer and I need to talk to you in private about something.”
“Are you Lohini’s attorney that fucking bitch can have her money as soon as I get it, why to send a two cent lawyer to my workplace—”
“No hold on, I am not here because of that, I am here because I have a deal to make with you,” said Atharva.
“I am busy right now, please come back later.”
“But I thought it was lunch time,” smiled Atharva.
Tripti glared at him, “Please don’t disturb me or should I call security.”
“I am here because you have tons of debt with a casino nearby.”
“Stop stop, did that Casino owner send you here?” Tripti said while looking if anyone heard him.
“No I am here on my own, please let’s go to a cabin and talk.”
Tripti takes him to a conference room.
Tripti tells the office boy that she is with an important client and that one one should come into the room.
Atharva takes a seat and tells Tripti, “Now listen to what I have to tell you, I am a lawyer just not the one hired by humans, but gods.”
Before Tripti broke into laughter Atharva held her hand and looked into her eyes, the colour of Atharva’s eyes changed and Tripti fell into a trans.
A projection ran in her eyes.
Tripti says with a tear in her eyes, “how did I see all of those things?”
“We can show humans glimpses of heavens and creation on universe for you to believe we are the real deal,” said Atharva.
“So its true, gods are real,” said Tripti with a tea in her eye.
Atharva says, “that’s what I have been told.”
“Why are you here?” she asks while wiping her tear.
“I am here sent by the god and we have a deal for you. We know you are in deep trouble, you need to pay what you owe the casino owner or else he will either kill you or injure you in very painful way.” Said Atharva.
“What do you want from me,” asks Tripti.
“We will make a contract for you, you need to kill the casino owner and hide his body.”
“Why would I do that?”
“Oh well consider it shared interest, the casino owner has done some weird shit and raped some young girls, this way we can get his soul to be eternally damned and you would be debt free instantly,” said Atharva.
“But won’t I be caught, how you would help me if I am in jail?” asked Tripti.
“We can’t really intervene in human justice system. It’s one of the weirdest systems we know. I can’t even fathom keeping someone alive hoping they would get better would they just like this fucking casino owner. We need to kill him and kill him now.”
“I need time to think,” Tripti shrugs.
“I can’t give you time to think, if you don’t sign this contract, you will forget we ever met, if you sign it though you will spring into action and kill the bastard.”
“How would I kill him?”
“It’s easy, he is going to be at his home twenty minutes from now, the back entry of the house is going to be open, you can get the knife from the kitchen and go into his bathroom where he will take a shower. The nasty bastard doesn’t lock his door just enter the bathroom and slash his neck.”
Tripti starts crying in the chair and says, “I can’t do it.”
Atharva bends in front of her and tells her, “it’s either him or you, I just need one soul either today or tomorrow, who’s it gonna be?”
Tripti looks at him and asks, “you mean if I don’t kill him today, he will kill me tomorrow.”
Atharva looks as if he said something he shouldn’t have and hits his head twice, “Stupid Atharva always saying more than required. Okay, look honey, do you want the contract or not.”
Tripti cries and says “yes.”
***
Atharva reached his home late at night with a half bottle of whisky and plops on the bed.
Raghav calls Atharva, “Good job on getting the casino owner, you sly dog you even got the women arrested,”
“Do I still get to keep my body?”
“Oh yea for now at least.” Said Raghav, “I read the report, I can’t believe you lied about the owner being a pedophile didn’t see that coming.”
Atharva hangs up the phone, takes a swig of whisky and goes to sleep.
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