The Family Wipeout

An ominous wind blew across the deserted room situated in the corner of a jungle. It seemed to carry bad news to the ones who dared to enter the room. Ajay scurried into the dark room and was taken aback the moment he saw Ranveer lying in a pool of blood. Someone had murdered him in the middle of the room. The white wall seemed to be painted with crimson red which indicated that Ranveer's head was banged on the wall until he bled to death. He crouched down and shook the motionless dead body, but the soul had already departed. He couldn't believe his eyes as he got entangled in the web of painful silence. Tears mushroomed in his eyes. At the same time, Renuka appeared at the spot and saw Ajay's hand soaked in blood. Petrified by what she saw, she screamed at the top of her lungs as tears trickled down her eyes reflecting the horrible pain.

"Why did you kill my husband?" she lamented.

The police jeep materialized at the spot. A few cops jumped out of the jeep and barged inside.

"What is happening here?" one of the cops asked.

"He killed my husband," Renuka went on her haunches and looked inconsolable.

Ajay couldn't believe his ears and he didn't even get time to justify himself as the police handcuffed and dragged him onto the jeep. Just like that the jeep disappeared and Ajay's justification reached deaf ears. Unable to bear the loss of her husband, Renuka plunged into the sea of sadness.

Renuka cremated her husband's dead body amidst the augmented pain. She had never even dreamt of this horrible day to arrive in her life. To see her brother kill her own husband was too much to bear. She became alone. As she went back home, a mysterious surprise awaited her. She closed the door and flicked on the switch to illuminate the hall. Her husband's deep voice haunted her. She couldn't contemplate how to live without her beloved husband. She planned to visit the jail and pull her brother's collar and ask the reason as to why he killed his own brother-in-law. Renuka slumped on a swinging chair and stared at the wall that had carefully hidden the secret beneath its cloak. She closed her eyes to peel back the layers of the past where she had lived joyfully with her husband. A rasping sound emanated from the house which sent shivers down her spine. Is she hallucinating? Again, the sound hammered her head manufacturing sweat beads across her face. Out of nowhere, a masked person arrived by the swinging chair. Renuka's eyes slid towards the masked person and before she could react, the latter strangled her neck. Somehow Renuka managed to break free from the clutches, but she fell losing her balance. The masked person leveraged the situation and stabbed her back as she screamed in agony. Later, the person banged her head on the wall until she bled to death. An unknown person had now claimed the lives of husband and wife in a span of two days.

The murder news of Renuka broke the heart of Ajay. The double whammy of losing his sister and brother-in-law was terrible to digest. He now feared the safety of his wife Reena who also happened to be alone without her husband. He decided to escape from the jail to keep her wife safe, away from the mysterious killers. But how can he breach the tight security? Reena on the other hand couldn't grapple with the bitter reality that unfolded in just two days. Even she feared that something sinister was being plotted against her as well. Tucked away in the huge jail, Ajay sat and thought about how to escape. He came to know that a truck arrives every three days to collect the litter from the jail. An idea popped up in his mind that he desperately wanted to execute so that he could see his wife who was in dire need of him.

A yellow colour truck drove its way into the jail grounds. The driver hopped out of his seat and went about collecting the garbage. Ajay waited for the perfect time to evade all the prying eyes so that he could squeeze himself deep into the litter so that nobody would recognize him. When the rear end of the truck was fully loaded with litter, Ajay squeezed himself inside the heap. The driver climbed back into his seat and started the truck. The gates opened and the police gave a nod for the truck to go out. They had no idea that a man was hiding under the heap of garbage. It did not take much time for the police to spot Ajay's absence in the jail. They became alert and sent out an order to nab him at the earliest. They suspected him to have escaped through the truck because there was no other way for him to escape. The police patrolling on the main road waved their hands to stop the truck. They quickly asked the driver to dump the litter on a grassy land beside the road. The driver obeyed their orders and dumped the garbage but there was no sign of Ajay. Where did he go? He seemed to have escaped before the truck arrived at the main road. The police suspected him to have escaped into his house to meet his wife. They jumped into the jeep and drove towards his house and their suspicion appeared to be correct. He was banging on the door but before his wife could open the door, the police nabbed him thereby neutralizing the rendezvous with his wife. He pleaded with the police to protect his wife but to no avail. Her eyes spoke volumes of the fear that she harboured without her husband's protection. She went inside the house and sobbed. Subsequently, she retired to sleep. Someone knocked on the door to wake her up.

"I am Ajay," someone pretended to be her husband.

She fell to the tactics as she opened the door but couldn't see anyone. She came out and scanned her eyes around but no sign of a human being only the sound of crickets. She went back inside and closed the door. After opening the room door, she fell on her bed unaware of the presence of a masked person. Slowly a finger ran through her face which made her scramble back to her feet. Before she could escape out of the room, the masked person tossed a knife which sliced her hand as she screamed in agony. That was the opening the masked person needed to choke her to death. Her eyeballs seemed to have popped out owing to the brutality. This breaking news did not go down well with Ajay who blamed the police for not protecting his wife despite repeated pleas. The police asked him to shut his mouth and they told him that they knew how to investigate the case. He recoiled at the corner of the jail and mourned his wife's death. He knew something of this sort would materialize. There seemed to be a clear pattern now. Someone held a grudge against his family which is why all his family members are being murdered one after the other.

Twenty years ago:

Paramesh was the village head who had qualified for the power owing to his deep spiritual knowledge and leadership skills. If there were any problems in the village, he used to sort it out with his wisdom. He also had the power to punish wicked people for their bad deeds and felicitate noble people for their good deeds. He was deeply respected by the people of Nanjanur village for his steward leadership. He had a daughter named Renuka and a son Ajay. People of the village thrived under his administration. There lived a wizard in the same village who looted uneducated people on the pretext of solving their problems. He had a son named Veeru and a daughter Deepika. Some villagers blindly believed in his wizard powers and approached him to sort out their family problems. He used to say that some ghost had set its eyes on their family and was responsible for all the menace. One day he went beyond limits and started thrashing a boy stating that he had been possessed by a ghost. He claimed to be an exorcist who is capable of expelling the evil spirit out of the human body. Unfortunately, the boy died on the spot owing to a brutal hitting. This tragic news spread like wildfire in the village and Paramesh rose from his chair in anger. The wizard was summoned to appear in the village council. Paramesh asked him for his qualifications to prove that he is capable of expelling a spirit from the body. He berated the wizard for fooling and looting the innocent people of the village. To make matters worse, he even became responsible for the death of an innocent boy who wasn't even possessed by any evil spirit. He ordered the wizard to leave the village once and for all. If at all he shows his face again, stringent action will be taken against him. The wizard couldn't bear the ignominy of being treated as a cheap person in front of the crowd. He silently vowed to take revenge against Paramesh and his family through his children. He left the village and groomed his children by drilling hatred thoughts into their minds. He desired to see the family wipeout of Paramesh. As the years rolled by, the wizard developed deadly ailments which saw the end of him. The onus was now on his children to avenge the humiliation. Paramesh died in a car accident thanks to Veeru who also sacrificed his life in the mishap. Later on, Deepika took charge of the plan and murdered Renuka's husband Ranveer in the dark room close to the jungle with the help of her henchmen. She had disguised herself as Renuka to lure Ranveer into the room where he was offered a bloody death. She had cleverly persuaded both Renuka and Ajay to the room. Her conspiracy worked to perfection as Ajay was framed for the murder and went behind bars. Killing Renuka and Ajay's wife Reena became an easy process for her as both of them were alone in their respective residences. It was she who killed them disguising herself as a masked person. So, the death of Ajay would see the family wipeout which was her father's goal.

At present:

Ajay scratched his head unable to figure out the person who was responsible for this series of murders. He had no enemies but why his family was targeted remained an unanswered question. When he was lost in his solitary musings, a group of prisoners confronted him. He looked up at them wondering why they had assembled in front of them. They just spat out the truth he very much wanted to know. They also told him that Deepika had demanded them to kill him. Ajay quickly got up to defend himself. One guy threw a punch at him, but Ajay evaded the blow and landed a punch on his jaw. Another guy tried to kick him, but Ajay swung hard on his neck. He did put up a strong fight against them but very soon the number game got the better of him. They kicked him mercilessly until blood puked out of his mouth. Someone informed the police about the mayhem and they quickly arrived at the spot to separate them. Ajay looked to be in a perilous condition owing to the brutal beatdown. He was bloodied by Deepika's men who had deliberately committed fraud to end up in jail. Deepika roared like a lion after the news grabbed her attention.

She had promised her father to complete the family wipeout and she was now on the verge of honouring the promise. She did a recce around the hospital where Ajay was kept seeing if he was alive. She overheard the doctor saying that Ajay is still alive, and he needs rest. This did not go down well with her as she barked in anger kicking one of her henchmen. She insisted her henchmen kill Ajay at the hospital under any circumstances but then stopped them. She decided to do the job on her own to mark the end of Paramesh's lineage. Deepika wore a mask and barged into the hospital room by evading the nurse's eyes. She removed the blanket that had covered Ajay's dead body. She pulled out a knife from her pocket and smirked.

"The final nail in the coffin," she laughed and landed a punch on his chest which woke him up. He grabbed her hand which had a knife and gave a kick to her abdomen; she lost her balance and fell. He then rained punches on her masked face and eventually removed the mask. It was a woman. The prisoner's words lingered in his ears as it became crystal clear that she was the wizard's daughter Deepika.

"I killed your loved ones," she licked her own blood.

Ajay's blood boiled in rage. She gave a hard kick on his abdomen, and he winced in pain. She wrapped a long cloth over his neck and squeezed letting out a disgusting laughter.

"You will bleed to death as well," she promised.

She grasped his head and tried to bang it over the wall, but he stomped her feet with an intense force as she screamed in agony. He gave a thunderous punch right across her cheeks as her tooth broke. Immediately, hospital personnel heard the commotion and arrived at the spot. The CCTV footage captured her sneaking into the room to kill Ajay. She was apprehended and she admitted to her mistakes that promised her a death sentence. Ajay was exonerated. He performed the last rights of all his family members praying their souls to rest in peace.