My Own Worst Enemy

Chapter 18

With the help of a trustworthy friend, Lalitha entered the shores of Singapore, knowing that her life was in danger now. Her gang, which Samara and her anger very much brainwashed, would hunt her down.

She changed her clothes to dirty rags to look like she needed help. Through some of her contacts, she managed to get work at an Indian provision shop in a middle-class area of Singapore and lived in that shop.

"What's your name?" the shop owner asked.

"Lalitha," she replied, intent on erasing her Farah background and starting afresh.

Back to present at Jewel Changi...

"That's when you came into my life. I thought my past would be forgotten. I'm not Farah anymore. I'm Lalitha, but God had other plans," Lalitha continued. "Karuna, Bheema, and Deva found out about me somehow and wanted to kill you and me. So I told myself that I had one final mission as Farah and I killed the three before they could reach me."

"If they wanted to kill you, why did they bring the jewel?" Rajen asked.

"It's their practice of leaving a Thorana on a body of a former gang member. It was meant for my dead body," Lalitha replied.

"What?" Rajen asked, astonished that this gang leaves a multi-million dollar jewel on bodies. The gang had to be huge. "All right, what about the tracking device on it?"

"That was Samara. She knew that I was as good as her. If the three brothers could not finish the job, she would have found me and done it, and that is what she is doing right now. I thought I had ended everything perfectly, but coincidence and fate keep screwing us up. You had to bring that jewel home. That was fate, I suppose," Lalitha sighed.

Rajen stood there speechless for a moment. "There is no difference between the both of us. Both of us were not happy with what we got and wanted something better, and here we are"

"Farah," a lady's voice called out. To the horror of Lalitha and Rajen, Samara stood behind them, severely injured and bloodied but never giving up on her mission to kill Lalitha. She looked terrible.

Lalitha took up her courage and walked towards her.

"Don't come beside me. My hand and leg are messed up. I'm dying. I cannot fight with you for sure. I have failed in my mission to finish you off, Farah," Samara said.

"You deserve to die. You killed Pa and destroyed everything. You've got no mercy. No God will have any mercy for you," Lalitha said.

"So now you're some kind of angel? Don't forget that we were in this together! You betrayed us. You betrayed our love! You betrayed me!" Samara shouted.

"Do you know what Pa said? Love comes to people in the most unexpected way. He was ready to accept us and asked for forgiveness, and you killed the greatest man ever lived. Our Pa," Lalitha said.

Samara looked convinced that she might have made a mistake, but her ego got in the way. "Forgiveness? They got what they deserved. They wanted to kill us, Farah! Did you forget that?"

"I don't care about society. I only cared about our Pa. He was not perfect, but he tried, and he had accepted us, Samara. He accepted our love," Lalitha replied.

"You don't love me anymore, Farah. I don't even know you. You betrayed me. Betrayed by love. The punishment for betrayal is death, and you deserve to die bitch!" Samara raised her handgun with her only abled hand and squeezed out all the available rounds in that gun. Both Lalitha and Rajen went prone, trying to hide from the barrage. Samara's target was Lalitha, but somehow she could not shoot properly. Her injuries were slowly killing her. However, Lalitha still got shot in her arm and shoulder, dropping down the glass floor. Rajen saw that Lalitha was injured and bleeding, and he had to do something to save her.

He saw that Samara's handgun was finally empty. He got hold of an electrical cable running on the corner of the glass floor connected to an electrical box at the end of the bridge. He grabbed the line, ran towards Samara, and tackled her to the floor. He twisted the cable around her neck, to her shock. Samara tried to fight Rajen off and push him over.

"Get off me!" Samara shouted, but Rajen managed to use all his energy and tied at least three rounds of cable around her neck. He grabbed her by her neck and dragged her towards the edge of the bridge.

"This is your hell!" Rajen told her, throwing her off the Canopy bridge. Samara stumbled down, still struggling to free herself from the cable. She flew down a good height, and before she reached the floor, the line snugged tight, snapping her neck and almost decapitating her. Samara had always loved to feel other people's souls getting out of their bodies, but now she felt her soul leaving her mangled body. She stopped struggling. Her lifeless body hung in the air and swung left to right, in front of the waterfall, in full view of those at the ground level.

Rajen ran up to Lalitha to check on her. "Lalitha!" She was still conscious. Rajen put his palms on her bullet holes to stop the bleed.

"Where's she?" Lalitha asked while groaning in pain.

"She's gone," he replied.

"Get away from here. The police will arrive soon," Lalitha said.

"No. I deserve my punishment. I'm a murderer too. I don't want to run away from the law anymore. First, let's get you to the hospital," he told Lalitha and stood up to carry her.

Farhan and Malvin arrived at the scene and stopped them just as they left the bridge. Rajen nodded at Farhan. Malvin radioed the paramedics in.

The paramedics arrived a few minutes later to patch up Lalitha and lower Samara's dead body. Farhan had placed the handcuffs on Rajen while the paramedic worked on Lalitha. "It has been quite a night for you and your wife, Rajen," he said. Rajen saw that Lalitha's hand was handcuffed too.

"Is she going to be okay?" Rajen asked.

"Injury-wise, yes, she will be fine, but she might be deported back to Indonesia law-wise. She is on their wanted list," Farhan replied.

Life was not going to be expected from that night onwards, Rajen thought.

"Is Steven okay?" he asked.

Farhan nodded no. Rajen went pale. He died in guilt. He looked at the floor. "I could have saved him too, but I was a coward. I was stupid."

"No one knows how to react in such situations," Farhan replied, trying to give some console.

"I have always blamed others around me for my miserable life. I didn't know that I was the one who made myself and others around me miserable. There is no other enemy for me other than myself. Not even Samara. I am my own worst enemy," Rajen murmured.

Both Rajen and Lalitha were arrested and brought away to face their justice. They did not know where their future lay or if they could even meet each other again. The sun finally showed up in the sky.

A new day, a recent morning, had begun.