Operation: Dard and Devotion

31 | Fratricide & Familiarize

Well, then...

Faizan's eyebrows furrowed, with an unreadable expression, as he tilted his head up to question me in English. "Where's this one from?"

"Homs," I told him. "There were a few others with him as well, including half of the kids lined up here."

"Oh, he's among the ones we paid for?"

"Yes."

"I see." He turned back to the boy with a glint in his eyes. "And what about me? Do I scare you?"

The boy's expression remained unchanged and pointed to the sky. "I fear no one but Allah."

Faizan's eyebrows skyrocketed in amusement. "Say if I shoot your friend who was next to you, would you be scared of me then?"

"Which friend?"

"The last boy in line who was standing next to you."

The kid glanced over at the frightened little boy before gazing at Faizan with a hooded expression. "He's not my friend."

"Oh?"

"He's my younger brother."

Faizan nodded slowly, deep in thought, and he stretched out his hand for Rafiq's rifle. His hand slid down the barrel and he stared at it greedily before shifting his focus back to the boy. "It would be a shame if he were to die, wouldn't it?"

"No."

"Pardon?"

"No," the boy repeated. "It would not be a shame."

"Really? And why is that?"

"I hate him," the kid said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. The little boy in line, probably around the age of six, cried to himself after hearing his brother express his hatred towards him.

That piqued Faizan's interest.

"Why do you hate him?"

"Mother loves him more than me. She always did. Everyone does. Even when we were captured, she only screamed his name."

Faizan looked from the trembling child to his brother and then to the gun. "So you hate him enough that his death would have no effect on you, correct?"

It wasn't hard to see where this was going.

"Brother!" The child, deeply hurt, wailed to his older sibling.

The older boy ignored the cries of his own flesh and blood as he answered Faizan. "Correct."

"Interesting," Faizan said. An evil smirk took up half of his face. He held out the gun. "Then shoot him."

There was an uncanny silence. I stared at the older boy for any change of expression. Surprisingly, or not, the boy extended his arm to retrieve the rifle.

Man, if Faizan ever asexually reproduced, this kid would be the result!

Faizan had a smug look on his face as he watched the older boy aim the rifle at his younger brother.

"Brother, no, please!" The little boy, horrified, cried into his palms. My eye twitched and my mind was telling me to do something. But there was no point. If I tried anything, Faizan would kill the kid just to spite me. I wondered why the boy did not attempt to run away. He must have known that this was how it was going to end.

This was actually sad.

Right when I was configuring a way to stall the shoot, and potentially distract the villains altogether, a shot fired and a small body slumped to the concrete ground.