A leap of faith

The past catches up

"Do you realize your backpack is empty?" The man asked Ayush in a deep and calm voice.

"What, why, who are you and why are you following me ?" said Ayush.

"Ayush, quite frankly I think the question you ought to be asking yourself is: What might I have done that has caused an ex army commando to follow me around from Delhi to Bangalore?"

"Also Ayush, I hope you realize that you fell asleep because I mixed a little sleeping agent in your cola and not because of your soothing sleep music."

The ex army commando started to reach into his overcoat. Alarmed, Ayush drew back and was almost about to shout for help fearing he was going to get beaten to death with a baseball bat.

"Relax Ayush, I am not here to harm you, at least not yet. Here is your laptop back, I was just collecting some information about you."

Confused as hell Ayush took back his laptop from the man fumbling it back into his bag.

"Trust me Ayush, commandos are very good at eliminating problems, I did this for my country for 20 years. I will not mind eliminating one more for my daughter if I have to, but I wanted to give you a chance, after all she loved you at one point."

"What on earth are you talking about man, and who the hell is your daughter and what has it got to do with me man? Wait, is this some kind of a prank you are pulling on me ?" Ayush exclaimed, now quite visibly nervous and scared.

"There are cameras isn't it, recording this right now?" said Ayush and started looking around to find the prank gang and end this.

"Ah, how you wish this was a prank just like the ones you pull on people Mr Malhotra but unfortunately for you Ayush, no it's not a joke."

"Check your wrist Mr Malhotra - you are wearing a watch which doesn't belong to you. As you can see it's stopped. I used my knowledge of explosives to bring some unsuspicious ingredients into the plane. I mixed them in the Plane's toilet and assembled a sneaky little bomb which is basically the watch you are wearing right now."

"What the hell", Ayush was terribly spooked now and quickly raised his arm to check his wrist.

A black chunky watch. Not his. Clock hands stopped at 1200 hrs.

"What do you want from me man, please tell me this is a joke", Ayush was on the verge of tears.

"I wish I could Ayush, but unfortunately it is not a joke. Neither was what you did to my daughter."

"An eye for an eye Mr Malhotra, we commandos go by a simple principle in life, so you will pay for what you did and there is no escaping your karma."

"The watch is programmed to detonate as soon as you try to take it off. It will not kill you of course, but it will sure blow your hand off. So don't take chances Ayush or you will end up eating with one hand for the rest of your life"

"On your phone Ayush, you will find a contact by the name of Karma, that's me. When you have undone every trace of what you did to my daughter "Dia" then whatsapp me back and I will tell you how to disarm the bomb."

The man walked away leaving Ayush frozen to the ground staring at a watch strapped to his wrist. So this is what it was all about. Dia - the easily gullible simple girl from his class. Someone who sits somewhere in the middle benches, never speaks and hardly ever noticed by anyone. That day was still vivid in his memories. The whole class was bursting with laughter while Dia stood in the middle crying. He never saw her after that day. She had left and joined another school. She also completely disappeared from the internet and social media. This was 6 months ago, the last day of 9th grade. Ayush had crossed a line with Dia that day. Something he never imagined could end up costing his hand.