The Indian Emperor - Book 1: The Dead Prince (Wattys 2016)

Chapter 1: Good Night

"Her beautiful eyes," Charles murmured imagining the beautiful girl he saw in the party. It was mid night with Charles sprawling on his huge double bed, in his room. Everyone else was asleep in their respective rooms. Charles had been hanging around with his family at Mr. Tennyson's party. He was not interested in coming to his father's business party but he was forced by Chris to attend the party.

Chris was Charles' little brother and his best friend. They shared every sorrow and celebrated all the joys together. Charles was not much frank with his parents but was able to easily share any problem with his brother. Since Chris had returned from a trip and Christmas holidays allowed Charles to get rid of the hostel, Chris wanted to celebrate. The place they lived was much away from the city, so Charles's father, Mr. Garfield had decided that Charles will stay in hostel for his college studies.

In the party, Charles saw a girl, an Indian girl. He didn't knew who she was but he was just admiring her during the entire event.

"Beauty!" Charles exclaimed softly,"her beautiful little black eyes, long black hair. Excellent! Brilliant!" he said to himself.

Abruptly, Chris opened the door. He stood there with a smile on his face and his right hand hiding itself behind his back.

"Chris! Come, sit. I wanted to talk to you. You saw that Indian girl in the party," Charles said in one breath. Before he could say something further, Chris showed his right hand which had a long, sharp knife. He jumped on Charles and pierced the skin on his chest with the knife. Charles gave out a loud shriek which had awaken everyone. Knife was again and again hitting Charles chest, causing a stream of blood to flow.

"शुभ रात्री, भैया |" (Good Night, brother.) Chris said in Hindi, which he never learned.