The Tables Turned

Warning: This chapter has scenes that contain violence. If you are not comfortable with it, kindly read the summary at the end of this chapter.

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Aman was crying—loud, desperate sobs echoing in the dimly lit room. He looked pathetic, his hands tightly covering his face as if shielding himself from reality.

Tears stained his voice as he pleaded, "Please… I'm begging you… I haven't done anything to you. Let me go. I'll do anything—anything! Just don't kill me… please, I'm sorry…"

His voice cracked. It was the voice of someone who had lost all hope.

And then… something changed.

Suddenly, Aman threw his head back. The sobbing stopped. A strange silence filled the room.

Then, he started laughing.

Not just a chuckle or a nervous laugh—this was something else entirely. Wild. Unhinged. His shoulders shook as the laugh grew louder, more deranged.

"Haha… haha… you… you guys… I'm going to die from laughing—seriously—haha…"

The kidnappers stared, frozen. This was not the same man who had been crying seconds ago. This laughter—it wasn't human.

One of them stepped forward cautiously, his voice uneasy. "Wh-What's so funny? Have you lost your mind?"

Aman quieted, but his face was still hidden behind his hands. In a calm, low voice that made their skin crawl, he spoke:

"I was laughing… Because just like I begged you now… you're going to beg me soon. You'll scream for mercy. You'll cry and say you'll do anything—just like I did. You'll want me to spare your lives. And I'll try… I'll really try not to laugh."

The kidnapper's expression twisted with anger. "You think you're something special? Just a scared little brat putting on an act. You've lost your damn mind."

Aman tilted his head slowly. "I warned you," he said quietly. "Don't say I didn't."

Then, without a word more, he lowered his hands from his face.

And what they saw… made their blood run cold.

His eyes—once black and human—were now glowing with an unnatural green, vibrant and alive. The pupils had narrowed into sharp, vertical slits—cold, calculating, serpentine.

It was as if those eyes could see through them—past flesh, into their very souls.

Their bodies froze. The bravado vanished. Legs turned to jelly. None of them could move.

They'd never seen anything like it… but they had heard about it. Whispers, tales told in hushed voices—legends passed down through generations. Warnings dismissed as myths.

Eyes like that didn't belong to humans.

They belonged to something far older. Far deadlier.

Beautiful, yes. Strangely mesmerising. But fatal.

And Aman—he wasn't human anymore. Maybe he never was.

He looked like them.

The ones from the stories.

They were frightened. A man who was standing near where Aman was sitting stuttered, "Wha- wha.... what are you?"

Aman started laughing again and said, "Why are you looking so frightened? Didn't you say that you won't be afraid? Now look at yourself; you are a stuttering mess. All of you are funny. I am having so much difficulty controlling my laughter. Haha... look at yourself. You might even have pissed in your pants." Aman put his hands on his mouth to control his laughter.

"You asked me about my identity?"

"Okay, seeing that you are going to die in a short amount of time, I can think of it as your last wish. I will tell you what I am."

All the men were really scared; they couldn't even utter a word even when they heard they were going to die in a few minutes.

Aman gave a slow, bone-chilling smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Tell me," he said, his voice like velvet laced with venom, "have you ever heard of an Ichadhari Naga?"

One of the kidnappers stammered, his voice trembling, "W-What? Ichadhari Naga? Th-they're just legends… stories from old folk tales…"

Aman tilted his head, his tone playful and mocking. "Darling, isn't it a bit rude to tell someone they're a myth… right to their face? Hmm? No worries. Let me help you… clear up all that confusion."

He closed his eyes.

For a moment, everything fell silent.

Then, when he opened them again—his blazing green eyes flared unnaturally bright, glowing like emerald fire. The light shimmered across his skin, and something began to shift.

Before the kidnappers could even blink, the transformation began.

His legs dissolved into smoke-like wisps, then reshaped and elongated—flesh becoming scales, skin turning a deep, lustrous red. Golden markings, like ancient runes, shimmered along his serpentine body, gleaming under the flickering light.

In place of his lower half was a massive, coiled serpent's tail—sleek, muscular, and glistening with an unnatural sheen. The scales looked like they had been crafted from rubies and gold, each one perfectly set like jewels in a crown.

His torso remained human—toned, elegant—but the inhuman grace with which he now moved left no doubt.

He wasn't a man anymore.

He was something ancient. Something divine.

An Ichadhari Naga—living, breathing, terrifyingly beautiful.

And his kidnappers? They stood frozen, unable to decide what was more horrifying—the fact that the stories were true… or that they were now part of one.

All the kidnappers were extremely scared, and there were even some non-manly screams. A kidnapper who was close to the shutter of a godown tried to run away, but before he could reach the shutter, a shadow swept past him. In front of the shutter stood a panther. The panther had the same eyes as Aman.

When the kidnapper who tried to run away stopped, the panther changed again and returned to his human form again. Aman's tone was filled with teasing, but it sent shivers down everyone's spine. "Now, dear, we were here to play a game. A game of life and death. You can't just quit it, right?"

The man started running again, but Aman caught him again, and this time he didn't waste time and bit the man. In mere seconds his body turned blue, and he lay on the ground motionless and lifeless, his mouth foaming badly.

The other three were shocked by what happened. Aman returned to his human form again. A man brought out a dagger. He intended to stab Aman with it. But before he could do that, Aman saw him.

Aman turned his lower body into a snake's body. He gripped the man's wrist with his tail. The sound of breaking a bone could be heard. The man's face turned red with pain. Until now, Aman's voice was filled with a teasing and a joking tone.

But now Aman said seriously and coldly, "You know what I hate the most in my life? The answer is a dagger. Now that you tried to kill me with it, don't blame me for giving you a painful death."

He released that man's wrist and coiled his long tail around that man's body. His eyes turned cold. He threw the man towards a big rusty machine. The man's head hit the machine. After that, the man fell to the ground, and blood was pouring endlessly from his head. He rolled on the ground while crying in pain. But nobody paid attention to him, and nobody went for his help.

He died after a while due to excessive blood loss. The entire time he was feeling endless pain. He was the last one to die out of all of them.

It was really too much for them. The man who was their boss took out his gun and fired at Aman. Aman changed into a little bird and started flying.

The man was firing aimlessly, and his gun only had six bullets. After five shots Aman suddenly flew in front of the fourth member of their gang. The boss fired at and shot the man accidentally in his head; he died immediately too. Aman turned into a human again. The boss was helpless; all the bullets were spent already.

He fell onto his knees and started pleading, "Please, please let me go. Help someone, help me, please. Please let me go. I beg you. I haven't done anything to you; please let me go."

Aman tutted, "Listen to me, darling, you are right that you haven't done anything to me, but if I were human, you would have killed me a long time ago. Think about it: for the sake of money you have destroyed so many families. Don't you think you need some redemption because of it?"

The man urged again, "Please let me go. I will surrender to the police and won't do anything like this in future ever. Please let me go."

Aman, "Darling, your offer is quite good, but you have seen too much today, and I know you humans are incapable of keeping things to yourself, so I am sorry that you have to die eventually. However, you stopped your people from touching me, so I will give you a kiss on the forehead."

The man's face lost all of its colour. He didn't want to have a forehead kiss. He knew what would happen by that kiss. He regretted everything he had done.

Aman's tone was teasing; he got close to the man's face and put his lips on his forehead. If an outsider saw it, he would think Aman was kissing his forehead, but in reality, he bit on his forehead, and the man died in a few seconds with a snake bite on his forehead.

Aman looked around and saw that all these people were blue because of his venom. He then said, "These people have wasted my time. Mei Wei must be waiting for me. Only Mahadeva knows what that beast, Mei Wang, is planning to do today. Sending these fools to kill me. Such a waste of time." As he said this, he kicked the man's dead body, opened the shutter and strode away.

==Chapter Summary==

Aman starts off crying and begging his kidnappers for mercy, looking utterly pitiful. But suddenly, his tears turn into maniacal laughter. When questioned, he reveals he's an Ichadhari Naga—a mythical shape-shifting serpent. The kidnappers think he's joking—until he transforms. His lower body becomes that of a massive red snake with golden patterns. Terrified, they try to escape, but Aman kills them one by one.

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Pronunciation:

Ichadhari Naga = ee-sha-dha-ree naa-ga

(ee like "see", sha like "shut", dha soft like "dharma", naa like "nacho", ga like "garden")