Burnt Property, Burnt Image
Chapter 5: Burnt Property, Burnt Image
Ajax took one of the rolled green papers and undid the bindings, carefully counting the notes in his hands. He then binds it back into rolls before putting all of them away into the bag. He did not bother to count the rest as he had made a close estimation of three-thousand-dollars that had resided in the bag. It was more than enough to last for a month till he could get a proper job by then.
Ajax grabbed the bag and hooked it around his left shoulder. He looked around the room one last time and he knew what else needed to be done here. He needed to burn this place down. No one would be occupying this house since his mother died and the original Ajax was no longer here. Besides that, the house was already in a bad condition and since it was located on secluded land far away from the city, no one would wish to purchase it. That explained why there was no car seen on the road previously. This place was just an empty waste of land.
Ajax would have used this place to lay low for awhile if it was not for his rude abusive fiancé. He knew where he stayed and he would come if he was not home for at least two days. It happened before in the original Ajax's previous life and the current Ajax was not risking his life to bet whether he would come or not. In order to avoid him and disappear for a while, burning down this house was the first thing he should do.
Apart from that, burning the house was also a part of the funeral's process. The original Ajax died and no one knew about it. It was just right for the current Ajax to hold a proper funeral for him at his own home.
After he cut the cables from certain appliances and shot everything together, it did not take long for the house to burn to crisp. He watched the house burn in a momentary silence and before he could turn around and get into the rusty old car, he spotted a dark shadow at the door.
It was the original Ajax. He had come to bid his last goodbye to the current Ajax. His mouth moved but there was no sound coming from it before his figure disappeared completely into the flames.
"Thank you and goodbye for the last time," was what Ajax could make out by reading from his moveable lips.
He smiled softly before he got into the rusty old car. He swore he would never drive but he needed the ride badly. He would make use of it till he got a driver's licence and a proper car to drive around legally. He started up the engine and drove away from there.
As he was driving, Ajax decided to turn the radio dial as the silence bored him. He hated the white noise going in and out of his ears. He needed something entertaining to please his ears. At first, there was no channel connected after turning the dial numerous times. As he was about to give up and just bear with the silence, the channel was then finally connected.
"Greetings, everyone! It's 8pm now and you're listening to HOT ABC-XYZ News! This afternoon, we have received numerous reports regarding the top businessman and actor, Brandon Lawyer!" the woman speaks out of the radio box with an unnecessary cheery voice.
Upon hearing his fiancé's name, Ajax clicked his tongue with a smirk. 'Speak of the devil and he shall be… revealed. This will definitely get interesting…'
|| Somewhere else ||
He was drinking directly from a beer bottle as he watched the news displayed on his 50-inch television.
"—Brandon Lawyer was seen at the hospital building, in the cafeteria area today at around 2pm. It seemed that he was waiting for someone. According to reports, an unknown man had come to him willingly before he spilled the tea that Brandon Lawyer was drinking. This was the video footage recorded from one of the witnesses' cameras—"
The video was taped the moment the said unknown man took the cup of tea from the table before spilling the whole content onto Brandon. The unknown man's face was unclear in the footage. The only person in the video that stood out clearly was Brandon himself.
"—It's not wrong for you to fetch me but you came here without a warning! You didn't tell me you were coming and you hadn't visited me for days! The doctors said my condition was critical and I was close to dying! Where were you when I was on my deathbed, huh?!"
The video then proceeded to when a bodyguard fell atop of Brandon before dragging them both to the floor, which almost resulted in them kissing each other. Brandon was then seen shoving the bodyguard away before almost lunging himself onto the unknown man and walking away with tons of bodyguards surrounding him. Fortunately, his threats to the man were left unheard from the footage. However, the damage had been done and it pissed him off.
Afterwards, the news went back to the female reporter who spoke with a blank face.
"Brandon Lawyer was not the man he had seemed to be. This unknown man in this video was said to be his fiancé. Even though we had never seen him since Brandon had released his engagement statement and his fiancé is always off-camera, the hospital had testified that they were husbands, according to Brandon himself. However, a few in particular denied they were husbands, especially by a woman known as Claire. She was told they were not married and Brandon's fiancé – whom she refused to disclose his name due to patient's privacy concern – was brought over to the hospital with multiple stab wounds and head injury. She then stated Brandon had never once came in to see his fiancé whilst he was bedridden and recuperating for the whole entire week. It seems to me he was just merely acting to be a good husband in the eyes of others but not towards his other half. Other than that, there were various reports that his fiancé was close to a death's call and they had reported Brandon regarding it, but he refused to come over, stating that he was busy. Is this the same saint man who treated others respectfully? If he is what he is, why abandon his fiancé all alone, knowing he was close to death's call? It was also mentioned that his fiancé had old wounds of being abused physically. However, according to police statements, it was done by his fiancé's mother before she was found hanging herself, committing suicide, after her last attempt to kill him. If his fiancé was abused over the years, why didn't Brandon report it to the police? Did he not care about his lover—"
The television was immediately turned off before he devoured the whole contents in rage and slammed the empty bottle across the room, breaking it into pieces.
His neat image was destroyed and everyone had been onto him since that afternoon event. He was still enraged with what Ajax had done to him.
Ajax was known to be a good dog. Whatever Brandon had told him to do, he listened and he never once refused. If he did something Brandon disliked, Ajax knew Brandon would not be pleased with him. He would be punished instantly right then and there. This was the first time Ajax had gone against him and he was bothered by the drastic change in Ajax. The cold eyes he had given him and the cold atmosphere he created had overwhelmed him. It was as if he was an entirely different person.
Brandon shook his head in denial as his mind was selflessly focusing on himself. To him, Ajax was still his Ajax. He shall teach him a lesson and punish him thoroughly for humiliating him in front of everyone.
Brandon grabbed his phone from the table nearby before looking through his contact list and dialled the number. He then placed the phone onto his right ear and it did not take long for the line to be connected.
"I need you to find my wife and bring him home to me. He's probably at the old cabin he grew up in."