Everyone in the auditorium was stunned when Aarav revealed that he was the Monster. His eyes burned with a deep crimson glow, and for a moment it seemed as if he was about to escape from the hall itself.

  But just as the tension reached its peak, something inside him changed. The bright red glow in his eyes slowly began to fade. Aarav frowned slightly.

  'What the…?' He thought. 'Not now. This is not the right time to cool down.'

  Before he could react, one of the soldiers panicked and fired. The bullet struck Aarav’s left leg. Gasps erupted across the auditorium. For the first time, the Monster failed to stop a bullet.

  A moment ago he had looked unstoppable. Now he stood there, wounded and vulnerable. Mehra immediately recognized the opportunity.

  “Capture him!” he shouted.

  The soldiers rushed forward. Within seconds they forced Aarav to the ground. His arms were restrained again, his legs tied tightly while several rifles remained aimed at him.

  “Quickly,” Mehra ordered, “the sleep injection!”

  A medical officer rushed forward and injected a strong sedative into Aarav’s arm. Within moments his consciousness faded.

  Around the hall, students stood frozen in shock. The realization slowly began to sink in. They had been living beside the Monster for an entire year.

  “I… I don’t know anything about him,” Anish said helplessly. “I never even asked about his parents.”

  Ritesh shook his head slowly. “He was always strange. Quiet. And… he even justified the killer when we didn’t know it was him.”

  Nisha looked toward Aarav’s unconscious body as the soldiers carried him away. “We usually met at the café,” she said softly. “Most of the time he just sat there and talked about how rotten the world is.”

  She paused.

  “I don’t think he did anything wrong.”

  Her voice trembled slightly.

  “I… I still believe he is a good person.”

  Aarav was transported to a heavily fortified government facility designed to contain high-risk threats. The building was surrounded by multiple layers of military security and surveillance.

  When Aarav finally regained consciousness several hours later, he did not resist. His powers were still on cooldown.

  Inside the observation room, Mehra, Raghav, the military commander Upendra Singh, and several other officials watched him through the reinforced glass.

  Raghav frowned slightly. “Sir, why is he so quiet? He could have escaped the moment we confronted him.”

  Mehra kept his eyes on Aarav. "As far as I can tell,” he said calmly, “his powers are on cooldown.”

  Upendra Singh looked confused. “Cooldown?”

  Mehra glanced at him. “Don’t you get tired sometimes, General?”

  Upendra raised an eyebrow. “So you’re saying the Monster gets tired?”

  “Yes,” Mehra replied. “And right now he’s waiting for his strength to return.”

  At that moment another voice entered the room.

  “Then we should execute this maniac immediately.”

  Everyone turned. Prime Minister Prakash Deshmukh had entered the observation chamber.

  “Before he decides to execute us,” the Prime Minister added coldly.

  Fear was visible in his eyes. For a man who had built his political career surrounded by powerful allies, many of them deeply corrupt, the existence of someone like Aarav was terrifying.

  “Not yet,” Mehra said.

  Prakash looked at him sharply. “Why not?”

  “There are questions I need answered,” Mehra replied. “How he got these powers. Why he began this mission. Who created him. Where he came from. We need to understand him if we want to prevent this from happening again.”

  “We don’t have time for philosophy,” Prakash snapped. “At any moment he could regain his strength.”

  “Five minutes,” Mehra said quietly. “That’s all I need.”

  The Prime Minister stared at him for a moment before sighing. “Fine. Five minutes.”

  He turned to General Upendra.

  “Prepare the firing squad.” Then he looked back toward the glass. “After five minutes, we hunt the Monster.”

  Inside the interrogation room, Aarav sat calmly on a white steel stool. Dozens of soldiers stood around him with rifles aimed directly at his head.

  Through the glass walls, dozens of officials watched every movement. The door opened. Director Anant Mehra stepped inside. He walked slowly toward Aarav and sat down on the chair opposite him.

  Aarav looked relaxed. There was no fear on his face. He leaned back slightly.

  “So,” Aarav said calmly, “did you come here for answers?”

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  “No,” Mehra replied. “I came for information.”

  Aarav smiled faintly. “Ask.”

  Mehra folded his hands. “There are a few things about you that confuse me.”

  Aarav tilted his head slightly. “Things in this world are usually simple,” he said. “We just make them complicated.”

  Mehra allowed himself a faint smile. “Then explain something to me,” he said. “You are clearly intelligent. Probably far more intelligent than most people your age.”

  He leaned forward. “So why did you use your real name and phone number when filing those complaints against AirFlow?”

  Aarav looked at him silently.

  “That mistake led us directly to you.” Mehra continued. “Was it an accident… or part of your plan?”

  Aarav looked down briefly before replying. “Have you ever heard of the domino effect?”

  Above them in the observation room, Prakash Deshmukh frowned. “He’s stalling,” he muttered. “He’s trying to buy time until his powers return.”

  Inside the interrogation room, Mehra narrowed his eyes slightly.

  “What do you mean?” he asked.

  Aarav slowly raised his head. “In this world,” he said calmly, “every event is the result of another.”

  His voice remained steady. “Whether that complaint was part of my plan or not… it became the cause of everything that followed.”

  Mehra leaned back slightly. “And what exactly did it cause?”

  Aarav’s faint smile returned. “It created you.” The room fell silent. “The Hunter.”

  “So the Pune incident was not part of your plan,” Mehra said slowly. “You acted out of frustration.”

  “Yes,” Aarav confirmed. “It reminded me of a very disturbing memory.”

  Mehra leaned forward slightly. “And now you’re sitting here in front of me. Is this still according to your plan?”

  Aarav stared at him for a moment before answering. “I don’t know,” he said calmly. “Maybe yes… maybe no.”

  Mehra studied his face carefully. “Who are you, Aarav? We found no record of your parents. No background. Nothing. How did you gain these powers? I want to know everything.”

  For a moment Aarav remained silent. Three minutes had already passed. Finally he spoke.

  “My memories are not very clear,” he said quietly. “But I remember a laboratory. Scientists and researchers surrounding me. Machines constantly beeping. Experiments every single day.”

  His voice remained steady, but something darker moved behind his eyes.

  “They tortured me in the name of research. Sometimes they locked me inside chambers filled with unbearable heat. Other times they froze the air until I could barely breathe. Every day it was something new.”

  Mehra did not interrupt.

  “When I cried or begged them to stop,” Aarav continued, “they always said the same thing.”

  His voice hardened slightly. "It’s all about today. Endure it today. Everything depends on today."

  He looked at Mehra again. “They repeated that sentence. So many lies that I started hating them.”

  Silence filled the interrogation room.

  “When I turned seven,” Aarav continued, “I finally gained control of my powers.”

  His expression remained calm. “So I killed them.”

  Mehra frowned slightly.

  “All of them.”

  The observers behind the glass exchanged shocked glances.

  “You’re saying you were a laboratory experiment,” Mehra said slowly.

  “Yes.”

  Mehra’s mind raced. “If people were capable of creating something like you,” he said quietly, “then…”

  His face darkened. Aarav understood immediately.

  “Yes,” Aarav replied calmly. “It would mean they could create more.”

  A moment passed.

  “But don’t worry,” Aarav added with a faint smile. “I killed them all.”

  Mehra ignored the comment. “Are you working with them?” he asked.

  “I despise them,” Aarav answered instantly. “They are the reason I lost control and destroyed the AirFlow customer service building.”

  Only one minute remained. Mehra glanced briefly toward the observation room before asking his next question.

  “What happened after you destroyed the laboratory?”

  Aarav leaned back slightly. “A man came to me,” he said. “A kind man.”

  “Who?”

  “He visited me once every month,” Aarav continued. “Whenever he arrived, he stopped all the experiments. He spoke to me like I was a human being instead of a test subject.”

  His tone softened slightly. “He played with me. Taught me things. He promised that one day I would have the life I deserved.”

  Mehra narrowed his eyes. “Let me guess,” he said. “Khurana. The man you call your uncle.”

  Aarav nodded. “Yes. But I call him Uncle K.”

  “What happened to him?”

  “He disappeared after enrolling me into Subhash Engineering College,” Aarav said. “I haven’t seen him in three years.”

  From the observation room above, the Prime Minister’s voice suddenly echoed through the speakers. “Time’s up, Mehra. Ten seconds.”

  Mehra stood slowly. He looked at Aarav one last time. There was no fear in the boy’s eyes. Only calm.

  Aarav smiled faintly. “Mr. Mehra,” he said quietly, “it was interesting talking to you.”

  He tilted his head slightly. “Next time we meet… I won’t make the same mistake.”

  Before Mehra could respond, the entire facility suddenly went dark. The lights shut off. For half a second the room was swallowed by silence. Then gunfire erupted. But these were not ordinary bullets. Electric rounds.

  A squad of heavily armored soldiers burst into the facility, firing shock rounds at the guards. Their bodies were covered with thick metal plates designed to resist gunfire.

  Chaos exploded throughout the building. “Security breach!” someone shouted.

  Mehra, Upendra Singh, Raghav, and Prime Minister Prakash Deshmukh were immediately escorted out of the observation room by security forces.

  Inside the facility, soldiers fought desperately to stop the invaders. Several of the attackers rushed into the interrogation chamber and grabbed Aarav. Within seconds they dragged him toward the rear exit. Above them, the ceiling suddenly exploded. Concrete shattered.

  A helicopter descended through the opening, its rotors roaring as dust and debris filled the air.

  A metal ladder dropped from the aircraft.

  Despite the pain in his injured leg, Aarav forced himself forward.

  Two of the rescuers held the ladder steady while he began climbing.

  Gunfire echoed throughout the compound. Below, the soldiers continued fighting the attackers while the helicopter slowly began rising.

  Aarav pulled himself inside the aircraft just as the ladder was retracted. Within seconds the helicopter disappeared into the dark sky. And the Monster had escaped.