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Chapter 12 – Shadows of the Vice-Captain

The days passed, but the weight on Don’s shoulders only grew heavier.

Even in class, he rarely listened anymore. The chalkboard blurred, the teachers’ voices became background noise, and his textbooks were just shields to hide his exhaustion. His nights were filled with cigarette smoke and half-finished pages of broken poetry—words he could never say aloud.

He had grown used to solitude, but sometimes the silence was deafening.

---

One day, a message appeared on his desk in messy handwriting:

> “The fire never died. – G.”

Don looked around. No one was watching. He crumpled the note quickly, but something in his chest stirred.

G.

That wasn’t Gor. He never wrote like that.

Don’s fingers twitched. A name rose from his memory like a ghost—Gagan.

He hadn’t heard that name in years.

---

Four Years Ago…

Don stood beside Gagan in a dark alleyway near the station, wearing his gang uniform—black hoodie with a blue flame stitched onto the sleeve. They were just kids, but everyone in the local blocks knew them as "The Blue Fangs."

Gagan was the leader. Don was his second-in-command.

Gagan once told him, “You’ve got something different, Don. You think before you strike. That’s why you’ll be more than just a fighter one day.”

Back then, their gang wasn’t about drugs or money. It was about loyalty. Brotherhood. Protecting their turf. But it had all changed after the Vansh Incident—something Don had buried deep.

---

Back in the present, Don’s hand trembled as he held the message. Gagan was alive. Watching. Maybe closer than he thought.

Was he testing him? Or calling him back?

Don couldn’t tell.

---

Meanwhile, Gor was growing suspicious. He had noticed the bruises on Don’s knuckles, the late arrivals, the strange tension that followed Don like a shadow.

One day, after class, he cornered him behind the canteen.

“Don,” Gor said sternly, “what are you not telling us?”

Don stared at him blankly.

“I’ve seen the signs,” Gor said. “You're not just dealing with family pressure, are you?”

Don laughed dryly. “You’re overthinking.”

“No. You’re hiding something. And one day, it’s going to explode in all our faces.”

---

Later that week, Jake walked with Don to the school gate, something they hadn’t done in years.

“You remember the park near our old apartments?” Jake asked, looking at the cloudy sky.

Don nodded faintly.

“We buried something there once. Under the banyan tree. A tin box.”

Don smirked. “Yeah. Said it was treasure.”

Jake laughed a little, then his face turned serious. “It’s still there, you think?”

“Probably.”

“I want us to dig it up. Maybe… go back. Before everything changed.”

Don looked away. “Some things can’t be unburied, Jake.”

---

That night, Don walked to the edge of town, toward a half-demolished train warehouse. He knew the place. It was once their old meeting ground. Blue Fangs territory.

There, beneath the flickering streetlight, stood a silhouette.

“Vice-Captain,” the voice said, mocking yet familiar.

Don’s fists clenched.

Gagan stepped out of the shadows. Taller now. Tattoo on his neck. Same flame-blue bracelet.

“You’ve been gone a long time,” Gagan said, smirking. “But I never forgot.”

Don’s voice was cold. “I left that behind.”

“You think you can? You think the streets forget who you were?”

Don stepped closer, his eyes burning. “I’m not your soldier anymore.”

“No,” Gagan said, walking in a slow circle around him, “you’re something better. You’re a ghost now. A myth.”

He tossed something on the ground.

It was a photograph.

Their old gang. All of them. Young, proud, fists raised. Don in the center, Gagan beside him.

“Things are coming, Don,” Gagan said. “And whether you like it or not, you're still one of us.”

---

Don didn’t respond. He turned and walked away. But that night, he didn’t sleep. He kept looking at the photograph. Looking at the boy he used to be.

Not a student.

Not a brother.

Not a broken son.

But a leader.

And somewhere deep inside, he missed it.

He missed the respect.

He missed being feared.

But above all—he missed being seen.

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End of Chapter 12

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