The Gates of Exile
Somewhere deep within the isolated expanse of the mountain ranges...
A single, lonely road wound sharply through the suffocatingly dense forest, where the jagged silhouettes of towering pine trees swayed slowly beneath the pressure of a harsh afternoon breeze. Hidden completely among the shadows of those mountains stood a massive, clinical white building, barricaded from the rest of civilization by towering concrete walls and reinforced steel fences.
**THE HOPE MENTAL HEALTH CARE HOSPITAL**
The name was painted with neat, corporate precision directly across the archway of the main entrance, a pristine facade designed to make it look like a sanctuary meant to save broken souls.
Yet for me... it had been absolutely nothing more than a high-security prison. For two agonizingly long years.
Inside the sterile concrete courtyard of the facility, a man in his early thirties sat entirely detached on a weathered wooden bench. Despite his casual, relaxed posture, an overwhelming, suffocating aura radiated from his presence, freezing the air around him.
Three men dressed in identical, sharp black suits stood directly behind the bench like statues—silent, lethal bodyguards. A single woman, wearing the exact same dark tailored suit, remained positioned like a sentry at his immediate flank. Even the facility's chief medical doctors stood several paces away, their hands clasped respectfully in front of them, not daring to utter a single sound or interrupt his thoughts. They looked less like medical professionals and more like terrified subordinates waiting for execution orders.
The man on the bench turned his gaze toward me, his complicated, unreadable eyes scanning my hollow frame before he finally broke the silence.
"Kid... you've suffered an unimaginable amount in this place," he said, his deep voice cutting through the ambient mountain wind. "Are you absolutely certain you want to step outside those walls right now? Why don't you just stay under our umbrella? I swear on my own mother's name that not a single soul will be able to touch a hair on your head while we navigate the board within these next fifteen days."
The offer was delivered with absolute sincerity. At least... the cadence of his voice made it sound incredibly sincere.
I slowly lowered my head, my eyes tracking the dust on the courtyard floor. "No thanks, Brother... I have a younger brother out there who I've kept waiting for far too long. I need to find him. I need to take care of him... clear my tarnished name... go back to finish my college degree... and build a better, beautiful life ahead of me."
As the words left my throat, my knees buckled, and I knelt fully before him on the cold stone ground. My hands reached out, tightly gripping his legs.
It wasn't a gesture born out of submission or fear. It was pure, unadulterated gratitude. No matter how volatile or deeply strange this man's reputation was... he was the sole reason I had survived the last two years intact. He had protected me from the monsters inside.
For a brief, agonizing moment, an absolute silence filled the mountain courtyard.
Then—
"Yohohohohoho!"
"Yohohohohoho!"
"Yohohohohoho!"
His loud, bizarre, theatrical laughter erupted from his chest, echoing powerfully off the surrounding concrete walls and tearing through the mountain peaks, frightening a flock of distant birds into a frantic flight.
Then, just as suddenly as it had started, the laughter snapped shut.
His expression shifted, becoming unusually cold and dead serious. "You actually called me brother..." He paused, his eyes narrowing slightly. "So be it."
He turned his head sharply toward the trembling medical staff. "Doctor. Process his release papers immediately. He's leaving the facility today."
Then, his lethal gaze glided toward the bodyguards standing at his back. "And you guys... scrub the data trails. Make absolutely sure that no one within my legal or illegal circle can trace his location. You have to lay low from this second onward, Sahil..." He leaned down, his voice dropping into a chilling, warning murmur. "Or else I won't be able to let you live freely out there."
A violent, icy chill ran straight down my spine. "...Y-Yes," I answered quietly, my throat dry. The raw, uncompromising determination burning in his eyes left absolutely zero room for negotiation or argument.
"You can leave now," he muttered, waving his hand in a dismissive, casual gesture as he leaned back against the bench. "Don't bother taking any of your old belongings with you. Leave them. I'm going to play around with them myself."
One of the doctors stepped forward gingerly, handing me a plain, unbranded set of civilian clothes and a small, basic plastic lunch box.
That was the absolute extent of my exit. No suitcase containing my past life. No personal keepsakes. No material belongings. Every single item I had brought with me to this hellhole two years ago was being left behind to be incinerated or forgotten.
The massive, heavy iron gates of the facility slowly began to grind open, the thick gears releasing a loud, agonizing metallic groan that echoed through the valley.
For the first time in seven hundred and thirty days... I stepped across the threshold and onto the outside asphalt. Just like that. No grand ceremony. No emotional goodbyes.
I stood completely still on the gravel shoulder of the mountain road. The sharp, unpolluted mountain wind brushed fiercely across my pale face, rustling through the fabric of my thin clothes. All around me, the dense alpine trees danced gently, their leaves clicking against one another in a rhythmic symphony. Above the canopy, pristine white clouds drifted with absolute freedom across the endless expanse of the blue sky, charting a course toward a destination only the currents knew.
I slowly closed my eyes, tilting my head back against the sun, and took the deepest, most agonizingly long breath I had taken in years. The crisp, biting mountain air rushed in to fill my lungs.
The air... of pure freedom.
"...I'm finally free," my voice trembled, the words barely louder than a whisper against the wind.
Hot, heavy tears quietly rolled down my cheeks, burning against my skin before I quickly reached up to wipe them away with the back of my hand. Two years. Two full years of my youth spent locked inside a psychological fortress, imprisoned for a catastrophic crime... that I had never committed.
My fingers slowly tightened around the handle of the plastic lunch box, my knuckles turning white as a cold, unshakeable focus locked into my mind.
"Keshav..." I whispered his name into the empty valley. "I'm coming for you."
"This time... no matter who stands in my way... I'll find you."