The Act

 

The odds were always that way, at least in between the two and that’s what the neighbors had always said. “An Unusual Family,” a regular remark which the neighbors often associated the two with. They were always seen as a busy family and never the one to be participating in the colony’s cultural events. Only one of them would once in a blue moon be present, but never together.

The Nakamura’s at Flat no 302 were always like that, at least since the time they had shifted to the small four building colony located on a silent street of the Japanese city of Kyoto. Hiroto Nakamura and Akira Nakamura, that was the name which were written on majority of the documents and even on the name plate of their flat. Never had anyone been inside their flat as both of them were working and were very busy. One had a day job and the other one had a night job and hence would never be together. Other residents perhaps suspected that they were not on talking terms and were living together to avoid unnecessary living costs.   

People who interacted with either one of them never had any complaints but did sense some emotional confusion when interacting with each one at different moments of time.  Both were similar in height and, surprisingly their looks were almost similar, except to the fact that one was a male and the other one was a female. Genetic resemblance or perhaps twins, that’s what was concluded by other residents.

But that day was indeed an unlucky one.  was away on his night shift and in his flat, there took place an accident. It was only two days to the new year and the firecrackers were in full swing. It was one of those rockets that landed inside Hiroto’s house that caused the fire and spread all over the apartment within a short period of time. By the time the fire authorities arrived, the house was burnt down. When Hiroto was informed about the accident, he rushed to the colony and was devastated.

The firemen recovered the fully burnt body of Akira. No one could have looked at the body for more than a second. It would send shivers to even the most courageous ones. The local Investigators had arrived and routine enquiry into the fire casualty begun. The local investigating team sought all the details about Hiroto and Akira and also recorded the statements of the witness to the event that night. It seemed to be a straight and simple case. A rocket accidently causing fire leading to the death of the only resident of the house. The only question that remained to be answered was why didn’t the girl try to escape? Why didn’t she just open the door and run out? Perhaps some part of the clothes must have caught fire which spread to the body. But still going by the statements of the witness they didn’t hear any screaming of any female from that floor. “Someone on fire can only do one thing. Scream!” said one of the investigators.

The post mortem of the dead body was completed subsequently and the investigators reviewed the report to find any inconsistencies which could be assumed as abnormal. The body was burnt and the cause of death was due to burning. There was nothing to be looked into other than only one information. The DNA Match.

Hiroto Nakamura was contacted by the investigators subsequently. There were tests required to be done on Hiroto as procedural formalities to close the case.  But three days later, investigators had a shocking revelation up their sleeve. The DNA of Hiroto and Akira didn’t match and now the case was hung.

It was during that time when a case of a missing dead body was lodged with the local investigators by a local hospital morgue. As per the complainant, the corpse of a girl had gone missing since last one week. The investigators didn’t want to take a chance. Was there a link between the missing dead body case and girl burnt in the fire exactly seven days ago?

Exactly seven days ago, the girl’s dead body had gone missing on that morning and that night in the same area a girl died due to burning and the body wasn’t recognizable.  The Investigators did a DNA matching of the complainant’s family members with the one that was mentioned in Akira’s report. The twist came when the reports matched and the revelation complicated the case to the next level. The investigating team which was about to close the Akira Nakamura accident case suddenly could sense something amiss in the entire story and events.

Hiroto was mapped to locations and was being tailed but there was nothing on him. Every day was the same, Hiroto would start for office, board a rickshaw and then get down in front of the office gate. In the evening he would return in the same manner. On a weekend, when Hiroto had an off, the local investigating team interrogated the security team of Hiroto’s office. This was when it was revealed that no one by the name of Hiroto Nakamura worked at that office. It was high time that Hiroto Nakamura was picked up but the investigators didn’t want to jump the gun. They decided to play the waiting game.

One day when Hiroto was not at home, the investigating team made a forced entry to his new flat which he had taken on rent in the same colony. They inspected each and every thing. Just when things were going nowhere, they found something which they could never have imagined.

Hiroto was contacted and taken into custody. It was indeed a complicated case but joining the various points of the puzzle was the only way forward to solve the case.

Neither was the man Hiroto and nor did he have any sister by the name of Akira. In fact, he didn’t have a sister and there was no actual female in the story. It was all about a wannabe actor. He didn’t have a name because he didn’t have one as he couldn’t recollect who he was. The only thing which he knew was the fact that he was performing. Since childhood, the only thing he did was act. Frustrated that the world couldn’t recognize his talent, he had decided to play the act with the world itself.

Thus, was born Hiroto and Akira. Same person with different personalities. The entire get up and make up was done by Hiroto himself.  He rented a flat and enjoyed his story in the colony in which he resided.

Every time people interacted with him as Hiroto or Akira he enjoyed the moment. It was the triumph for him as an actor. Then he had decided that it was perhaps time to change the story, so he decided to finish off Akira’s character. He needed a dead body and this was when he planned to contact a local hospital clerk who would help him get a dead body and keep it in his flat. Of course, he was the only one who had thrown the rocket in his own house. He made sure that no one was aware of his existence.

The investigating team was shocked. They sensed that it couldn’t have been the first one. Surely the guy must have committed more of such psychopathic acts, guessed the investigators.

Once he had informed about all his misdeeds which he had committed, he had only one thing to say as his final statement on which he signed:

“I am an actor, sir. An actor with no name. I don’t exist anywhere. No one knows me. I always act and everything I say is already written by me, rehearsed by me and then I perform it. I enjoy it.”

“I am an actor, sir!”  

The world never heard of him after that.

Gossip circles said that perhaps he was kept under a close guard in a remote location away from the maddening world…… but many years later someone also said that perhaps, he is still performing somewhere and his best act is yet to come, on the silver screen or outside it, that only time will tell!

 

The above story is a complete work of Fiction.