The leave

“Oh, so he is Tamas… great. I finally meet you. I can’t forget that day when you—”

Augean thought in his mind.

“Mr. Forger… Mr. Forger!” (a man called)

“Yes!” Augean replied.

“Thinking in a meeting is not suitable for a gangster.” (unknown voice)

An unknown man appeared in the meeting hall.

“Oh! It’s you.” Augean said.

The unknown man stepped forward slowly, his shoes echoing through the silent hall.

“Still the same, Augean… lost in thoughts instead of actions.” he said coldly.

Augean’s eyes narrowed.

“You don’t belong here.”

The man smirked.

“Neither do half the people sitting in this room… yet here we are.”

Murmurs spread across the table. The tension thickened.

Augean leaned back, voice calm but sharp.

“If you came here to play games, you chose the wrong stage.”

The man tilted his head slightly.

“No games. Just truth.” He paused.

“And truth is… Tamas is not what you think he is.”

A heavy silence dropped over the hall.

Augean’s expression changed for the first time—slight, controlled, dangerous.

“Careful.” he said softly.

“You’re speaking about someone you shouldn’t even name.”

The unknown man smiled faintly.

“Or maybe… I’m the only one here who knows exactly why he should be named.”

The lights flickered once.

And for the first time, the meeting didn’t feel like a negotiation anymore…

It felt like the start of a war.

The room stayed silent after his words.

“The Leave…” the unknown man repeated softly, almost like he was tasting the name.

Augean’s gaze hardened.

“You talk too much for someone who just walked in uninvited.”

The man didn’t react. He simply placed a small envelope on the table.

“I didn’t come to stay.”

A pause.

“I came to leave something behind.”

One of the guards moved forward, but Augean raised his hand—stopping him.

Slowly, Yugean reached for the envelope.

“If this is a threat—”

“It’s not.” the man cut in.

“It’s a reason.”

Augean opened it.

Inside was a single photograph.

His expression froze for a fraction of a second.

Then it returned to cold control.

“Where did you get this?”

The man finally stepped closer.

“From the place where everything you trust… starts to break.”

Silence hit the room again.

Augean closed the envelope slowly.

“You shouldn’t have come here.”

The man turned slightly toward the exit.

“I know.”

He paused at the door.

“That’s why I’m leaving.”

And just like that, he walked out.

But the name he left behind…

Was heavier than his presence.

The hall stayed silent after Tamas spoke.

No one moved.

No one even dared to breathe too loud.

Augean finally broke it.

“If he really worked for you… then this isn’t just betrayal.”

Tamas didn’t look at him. His eyes stayed fixed on the sealed envelope on the table.

“It never is.” he replied.

A pause.

Then, colder:

“Betrayal is just the surface. What matters is what it’s hiding.”

Augean frowned slightly.

“Hiding what?”

Tamas finally looked up.

And for a moment, the room felt smaller.

Not fear.

Something worse—certainty.

“A war I already buried once.”

The lights above flickered.

This time, nobody called it coincidence.

The doors burst open.

A guard rushed in, breathless.

“Sir… the man who left—he’s gone. No trace. But—”

He stopped mid-sentence.

Augean snapped:

“But what?”

The guard swallowed hard.

“He left something outside.”

Tamas turned slightly.

“Say it.”

The guard lowered his voice.

“A message. It says… ‘The Leave has already begun.’”

Silence dropped like a blade.

Augean looked at Tamas.

“What does it mean?”

Tamas stared at the door for a long moment.

Then, quietly:

“It means he didn’t come here to warn us.”

A pause.

“He came to open something that was never fully closed.”

He turned toward the exit.

His voice turned final.

“Lock every route out of this city.”

Augean’s eyes widened slightly.

“You think he’ll strike now?”

Tamas stopped at the doorway.

A silence stretched.

Then—

“No.”

A beat.

“I think he already started… and we’re just realizing it now.”

He stepped out.

The hall remained frozen behind him.

And for the first time, everyone understood—

The Leave wasn’t an arrival.

It wasn’t even a warning.

So what exactly was it?

A revenge plan… or something far bigger?

And why did Tamas say he had “buried it once”?

Most importantly—who really left that room first?

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