Friends And Friends

Prologue:

                                                              [Year: 2346]

       The IV fluid drips. Every drop making me feel a little higher that the previous one. I can feel the liquid blend in with my blood. My vision goes blur for a moment and then returns to normal. Few seconds it goes blur again like a camera losing its focus, then refocusing and losing its focus again. A tear rolls down my left cheek. I try to remember what happened, but all my mind can show me are glimpses, glimpses that aren’t enough to figure out what happened. There’s a limit to how much I can force my mind to work while I’m being drugged.

   These people would go to lengths to save their test subjects. By saving, I mean they don’t want one of their test subjects to go under a mental distress. In this case, they might lose all their 5 test subjects, a group of rare ones, it’s not a group of five anymore, it’s just four now. We are one of the remaining humans who can sleep, smile and feel emotions without having to take a pill. Tears roll down my cheeks. They will do anything, they can and they will alter my, no ‘our’ memory as if we were always a bunch of four, as if we never knew him, as if he never existed. I won’t let them. I shouldn’t let them do that. He deserves to be remembered by his friends, Ilango deserves their friends’ grief. He was the reason why we laughed at silliest things. He was the reason why they had the hope that laughter can be induced through pills although that’s a difficult task.

  My eyes give up, they shut down. I hear a girl whimpering, moaning in pain. Then she screams and my ears go beep. They might have mind numb but I recognize that voice, Meera. God knows what they are putting her through. Erasing her memories is going to so much harder that erasing ours. We knew Ilango for about five years but Meera knew him since her birth. She comes from one of the rare families who have two children while most of them have either one child or none. My legs twitch, my hands twitch. I begin feeling breathless. What did they mix in the IV?

 I feel a metal touch on my arms. Neucrell, the AI nurse, she tries to calm down my aggressive twitching which I assume is a side effect or maybe just an allergic reaction. This is my chance, I force myself up.

 “I need to use th-the..,” I stutter.

 “Miss Apoorva, the system can’t process what you just said,” she says with a soothingly programmed voice. She usually doesn’t talk this formally with us; it’s probably because we’re in the hospital grounds.

 “I need to use the washroom,” I manage to get it out of my mouth.

 “One moment mam, waiting for the approval of a higher up… Alright mam, permission granted. You may excuse yourself now.”

 I get up and stumble. I grab the table beside me. My eyes refuse to open. I struggle to make my way through. I’ve been here too many times, I would know my way blind. My legs fail me at some point, Neucrell helps me up. The humans have grown so much technologically over the years that we have humanoid robots with a sense of humanity while humans don’t. Meera screams again but I don’t have time to be concerned.

    I lock myself in the washroom and force my eyes open. I slide a hand through my left sock. I get the little zip-lock bag with a chip in it, the chip that has evidence of Ilango’s existence. Moments we laughed, moments we fought, cried, all those moments we shared in a single chip. I carefully place the zip-lock bag in midst of where the sanitary pads and tampons are kept. It’s not the safest place but mostly only Meera and I will be using this room. So we find this after they mess with our minds. I turn on the flush and make my way out.

   Neucrell helps me to get to bed. I take a brief look at Meera. She’s chained to her bed, her hair usually in a ponytail now let free. Her magenta red hair colour has begun to fade out on the ends. My eyes shut again. I wonder where Diya and Ezhilan are. I hope they didn’t get caught, I hope that somehow everything goes back to being normal. I can only hope.

                                                       

                                                           Chapter One

[Two days back]

Checking VR games for authorisation purposes isn’t new to us. We have done this for about three times. Within a time of six months we will be paid for doing so and by then we will also be the lab rats they want us to be. Ilango’s dad is the reason why we can even afford these games, since he runs the authorisation committee.

  “Diya, turn on Junkie, just in case Neucrell calls us, he would answer it instead of us,” Ilango says to me as he opens a new box of VR he just brought.

  “Alright, will do so and I will also fill him up with some data. He might need them to answer Neucrell’s question about.” He nods. Neucrell, our assigned caretaker is more humane than humans, she calls to check up on us but it’s just an excuse for us to chat with her. She doesn’t treat us like just test subjects, the way that most of the adults from medical industry treat us.

  I turn on the rusty looking bot, whom and not ‘which’ we call Junkie. We planned on renaming Junkie but till now we haven’t. When we had to name a robot that was about to end up in Junk but found its way to us anyway, the only name that crossed our minds was ‘Junkie’ and we just went with it. You can’t expect the generation which only uses their brain to consume media to be creative. Junkie turns on, his eyes glowing hollow blue.

  “Junkie activated. Hello friends,” his monitor showcases an emoji of smiling eyes. A hand plops on top of Junkie’s head. I look up to find Ezhilan.

  “Hungry?” Ezhilan asks me, for which I nod. He shows me 3 pills, blue, black and lavender. 

  “Choose two, I will feed Junkie with the data stuff,” he says, his curly-mushroom-dome haircut masking over his forehead.

  “I don’t really feel like taking in something sweet. So, I’ll go with these two.” I point to the black and blue. We’re not that rich enough to afford real food for breakfast, pills are just enough.

“Of course, I guessed you would go for the black one given that you’re a patron of spice,” he hands me water. I wish I was born back in time when water was free of cost. Everything here sucks except for the VR games we play.

“She needs to control Ezhil; we’re running out of black pills because of her. You know the price rates have increased right?” Ilango asks.

“Yeah you need to control yourself Diya; your nutrition is slightly imbalanced according to the records,” Junkie joins him.

“You too Junkie?” I scorn at both of them and gulp down my breakfast, more like ‘brunch’. He’s the mom of the group; always caring; always nagging. I hear Apoorva and Meera bickering in the background. They fight so much that now I can subconsciously interpret their fights as mosquito noises. According to Google, it was an insect which existed long-ago and now extinct.

  “You have some nerve to brag about your skills while you keep losing the same level. I’m much better, that’s why I recommend playing single-player games; that way there’s always enough immunity for me.” Meera mocks Apoorva.

  “You are the one who has some nerve to compare the games I play with the mere otome-games you play.” Apoorva snaps.

“Well, not all games I play are otome.”

“They mostly are, go back to your business Susan.”

I can do something to stop their fight but I’m not going to. It’s just something we are so used to.

“Guys, that’s enough fighting. I bought us a new game, wanna give it a try?” Ilango asks waving the hardware of the new game he brought in.

“You brought one of those to-be-checked again? It would be great if they paid us,” Meera replies.

“Yeah, they will in six months, when we all turn eighteen,” Ezhilan mumbles.

 “You think we will be in a state to play games once they start performing experiments on us?” Apoorva asks.

 “You heard him?” Ilango questions with a silly reaction on his face. Meera reflects the same reaction.

 “Guess your hearing device is amazing than normal human earing capacity,” I say. Apoorva was one of the unlucky civilians who had to lose her earing capacity in a bomb blast. On the bright side, she’s lucky enough to live.

 “Yep, thank the bomb blast,” she jokes as she slumps into the bean bag. Sometimes all she does is make jokes about her trauma and laugh at them by herself.

“Whatever the game is about, I’m not in.” Apoorva says while scrolling through her screen. Meera walks over to her and redoes her hair which is half-undone. She’s does justice to her wavy hair by tying it into a perfect half bun. It really compliments her pastel turquoise hair colour. Meera and Apoorva have the kind of friendship everyone here longs for. Although friendbots are sold both at cheap and expensive rates, it can’t be compared to the thing we have between us. We are a bunch of humans who actually communicate with each other.

“It say’s thrilling on top,” Ilango hums in attempt to lure her.

“I’m in,” she instantly replies turning off her screen.

He inserts the hard-disk drive into the VR player. A blue hologram screen pops up. It reads

  Welcome. You can now choose a mansion.

 Two options glitch under the pop up. Ilango clicks on the one that says ‘instructions’.

 “Okay. This says maximum 6 members can play at once; we are five so it’s not a problem. What else does this say?”

 “Who cares about the instructions? We’ll eventually come to know all those once we’re in the game. C’mon we are not new to this. Just get this over with, I have my own set of games to play,” Meera whines as she ties back her into a ponytail.

 

“Yeah, get this over with she has her otome prince to back to,” Apoorva says with a smirk to which Meera rolls her eyes. Ilango shakes his head trying to unlearn what he just heard. Of course, he isn’t okay with his sister playing silly games like that. Ezhilan gives me a side-eye. I mimic the way Ilango shake his head and the chaos between us escalates. After a few seconds of bickering, we all break into laughter. If any passer-by heard this, they would have no choice but to burn in jealousy. Laughter is a word in dictionary right now, nothing more and nothing less. There have been products that can induce the feeling of happiness but laughter is not marketable yet. We’re a global treasure and that’s probably why we are going to lab rats, sooner or later. Until then we are going to play games and have all the fun. 

  The game screen lights up when we click the ‘enter game’ option. Two images pop up which a message- ‘Pick one’. One of them has the word ‘utopia’ written on it and the other has the word ‘dystopia’ on it. The utopia picture shows a mansion filled with white and purple flowers and a lovely chandelier. The other one is decorated with roses with a floor imitating a chessboard.

 “Who votes for dystopia? Me,” Apoorva shrieks.

 “We live in dystopia, why can’t we experience utopia at least in games?” Meera whines and no one pay attention to her because everyone is with Apoorva in this one.

 Ilango clicks on the dystopia image. We all go into our tubes.

“See you guys after the game. Have fun,” Junkie settle himself nearby the couch plugging onto the charger by himself.

I wrap the sensor around my wrists and ankles and fix the cap attached to the wires on my head. I wear the watch that gives me access to weapons and immunities during my game on my left wrist. Finally, I attach the sensor chain around my neck; the blue light on my chain flicker indicating that the game is about to start. I close my eyes. I hope this game doesn’t require too much running like the other ones do, I’m exhausted a bit.

  

                                                             Chapter Two

  Seconds after levitating, our feet land on the floor that’s painted like a chessboard. I look up expecting a ‘game start’ message pop-up instead all I get to see is a stunning chandelier that lights up the whole area. Metaphorically, it’s so magnificent that I could say it lights up my soul. We don’t find chandeliers in reality except for in museums. The pillars are draped in climbers that bear red flowers. Roses, a lot of roses fill up the room. Flowers, god bless my eyes, to see real flower, we must have a lot of money to get a ticket to the ‘Nature’s still alive’ botanical garden. I feast my eyes with all the aesthetics.

  “Guys, there’s a note here,” Ezhilan says loud enough for us to here. He occasionally talks loud, only when he’s really excited about something. He’s a patron of all the detective stuff.

 “It was under the telephone,” he leans over the lobby’s table. Ilango grabs the piece of paper from him.

 “Guys! It’s real paper, not a fake one,” he exclaims

 “Give it to me, I wanna touch it,” Meera joins in. Apoorva rolls her eyes. Ezhilan and I find ourselves sighing again. Apoorva walks over and snatches it away from them.

 “It’s a phone number. Lan, you dial in what I say,” she orders and he nods. Years ago, her calling him ‘Lan’ was so cringe, now I think it’s cute. Ilango and Meera keep a curious eye on them as Ezhilan dials in. I stroll a little, taking a look at all the rare items, a table carved in wood, a lamp that glows yellow and not in some neon colour, potted plants. I spot a label on the wall, nearby the right side of the lobby, it’s written in a different language, a forgotten language maybe?

   “Lan, what’s wrong? Lan?” I turn around to Apoorva’s shaky voice. She shakes him real hard; Ilango and Meera look at each other worried. I walk to them fast and nudge in between them. I take a look at him, his brown eyes as if they are frozen from inside. A bell dings and the door to the lift opens. We all turn except Ezhilan; he stands as if he’s frozen. A lady who looks like she belongs to a time period of centuries ago walks in, her heels making a click-clack sound that echoes through the hall.

 “Oh, he called that number?” She raises brow.

 “Guess he did, that’s why he’s frozen,” she shrugs and rumbles through her red purse and grabs a spray bottle. She walks toward us elegantly and shoves us with her hands as if we are a pack of crows. We make way; the woman then sprays something over his face. A few dawdling seconds later, he lets out a deep exhale as if he’s been suffocating all this while.

 “He’s okay now. I’m glad that you chose my mansion over hers. Enjoy your stay.” She bobbles her head so much while talking. I don’t understand a single thing here. What’s our task here? We should have read those instructions and who’s the ‘her’ she just mentioned? Questions rise up in my mind like waves in the ocean. The lady disappears through the long hallway.

 “What-on-the-earth-just happened?” Apoorva bellows. I wish I knew the answer to her question. Ilango checks up on Ezhilan. He doesn’t seem to know what he went through either.

 “Who’s that lady? What are we supposed to do in this game?” Meera asks using almost all of her facial muscles.

 “No idea,” I reply.

Meera leans on one of the sculptures in the mid-hall. This game is strange, so far everything here feel real. They are sculptures of animals that probably went extinct centuries ago. I remember reading about it in first-grade books. Are they tigers? Maybe yes; maybe not. What kind of technology they used to create this stuff? I wonder and that’s all I can do, wonder and wonder; there’s no hope for finding answers behind them. I wonder how people lived without pills, I wonder why we must become lab rats, I wonder why.

 “Meera, get away from those sculptures,” Apoorva warns. I give her a doubtful look. Why must she get away? Before Meera can argue back, one of the sculptures come alive. Meera yelps and sprints and hides behind Apoorva. I look up. The message ‘Game Starts Now’ pops up in all green. I smirk and I catch Apoorva smirking. We give each other the ‘it’s showtime buddy’ look.

                                                          Chapter Three

     It was just a statue a few moments ago; now it’s a living, breathing animal. Then one by one, all those five sculptures come alive. Majestic, it’s a pity that they can’t be pets. We take a few steps back when we should actually be running for life. At the worst, we will lose this game and retry but that’s better we now know how to get things started. We don’t have any weapons to fight them like in other games we played, I’ve checked my watch for those stuff many times since we started playing this. This game is definitely made to stand out. They look like they are about to prance. Ezhilan mutters something; we will have to rely on Apoorva’s hearing device.

  “Alright guys, on three-two-one. Run!!” Apoorva yells and we all run.

  “Should we scatter?” Ilango squeals.

  “And then let our luck choose our fate? No! United we stand,” Meera squeals back at him as we all run up the stairs. I notice a little crack and avoid it while Meera obviously didn’t. She skids and falls down to the ground.

 “United we ‘stand’? Look who just fell!” Apoorva humours her. “The stairs divide here, you two that way, Ilango! Meera! With me,” she helps Meera up. We all nod. Apoorva runs quite ahead of us, thanks to her prosthetic leg. Nowadays, replacements are made in a way that does not slow people down and cause a trouble to their daily activities but instead to enhance the ability. Many were mad enough to get injured on their own accord just to get a replacement that would make them better than a normal human.

 Two of those tigers are still very close catching up to us. We run up the left stairs. Ezhilan lags behind me by a mere two steps. I keep on running until I notice, he is far behind me.

 “Ezhilan!” I grunt upon seeing him fall and slide back down the stairs. The tiger prances up on him. We probably have to come up with a strategy before we retry this level.

 “Dude! You so-dead bro,” Ilango yells.

 “I know that,” he replies, this time quiet loud enough to hear. The tiger lifts up its paws bearing claws to get him but then it doesn’t. Instead it falls on Ezhilan. An arrow has plunged into its flesh. The other tiger backs off. I expect it to glitch but it doesn’t. Instead, blood soaks through its fur. This puts us all in an official concern. What is going on? VR and blood are never seen together, unless it’s a lame graphic which clearly isn’t the case here. We all look at each other with a shared confusion on our faces. Apoorva shakes her head in shock, her hands one with a bow and one with an arrow. She lifts it up again and shoots another arrow and shoots the other one, her eyes still blank from the shock. I hear a bell that makes my ears ring. I press my palms hard against my ear and shrink down to my knees. When the ringing goes down, I get up and look over the railings. The other three tigers have gone back to being just sculptures. Mission accomplished?

 “I gave you guys a warm welcome and yet you kill my pet? Interesting choice you’ve made,” the lady on the mansion says smirking, her eyes red and filled with tears.

 Those sculptures, no those tigers, were her pets? Ezhilan gets back up, slowly placing the dead one on the floor.

 “He’s dead. They both are, Ranvir and stu are dead for real,” she shakes her head, tears rolling down her cheeks. She takes a deep breath in, closing her eyes. “And I can’t bring them back alive, not again, Why do you people keep doing this? Bloody humans.” she bites her lips. She looks up to Apoorva dead in the eye, Apoorva shoots me a glance.

 “Is this the plot of the game?” Ezhilan asks and I give him the ‘I don’t know!” look. I wish I knew what is happening. And she talks as if this has happened before. We should have read the instructions; I am never skipping them again.

The lady climbs up the stairs. She sits down beside the dead tiger and places its head on her lap gently, patting the tiger’s blood soaked fur. She starts to sing a lullaby and pretends as if she’s just putting the tiger to sleep. Her hands rise up; glowing gold glitters appear out of thin air and circle around her palms. The droplets of blood on the floor, on its body, all come together and fuse with the glitter in her hands. They start to take a shape; they form roses, crimson red roses.

 She does the same to the other tiger, all this while we can’t help but stare and wonder. All those roses in the hallway, were they made of blood too? If so, whose blood? The more we stay here, the more questions pop up in my head.

We walk up to Apoorva and others, who’s standing in the opposite flight of stairs. “We should call it a day, we can do this later, next time after reading the instructions,” I say. They all seem to agree. I tap my watch, making the options pop up – weapons/ immunities/ quit game. I look up to ensure once again, they nod aggressively. As everyone taps their watches and is ready to quit, a voice screeches,

 “I won’t let you get away! I’ll make you pay for your sin!”

Before I can press the button, I sense something. I look through my side eye; a knife flies towards us as if it knows its directions. I dodge it however it manages to give my right cheek a scratch which flares. But for some strange reason, it’s as if it wasn’t me who dodged it, it dodged me instead. Oh shoot! It’s aiming for Apoorva who’s just few inches away from me. It’s surprising how all these train of thoughts happen in milli-seconds. The knife dodges Meera merely across her eyelashes. I don’t think dying in this game is trust-worthy, after witnessing all those. The knife’s right about to plunge in Apoorva’s throat. But then Ilango jumps right in the middle, covering Apoorva that it couldn’t dodge. It plunges right into his nape.

 “It’s not the time to play hero, you idiot sandwich!” Apoorva yells as they both fall to the ground. The knife falls to the ground as well; it had one task and terribly failed at it. I am mad enough to be personifying a knife at this moment. Ilango bleeds profusely. The blood spurts out, bright red. My eyes go wide, what the hell?

“Let’s quit the game. Now!” Meera makes no move upon Apoorva’s rush. Her eyes blank, her mouth trembles, it’s like she wants to scream but can’t at the same time. I take her watch and tap it for her. Apoorva doesn’t waste a minute; she taps for Ilango and then herself. I finally quit the game. When my eyes open, I see the tube glass. I shut my eyes harshly and open them back again. This was a chilling adventure which I hope I never get to experience again. It’s too much adrenaline for someone so young.

 The tubes open up; we all come out, heavily panting. Meera plops to the floor. Apoorva’s got blood on her hands. It’s Ilango’s. That’s when a thought strikes me; I turn to Ilango’s tube which hasn’t opened up yet. I run towards him, trying to open the tube from the outside.

 “Did you all have a great time,” Junkie says. Upon seeing the look on my face, Junkie’s eye emoji shifts from ‘smiling eyes’ to worried ones.

 “I can open the tube from outside friend, give me some space.” He then clicks some buttons on the side of the tube and it asks for password. “Do you have any idea what the password for his tube is?” Apoorva asks with a shaky voice.

 “I do,” Junkie replies, he types something and the tube opens. Ezhilan rushes to us and helps Ilango get out of the wires. He’s soaked in his blood, our friend is injured. This is unusual, no effect of VR stays in the actual reality. We can die there and yet come back here unscathed. I remember getting a scratch and take my hand up my right cheek to check. It burns when I touch it. Apoorva and Ezhilan scream at Ilango to wake up, he doesn’t move. Meera stands up abruptly and walks over and falls beside her brother. She takes his wrist in her hands and waits. Then she let his hand fall down. Her eyes go devoid of emotions. We all look at each other, not understanding what is happening. Is he…is Ilango dead? No way, it can’t be. Is this a prank? Am I dreaming? Are we still in the game perhaps? Am I under drugs? 

 “Calling for emergency service,” Junkie says and I realize this is reality and it’s worse than my nightmare. We all plot to the ground besides Ilango. All this happened in a span of an hour. He was just laughing; he was so alive moments ago. Does this mean there won’t be anyone to nag at us anymore? Meera breaks down, sobbing and wailing.

 “It should have been YOU!” She yells at Apoorva. “It should have been you. If you didn’t kill those animals she called pets, he wouldn’t have died. I told you all that we chose a leisure game but you guys didn’t budge.” She wipes her tears and continues sobbing. Apoorva leans her head against the tube taking the blame.

 “It’s none of our fault. We didn’t know this would happen; we were in a VR game after all. This is madness. We will have to contact the developers of this game and get them sued!” Ezhilan talks as loud as he could. I can’t see anything clearly; it’s all a blur with tears flooding my eyes. The room feels so stuffy; I get up to get some air. I go to the balcony. Tears rolling down, I plop to the ground. My soft whimpers break in to sobs. I pull my legs close to my chest and wrap my arms around them. I can’t comprehend any of it. It was so sudden. So sudden, that we didn’t get to hear his last words. I sense someone sit beside me. I look up, my eyes all puffy, to see Ezhilan. He sighs.

 “Is that position comfortably to cry in?”

 “Yeah,” I say. And he sits in the same way as me. He cries without making any noise. I return back to my position crying while embracing the silence. “With the level of technology we have, maybe he’ll be back alive,” Ezhilan gives me hope with an impossible assumption. I nod wanting to believe that, maybe I do believe that. We snuggle closer and cry. I hear sirens blare outside. Help is here. 

                                                          Chapter Four

  I hear the door slide open after an automated voice say ‘Access granted’. I get up and wipe my tears. “Our help is here; maybe he will be back alive and start nagging at us again.” Ezhilan looks up, teary-eyed and gives out a weak smile, he nods wanting to believe the lie he told me. I give him my hand to get up. The adults are here to help us. We walk out of the balcony. We pause upon hearing voices.

 “One of our subjects died. This will affect the other’s subjects’ mental condition which won’t facilitate our experiments,” a woman says from the. “This calls for the ‘erase’ operation,” another voice, says. I can clearly identify who the second voice belongs to, the head professor who’s the reason why the whole possibility of making pills about happiness exists.

 “But, they are kids, the erase process might be harsh on them than we expect,” the other woman says.

“It’s the only choice we have. Billions of people are rooting for this. If we have to shatter the lives of four people to make the lives of a billion others bright then I am saying we have made the right call.” Yeah, congratulations on making the right call even if it means one of them is your own kid. How can someone sane be so selfish? That’s right! My mom wasn’t sane to begin with.

“Alright mam, I’ll go bring them over. They are probably in the game arena.”

 “Don’t. We’ll send Neucrell since they seem to trust that machine more than us.” Of course, who would trust you? You fiend! I hear them leave the room. We both look at each other in terror.

 “What even is the erase operation? Do you have any idea?” He asks to which I shake my head. Why does he always expect me to have an idea when I absolutely don’t? “Whatever it is, it’s not going to be good for us. We must make an escape,” he whispers. “I am not Apoorva, louder!” I whisper back and he repeats it a little louder, “We have to escape!”

“Escape? Got a plan?”

“My plan is we follow no plan because plans always fail.” For the sake of Ilango and others I agree to his ‘no plan-plan’. A voice screeches across the rooms. An agonized scream, “Leave us! You remorseless bastards, get away!”

Meera yells. “Why are you cuffing us? It’s not like we killed him. We did not!” This time it’s Apoorva, she grunts. I peek to get a look and find them taking Ilango in a stretched into an ambulance.

 “We have to get him,” Ezhilan mutters but this time my ears pick up what he actually said. “What? You mean Ilango? Why?”

“Remember when the lady in game said she can’t bring back her pets alive?” I nod. “That means she must know a way to bring back things alive.” This is such an idiotic assumption but it’s better than giving up and surrendering to them. Any idiotic idea is worth a try if it could get us out of this grim reality. It then dawns upon me.

 “But she’s angry about us killing her pets,” I say.

 “Let’s think about that later. First, we gotta escape with Ilango into the game.”

 “How?”

“Get Junkie to switch the anti-gravity lane from second floor to first floor. Take control over the ambulance, Junkie will help you hack into the automated-driver system. I’ll get the others.”

I look up from the balcony; the flying ambulance has made its stop at the floor above. Two other flying cars have been parked behind it. I rumble through my pocket to get my phone. I go to the robot-control app and do as he said. I take a few steps away. The vehicles drop and stop right at the balcony. Good job Junkie. I give him an order to assist me. I carefully climb over the balcony railings. I try to stay calm. There’s at least two feet distance from where I stand to the ambulance entry, it’s difficult to make it there without turning on the walk-way from the inside of the vehicle. I wait for Junkie to come. Don’t look down. Don’t look down; I say to myself like a spell. We reside in a smallest building with just two floors and a big tower built on top of it and I’m just at the first floor but my acrophobia is worse, so I’m genuinely scared, no one wants to break a limb!

 “Hey! What are you doing?” The ambulance driver yells upon seeing me act like a thief at my own residence. Oh good lord! All the other vehicles are automated except ambulances and police cars. How do I take control over now? I get nervous and lose my stance and fall. Well, almost fell, someone turned on the anti-gravity option of my boots. Right! Why didn’t I think of that? I can be so dumb at times. I float up to meet Junkie. I get into the ambulance. I hear loud noises from above. I must take control. I look in, Ilango already in, his face looks drained out of colour, drained out of life.

 “Mister, how about you trade your seat for something valuable?” I ask, managing to crack a smile.

“Nothing’s more valuable that taking the global treasure to the hospital,” he replies grinning. I look around and see a stash of tranquilizers beside the entryway. I grab one of them and cover them behind my back to prevent him from seeing that. 

“Then, I have no choice. I’m sorry,” I say smiling a little more wide. He looks up to me in confusion.

 “What are you up to-, I give him a jab with the needle inside his neck before he can finish his sentence. I pull him away from the seat and place him at the right side of the entryway. I have control now. I turn around to find Junkie waiting. I look for the button for the walk-way. I spot a yellow one with stair symbol on it. I push it and the walk-way slides open from the bottom of the ambulance and reach the balcony.

“Junkie! Get in!” He levitates for a few feet above the ground so that he could be over the balcony railings and gets in the ambulance.

“You have committed a crime,” he says.

“The people above us commit crimes too Junkie. The only difference is they can alter the law so that it can’t be called a crime. They are the reason why loop-holes in law exist. If anything else, they should be called fiends.”

“Your anger level is rising. This isn’t good for the health.” Junkie’s a mini Ilango, isn’t he? Or is Ilango-no, or ‘was’ Ilango a human version of Junkie? I am in denial. I refuse to accept Ilango is dead. Not until we try something. I hear people running. Ezhilan comes panting with the game’s hard-disc in his hand.

“Where are the others?” I shout. He doesn’t answer me. He jumps over the railings and runs on this way through the walk-way.

“Get moving!”

“What about the others?”

“Junkie, could you switch this vehicles lane to the one below? Switch it only this ambulance, not the others. Quick!

 “Ezhil! What about the others?”

“I tried, they already have them both. Now quick, get this started.” The doctors and nurses come chasing behind him.

I swiftly pull the steering; it’s designed like an aircraft. I push the start button in the middle of it. I push the accelerator under my right foot and the ambulance goes smoothly. I jerk at the sudden shift of lanes from up to down. People rarely flow this low which makes it easier to ride faster with the past mostly clear except for bikers.

“What about the destination?”

“A place with a game arena would do.”

“A game station needs our ID. It’s not good for runaways,” I say.

 “Not all game stations do. Junkie, search the net for nearby underground game stations.”

“The results show illegal places.”

“Listen, everything we’re about to do is illegal.”

“I am one of those machines who are programmed to report if the owner indulges in illegal activities.”

My eyes go wide and I almost bump into one of those bikers. He bad-mouths me. Does that mean Junkie isn’t on our side anymore?

“But since you instructed me to not consider you guys as an owner but a friend, that rule can be avoided. Plus, according to humans friends are supposed to be partners-in-crime.”

We both sigh loudly. That’s a relief. I look at the main mirror; two vehicles chase us. I press the accelerator harder and cross the speed limit.

“Junkie! Directions for the nearby ones,” I shout.

“Take the next right turn and then a right again.”

I do so and this place isn’t lined by skyscrapers like the others do. This must the place with highest crime rates and frequently shows up at news. I spot a board saying ‘Anti-gravity service lanes end here’. My eyes run over a dozen buttons. The ambulance almost crashes into the road; luckily I find the one for the wheels.

“Take a left.”

“The destination’s here.”

Junkie says we’ve reached the destination but all I can see is an empty and old photo booth.

“We have to carry Ilango ourselves. The booth functions as a lift. I’ll turn of Junkie and put him under password lock. See you later Junkie,” Ezhilan says, this time not muttering but in a way that I can hear. How does he know about all this? I wave a goodbye to Junkie right before he turns off. Ezhilan wraps the game-watch around his wrist, so that we can enter the game with him. I help Ezhilan in carrying Ilango, the dead weight is crazy. We barely manage to walk in to the booth and Ezhilan presses a sequence of buttons as if he’s familiar with this place and the lift starts going down.

A few moments later, we get a room with four game tube and waste no time. We put Ilango into one and get into the others ourselves. The game options show- ‘Resume’ and ‘start a new game’. I click resume. I am back in the cryptic mansion and find the lady still grieving on her pets by sitting behind those remaining sculptures. I try to gulp down my anxiety but fail to do so. Let’s give this a try.

                                                           Chapter Five

“We are terribly sorry for what happened,” Ezhilan says. “But you see we are confused about all these. Is this a plot? Or is it all real? Like you killed our friend and there’s no way it’s a part of the play right?” He lets his hold off Ilango. I can’t make his stand alone so I gently place him on the ground. I look at his fingernails, all so pale. His hands turned blue and his skin a little purple.

“No, this isn’t a play. People who came last time spouted same nonsense as you guys. Anyway, why are you here again? Wanna lose another friend?” She stands up and starts to walk towards us with an ugly smirk and not to mention that her eyes are red from the tears. “Wait, ‘people who came last time’, what’s that supposed to mean?” I think it out loud.

 “Right, some idiots came last time and said the same nonsense before they got killed by my pets.” Her reply leaves me too stunned to speak. They might have been people who were assigned to do the first step verification.

“You Ms… uh I don’t know your name. But revenge has become old-fashioned. We’ve come to make a deal.” Ezhilan talks as if he has the upper hand in this situation.

“I am Dystopia Thornsmaid. Also what deal? Do you even know who I am? If you did, you won’t be talking with so much confidence.”

“I don’t know all about you Miss Thornsmaid but what I know is that you are a prisoner of the place you own.” His eyes narrowed. “When I telephoned a certain number on the desk, the voice said something about your prison time has been extended and played something that made my brain stop all at once. But the voice sounded as if someone was playing a prank on you; it sounded like someone who loves to see you suffer.” Coloured drained out of her face. A loom of sadness envelops her and few seconds later she turns on her poker face.

“Is that what happened back there?” I ask and he nods.

“And what is your deal little boy?”

“We bring back our friend alive and we get you out.” He shrugs as if it’s all so simple like getting a plastic surgery.

“Get me out?” She scoffs. “Who? You and your little friend?” She cackles. “Are you guys that capable? Plus, as much I want to be free I want to respect my father’s words. You can alter your silly deal and make it more serious by accepting to go with my petty old-fashion.” Her red cloche hat shades her eyes.

“Whatever. We want our friend back again. What’s your deal?”

“Alright, since it’s his first time dying that wouldn’t be a problem. In exchange, you will have to make my fantasy come true, that is seeing her humiliated in front of dad. She painted me the villain all this time. I wanna see that look on her face when her secrets are out. But I can’t do that unless I get out of here and I couldn’t get out of here due to father’s words.”

“Family issues, I see. Understood. But where is your father and who is the ‘she’?” I ask.

 “She is Utopia Thornsmaid, my twin sister. Dad and everyone else lives with her, in the Utopia mansion. To them that is heaven and whatever that carries my name is the exact opposite. I can talk about the history for hours but I am tired. You will find resources in the library on the third floor. Place your friend besides the sculptures; I will start the process of undoing his death by this midnight.”

  At the third floor library, there is a big old painting of the Thornsmaid family, so old that, lady Dystopia looks like a seven year old. The twins are smiling wide with their father and a woman, supposedly their mother, sitting in the middle. There is a little boy, also smiling wide, with radiating energy. I stare at the painting a little more as Ezhilan goes to the last row of books and settles himself there. I look down to find a book, separated from the other neatly stalked ones. The title says ‘In the memory of Lillian Thornsmaid’. I open then book and start to read it; not from the start but just a random page that flipped open. It is handwritten.

 The boy who turned tears to lilies is no more, too unfortunate to be killed by his own family member. As the prophecy once stated, one of the twin sisters turned to be evil. Miss Dystopia Thornsmaid, as her name suggests has proven the prophecy true and hence will be punished for her evil-doings. Although Lillian is no more to turn our tears into pretty looking flowers, his memories will continue to heal our hearts. Lillian Thornsmaid will be remembered by the people in Thornsbury. After his death, apparently his birth secret has been revealed. He was indeed the son of royalty. He was born for Illyrian Thornsmaid and –

“Look what I found,” Ezhilan calls. I go over to where he is. He has found drawings, portraits of people.

“No, not these drawings but the words behind them. Dystopia can turn blood into flowers and her little brother did the same with tears but he converted them into a flower called lily of the valley. But Utopia she, it says that she could convert energy into flowers.”

“Energy?”

“Yeah. She could either reflect it or absorb it. Happiness or sad feelings, the energy, she can either reflect them and turn it into flowers or just absorb them.”

“So? What’s so strange about her? The family is strange enough, with powers and all that.”

“No, wait. She turned them into a flower called monkshood and looks like this,” he shows be a painting. The flowers are dark purple in colour and it looks mesmerizing.

“What about this flower Ezhilan?”

“Apparently it has a dark meaning or symbolism behind it. That’s what this book states, but it doesn’t state what exactly it is. But you see there’s a prophecy about the-”

“The twins. Yeah I know.”

“I think their father got the wrong idea.”

“Your point is?”

“What if Utopia is the one who’s evil? Maybe she killed her brother? But we don’t have a motive?”

“You seem invested since this looks like a murder mystery.” He nods in agreement.

“Oh! This states something about his birth secret,” I take that book and scramble through pages.

“Right here. He was born for the twins’ mother and an heir of the-the Thorn family? Now who is that?” I grunt and slump down to the ground. Ezhilan gets the book from me. I look at the window in front of me. I see dots, white dots sprinkled on the sky. Stars? Like those ones we read in books? Cool. I get up and get a look. Down, I see trees, a lot; I guess it should be called a forest then.

“Basically he is an affair child, that’s the point.”

“Huh, what?” I turn. “Great melodrama we have here. So how are we gonna get her out of this prison?”

“My guess is that others wrongly accused Miss Dystopia of murder. All we have to do is prove her father that she did not.”

“And how will we do it? Everybody seems to believe so.”

“Maybe manipulate Miss Utopia’s mind and take her lies right out of her mouth.”

“Cool. And how do we do that?”

“We will have to figure out a way! Maybe ask some experts help?”

“Like an expert in manipulation? I know the perfect candidate then. Let’s go ask my mom. Plus, we have to save Apoorva and Meera. What if they execute the erase operation before we do that?”

“There’s no way they can. The erase stuff is most probably erasing memories of Ilango. They have to have a full data feed for that and that’s with Junkie now. He can’t be turned on unless they crack my password.”

“Cool. You seem to know a lot. Is this how you are when you play those detective games?”

“Yeah,” he runs his hand through his hair. “It’s time to get them back. Let’s go to the hospital. We know our assigned rooms.”

“Yep. It’s time for rescue. With Apoorva back we will have more ideas.” He nods and we press the quit and save option on our watches. This idiotic plan seems to be working.

                                                          

                                                           Chapter Six

[Apoorva’s point-of-view]

 My eyes part open slightly. I catch a glimpse of blurry faces around me. My eyes part open again, this time fully.

 “She’s awake,” a woman says to the others and they get up. She nods and they begin to leave the room. She’s got freckles on her face’ her hair dyes blonde and tied up in a ponytail.

“Meera. Where’s Meera?” I blurt out. The woman places her palms on one of mine.

“Calm down dear. She’s safe with us.” Her irises look metallic.

“She’s with you? Not safe then.” The woman shakes her head in disapproval. Maintaining a calm composure, she asks me, “Where are your friends? Where’s Junkie? Do you happen to know?”

“No. I don’t know.” I hate interrogations; I hate being asked a bunch of questions that forces me to look back at traumatic memories. I look around; the room is painted green and gold, not calming colours for me; the hotel that got attacked had the same colours. There’s an advertisement on the wall- ‘Welcome to Cortiz hospital, where machine meets humanity’. When humans don’t, I think to myself.

“Alright, this might be hard for you but can you go over what happened back there before we got an emergency call from you?” This reminds of that time people got so curious about the life of bomb blast survivors. I rub my palms together, they are all sweaty.

“A game, we played a game. He got killed there.”

“That is not possible,” she says with a calm voice, “The adults here are assuming this might be a case of amicide. It might have been an accident. You can trust me, not as a human to human, of course they lost trust between them long ago but as patient to doctor.”

“We did not kill him. Not intentionally, not accidentally either.”

“Alright, let me ask you one more question before I leave. The data feed, where is it?”

“Junkie is our data feed.”

“Don’t play dumb dear. There must be two copies. One’s with Junkie. We searched for the other throughout your residence but we didn’t find it.” She talks with the same calm voice but this time it’s creepy. “Now tell me. Where is it?” She chants like a haunted doll; like those AIs who were programmed decades ago.

 “I don’t know.”

“Guards, bring in the detector,” she says adjusting her ear piece, a pink ear piece. Oh my god, She’s an AI too. I should have known when she mentioned the ‘not as human to human’ convo. Sometimes we find it real hard to differentiate a human and an AI give that they can even sweat, and shiver just like humans do. Two men slide open the door and one hands her the detector. They come over and hold me firmly, both my hands and my legs.

“ What the- Hey! I don’t have what you’re looking for.” I fake react. I know exactly where it is and it must be safe there. There’s a loophole of leaving Neucrell with us. She’s instructed to help us. And there are a lot of things AIs could do but disobeying the instructions isn’t one of them.

 The doc-bot runs the detector from my head to toe. She didn’t get the result she wanted. She closes her eyes. Is it possible that she’s designed for interrogations? Maybe a doc-bot used for interrogating mentally distressed patients? If so, maybe she’ll figure out, maybe she will not. I hope she doesn’t, I didn’t give her any clues, did I?

“You don’t have? Isn’t that what you said? ‘You don’t have?’ hmm. Guards how about we search her friend and the whole room?” Oh damn. The guards nod and hurry their way out.

“Wait. Did they find those two brats who escaped? No? Oh, then we will have to start our process with the red-head.” An AI that can swear working as a doc-bot, awesome! We’re doomed for real. The annoying bot leaves finally and I’m just gonna desperately wait for an apocalypse to strike again like it did centuries ago.

I stare at the window expecting a meteor shower and something pops up and goes down. It seemed like a person or maybe a bot too, who knows? It pops up again. Diya! I am so relieved and anxious at the same time. I don’t want her to get caught to. She signals me to come over. I get up to walk but fail and plop down. The drugged me with local anaesthesia making my legs immobile, dang it! I feel her arms on me helping me up and walk over. I look out the window, to see an ambulance stopped in the no parking zone. She helps me up and to get into the ambulance.

 “You could get fined for making a stop here! Even worse you could have got caught!” I yell at them while hugging them.

“We could get arrested, not just fined. We did a bunch of stuff; will tell u ‘bout that later,” Ezhilan chuckles.

“We stole this one by that way,” Diya says slapping the ambulance seat. We all ease for a while. “Oh, we should hurry! Meera! I don’t know what she went through but we should go get her soon.”

“Yeah, copy that. She’s in our assigned rooms, right?” Lan asks.

 “Maybe. But if they found the chip I hid she might be in a different room.”

 “Hold on! A chip? Which one?” Diya exclaims.

 “It’s a copy of memoirs.”

“That’s supposed to be with Junkie! Ezhilan! What’s going on? You fed him the data yesterday right? Ilango asked us to.”

“Yeah I did. Stop yelling! It must be a second copy.”

“Oh shoot. What do we do?” Diya panics. “You said they won’t start the operation unless they had Junkie and now there’s a second copy?”

“Calm down fierce-head. We’ll figure this one out.” I assure her with a head pat. “Also where’s Junkie?”

“Somewhere safe and we have a surprise, we-”

“Junkie is safe with Ezhilan’s family,” Diya cuts off Lan mid sentences and glare at him. “A family who runs illegal gaming centres. He’s got a cool backstory which I only came to know a few moments ago.”

“Lan, what is this behaviour? How dare you not tell us?” I teasingly punch him in the stomach. He winces. “Alright, we can’t lose both the siblings. Get this started.”

“Buckle up then! I am a messy driver,” Diya warns me and I ignore until she takes off and I fall abruptly and smash my face to the floor. Ezhilan helps me sit up and gives me some liquid that can help me diminish the effect of the drugs.

 Meera isn’t in our room as expected. It’s time to use the loophole then. Ezhilan texts Neucrell, if she could make Meera peek out at any window at any of them, we can get her out. Neucrell texts back. “Why are you silent? Did she text back?” Diya asks and Ezhilan reads out the reply.

‘You guys have been put under the wanted list with bounty, the ‘call us when you see them’ typed ones. I am instructed to help you out but on the contrary I am instructed to be a law following citizen. Sorry.’

It’s a loophole against loophole. Who do we rely on now? No one, we have none of them on our side. I look around, my two dumb friends, trying hard. Oh right! We have each other. “It’s a ride or die; we crash in and get Meera out. We will then have a crazy ‘getting chased by law’ adventure and go to where you guys left Junkie.” I say in attempt to restore their hopes. It works and the ambulance flies in full fledge again. Diya flies to a little dome shaped arena and stops near a vent.

“My mom’s lab, there’s a chance Meera might have been brought here. Go through the vent. I’ll stay back and look after the vehicle.”

“I’ll go, you both, be on guard,” I say, they disagree at first but knowing my stubborn attitude they agree. I get ready to venture into the vent. “Oh! You need a gun, to be specific, it’s a pistol.” She throws one at me which I manage to catch. I am puzzled. Where did they get these? And I get my reply soon. “Thank Lan’s family. It’s loaded. Don’t hesitate to shoot.” I shoot her a ‘bombastic’ side-eye look and then I narrow my eyes Ezhilan.

 “I will tell you about my family later.” I roll my eyes and scurry into the Vent. I hear Neucrell’s voice. She seems to be the authorities. I look at her through an opening. She looks up straight at me and chills run down my spine.

“No sir, I haven’t seen them, they texted me,” She talks while looking straight at me. She ends the call and pushes some buttons on the wall and I slide down and crash on the ground. I will have to repair my prosthetic leg after all these.

“Miss Apoorva, is there anything you need?”

“Yeah, I came to get Meera.”

“Oh, is that related to your well-being?”

“What?”

“I was instructed to look after and promote your well-being.” Another loophole, Yes!!

“Yes. It is related. Can I?”

 “Yeah you can. Also hurry, before I get an order to keep Meera captive here.” I look at Neucrell. “Hurry, before you are on the wanted list too,” she insists. She releases Meera from the cuffs holding her to the bed. I put her hands over my shoulders. Neucrell opens the door. I carry her out, I turn back to look at Neucrell. She’s expressing anxiousness on her designed skin. I hear the ambulance whirr. Neucrell takes her phone again. “I have spotted them.” I turn around and get into the ambulance, it takes off. Thank you Neucrell and loopholes. Machines meet humanity. 

 

                                                             Chapter Seven

[Apoorva’s point-of-view]

 Diya and Ezhilan take us to some shady looking alleyway. They walk into a booth and sign me to follow them. With Meera on my back, every step I take is difficult. She looks like a twig yet she weighs like a pig. My right leg balances well than the other since it’s prosthetic. I can’t believe there used to be a time when people felt this as an inconvenience. People now are mad enough to replace their good-working legs with metal because it has enhanced capacities.

I struggle my way through the booth. I push the buttons in sequence as Ezhilan told me. The booth shakes a little and we go down, where does this take us? To hell? I hope not. Meera winces as we go down. By the time the lift opens up to a white morgue looking room, she wakes up.

 “Where are we?” Meera asks with a coarse voice.

 “We are in a place that doesn’t want to plunge needles in our veins.”

 “We are safe now?” I don’t answer her since I am unsure of the situation we are in now. By now, we must have a bounty on our heads. Diya waves at me, peeking from a room. As I walk over to the room, I bump into someone; I don’t look up at him. I keep my head down and continue walking. Old-modelled robot-dogs bark at us. I smell smoke, cigarettes, not the usual ones but very old ones which I thought weren’t on sales anymore. This place is filled with thugs and potential troubles. I manage make my way in safely and finally can get Meera off my back. I stretch and wiggle my hands and legs.

 “Seriously, what do you eat in a day?”

 “Pills and the lame dishes you make us, what else?” Meera’s voice is back to normal.

 “Cool, now get into your game chambers, we’ve got stuff to do,” Diya says as she gets into one of the tubes.

 “What did I miss?” Meera asks as she ties her hair into a bun.

 “Pretty much everything, we’ll explain it to you later,” Ezhilan says, wrapping sensors around his wrist.

 “How come your family helps us while everyone else cares about nothing but the medicine? Like, you see, Diya’s mom, Meera’s dad, they all want us back in the labs. But your family gives you a room to play games?” I ask Ezhilan out of curiosity. Maybe he’s got a family that’s an actual family and not just a term.

 “Well, they do want me in the lab, that’s why they sent me to live with you guys. But as of now, I made a deal. We need Ilango back, that’s it.”

 “You are getting my brother back?” Meera exclaims.

 “Yeah, now get into your tube. Quickly, before any of those thugs barge into our room,” Diya urges her and we all settle into our tubes. I click the option resume.

 I find myself and Meera, back in the stairs of the mansion exactly where we left but Diya and Ezhilan are nowhere to be seen. We go down the stairs to where those sculptures were. To our surprise, there’s an addition to the sculptures, we see a statue of Ilango. God, what? Meera freezes upon this sight and I hear the lift open. I turn expect the mysterious lady but Diya and Ezhilan come out of it.

“She did her part. Now it’s our turn,” Diya says looking at Lan.

“What is going on guys?” Meera asks us as tears flood her eyes.

 “I’ll explain,” The lady emerges from the other flight of stairs with a bell in her hands. “Stay a few inches away kids.” We do so and she rings the bell. Once again the sculptures come alive, but this time there are three tigers instead of five and Ilango, he comes alive too.

 “Okay so this is an official what-the-heck situation, like literally what just happened?” Meera wails. The lady tames her other pets. Ilango is equally surprised. My brain’s stuck, I can’t process this. Magic, a rarely used concept in movies or books, this is something we could see in the game Meera loves to play. Is he our Ilango or is he just a remake?

 “Guys, am I alive?” Ilango asks. My brain is on temporary pause, just awestruck. Meera slowly walks towards Ilango. “I ate something from your secret stash,” she says walking closer to him with teary eyes.

“How dare you? I am gone for like a few hours and you are out of control, not good.” Ilango says. There’s no way a remake could say that while sounding exactly like him. Meera hugs her brother and so does Ezhilan. Diya joins them, she looks at me. I join them too. We burst into tear mixed laughter.

“Enough of sentiment, remember our deal?”

“Yeah,” Ezhilan responds to her.

“You made a deal with her?” Ilango asks. Diya nods.

 “You see, we have to help her get out of this prison in return for, you know, bringing Ilango back alive.”

 “Oh, you have to know this. He can and will go back to being sculpture if someone ringed this bell. And maximum time limit is twelve hours.”

“Time limit for what?” I ask the lady.

“To be a human, then he goes back to being a sculpture.” Ilango gasps on hearing this.

“Looks like you have a Cinderella kind-of situation,” Meera says to Ilango.

“Alright, go fulfil our deal little pawns.” The lady leaves the hall. We three look at Diya and Ezhilan looking forward to an explanation. And they do. My brain isn’t downloading the information. Is this a prank? Dystopia and Utopia Thornsmaid and their brother, who is, no ‘was’ an affair child? Sounds like a lame web-drama to me.

“What do we do now?” Meera asks, frowning in confusion.

“We go talk to Utopia, investigate and bring the truth out of her,” Ezhilan shrugs as if all that is as simple as getting an old modelled pistol from his family.

“And how do we do that? Do you have a plan?” Meera asks.

“My plan is to have-”

“No plan,” Diya completes Ezhilan’s sentence. I get it now; these two idiots are playing around, making dumb and illegal decisions.

“Are you kidding me? Like, seriously dude, no plan?” I ask it out as I lost control of my mouth.

“Look, we know how to get there. And then we just interrogate her twin sister, like in those VR games and movies. We won’t know until we try.” He gulps down. “Also,” he whispers and we move in close to hear him. “We can leave the game in midst and never come back.”

“Nice try kid, but you can’t,” we flinch at the sound of her voice but she’s nowhere in the hall. “The flowers hear kid and I talk through them, like good old mic and speakers. I still have the bell; it works even if you are out of the game. You can get this bell once you complete your part of the deal. I am not dumb.”

Meera rolls her eyes. “Fine, let’s go and fulfil this-great deal you guys have made.”

“Should we, go back and click the utopia option?” I ask.

“No, this game is more like a portal. We can get there just by walking out of this mansion and we take a right turn we’ll find our destination. Dystopia isn’t allowed to leave, of course, she is cursed. But we aren’t.”

“Oh, I understand,” I say but I truth is I don’t. Diya figures this out.

“See, Dystopia’s body will go through worse stuff, if she ever tried to get out of this building. But we are completely okay if we do so. Understood?” She asks.

“We do,” Ilango answers on my behalf.

“Good, then. It’s all sorted out. We’re gonna be fine after all we went through, this is nothing.” I say.

                                                             Chapter Eight

[Back to Diya’s point-of-view]

 Walking out of the mansion, we take a look at the town, a little town which serves as the capital of the kingdom. The streets are filled with busy people, so busy that we go unnoticed even though we look so different from them. They are all dresses like its medieval period. People are interacting with each other with so much life in their eyes. A smell washes over my brain.

“Are those vegetables? Like, real ones?” Meera asks. “Yeah,” we all reply.

“Here we are, this where the directions got us,” Ezhilan reports. And all I can look at is a door, floating in the midst of chunks of rocks, with a stairway leading to it. We all look at him warily. He sighs.

 “Of course, that door will lead us to the mansion. Guys, get a clue, this place has magic, why are you surprised?” He sneers at us.

 “Wish I can take a pic of this, would help me get more followers,” Meera bantered. We totally ignore her and get into to the strange door. I keep my head up, enjoying the sight of the beautiful sky. As I walk in, I get an illusion of a breath-taking and yet breath-giving scenery. I turn around and find no one else. Where are the others? The illusion comes to an end and I fall. I scream and I smash down on a half-crumbled floor. It floats. I hold on to it, real tight. I beg myself not to look down but do it anyway. And I close my eyes while screaming for help. How many feet high am I right now? I am scared of heights. Somebody, for God’s sake get me out of this place. All of a sudden, the sensation of floating stops and I slowly open my eyes.

 Now, I am in a hospital, sitting on a couch nearby lobby. A window pops up like it does in computers. I see my mom and myself in there. I see my mom looking at me lovingly, treating me like a child and not like her subject. The mom in the illusion pats my head as her lips curve into a smile. Tears swarm my eyes. I see my dad, alive. The window shows me all the things I wish I had in my life. My soul aches upon the visual. What is going on? And then another window pops up. It shows my reality, dad dying in the very same hospital I find myself in, mom losing herself and slowly going insane. She takes her little kid and performs mind bending experiments on her. I wish she gave me visible scars instead of mental ones. I close my eyes and tears excuse themselves out. The illusions grow weirder and weirder. I take my hands over my ears and then over my head all while screaming. Stop it! Stop it! I can’t anymore-

 I breathe again. I open my eyes and see a magnificent chandelier. I look around me. It’s filled with white and purple flowers. A few feet away stands a beautiful sculpture of a woman, it is so detailed. I find her face quite familiar. Maybe Utopia has a sculpture of her own in her home. The sight of all these fills up my soul, it gives me a sensation of euphoria. I look back and find my friends. Where have they been all this time? I look at them, all exhausted. Apoorva looks like she had just had a panic attack.

 “Spiders, there were a lot of them.” Ezhilan quaked. “I guess we all got those illusions. The one that scares us, the one that we wished for and one about our reality, I am a genius to figure it out, ain’t I?”

 “You are but we’re really tired of all this; can we just get to the business? Where’s this killer anyway?” Meera asks and the sculpted woman comes alive. Cool statues we have in this world. Ilango audibly gasps.

 “You’re dead too?” He exclaims.

 “No, I was just playing around.” Interesting answer we got “What brings you guys here? And you guys look way too different?” She inquires.

 “You’re not gonna believe us so I’ll come straight to the matter. What were you doing when your brother was getting killing?” Ezhilan cuts out to the chase.

 “Uh, killing him of course,” Meera scoffs. Apoorva shoots her a ‘shut-up’ look.

 “My brother was getting killed?”

 “Yeah, I get that you wanna play dumb but not this dumb! You framed your sister Dystopia, didn’t you?”

 “Wow, you have some crazy ideas, you could write a story out of it.”

 “Look, Miss Utopia, your act won’t last longer. We’re gonna prove Dystopia’s innocence to your father soon.”

“Utopia? No, no you’re mistaken and its okay, people generally get confused with twins. I am Dystopia and Utopia is my sister.”

 “Seriously, how dumb does she think we’re,” Meera mumbles. “Hey, drop your lame act. You killed your brother didn’t you?” Meera snaps.

 “What?”

 “Yeah, you killed him right after you found his birth secret right? I’m pretty sure you are the culprit!”

 “Listen kids, we do know that Lillian’s an illegitimate heir of Illyrian Thorn but that doesn’t give us a reason to kill our own brother!”

“Good try but your lies aren’t working on us,” Meera scorns.

 “Meera, that’s not how you solve a case.” Ezhilan jeers.

 “I got killed?” a voice howls. A man walks in the hallway. I find this face similar. He’s like a grown up version of Lillian I in the painting. He is followed by a woman who looks exactly like Utopia saw. What is happening?

 “Oh, you came. You see, these people here, have been spouting nonsense. I tried so hard to be polite but there goes my patience. I can’t handle them anymore. Utopia and you can take over,” she leaves. I’m so confused right now. Who is who? The one who left, who is she? How come another woman who looks exactly like her is here? Are they triplet’s maybe? But she cleared mentioned being ‘twins’. Good lord! Questions keep popping up in my head like pop-up windows on a computer.

 “What’s the deal with you guys? Why am I dead in your theory? And isn’t it too cruel for me to be killed by my own sister?” The man tattles.

“So, I’ll just ask it out on behalf of the others here. Can you please clarify, who’s this lady beside you and who’s the one who just left,” Ilango sighs and continues, “And who are you?”

“Alright, since I am a guy with better patience than my sister, yes, I will answer your question or should I say ‘questions’?!” He snickers. Apoorva and Meera roll their eyes. “The lady, the one just who just left, is Dystopia Thornsmaid; she’s young but she behaves like a lady going through menopause. And she,” he points to the woman besides him. “She is Utopia Thornsmaid, our sister. She’s older than Dystopia by a few minutes but still uses the fact to abuse her older sister rights.” He exhales and inhales. Is he preparing for a big speech or something?

 “And I am Lillian Thornsmaid, a cheerful and generous guy,” he shrieks. He’s so self-promoting to the point that it’s so annoying.

“Just answer one more question,” Ezhilan demands. “Who’s the lady who lives in Dystopia mansion then?”

“Oh! Her? That witch is still alive?”

“Well, she used to be our maid,” the said-to-be Utopia speaks. She clears her throat. “She was one of our maids actually. Anyway, she’s serving her time for all the mess she caused.”

“Mess? Elaborate it please!” Meera begs.

“Well, she’s an illusionist and a shape shifter. She is currently serving her time for identity theft. She didn’t get caught until; she stole the identity of a royal family member. Does that put your concerns at ease?”

“That answers my questions with more questions,” I say. “Has she been lying to us?”

“Maybe she was, but what about the books we saw? Books can’t lie!” Ezhilan exclaims.

“Like I said she’s an illusionist, I am pretty sure they weren’t real,” the lady responds.

“I touched the books. I felt the paper under my skin!” He goes on and on muttering, most of it isn’t audible. I look at Apoorva, she squints her eyes trying to understand this situation.

“She’s a great illusionist; that’s why most of her wrong-doings went unnoticed for years. I assure you we’re the real Thornsmaids. Oh, here comes Dystopia, the real one.” The lady who stormed out comes back.

“Have any of us given or more like traded your blood with her?” She asks.

“No,” we say.

“Maybe, did she have access to it somehow?” A window of thought pops up in my head.

“Ilango.”

“What?”

“We left Ilango alone with her. She suggested us to visit the library.”

 “Oh no! That’s her way of steeling identities. I’m pretty sure, by this time she might have taken the form of your friend.” Those words drop a bomb in my head.

 “Oh right! What about the pets? Those five tigers?” Apoorva asks.

 “Those tigers are what restricting her from leaving the prison,” Lillian says casually walking along the walls.

 “What do we do?” Apoorva asks.

 “Go there and check it out for yourself. I’m pretty sure you don’t belong here,” Lillian says casually. His casual behaviour annoys me.

 

 We rush back to the Dystopia mansion. We search throughout the hallway; she’s nowhere to be seen. We agree to split and search. I scurry through the lavish hallway, take the lift. Funny how lifts exist here and people still cloth like they belong to the medieval era. I search and search. She’s nowhere. She’s gone. I go back to the ground floor. And find the others already gathered.

“Hey, finally you came back. We’ve come to the conclusion that she escaped to our world,” Ilango declares.

“Escaped? Poor lady, didn’t knew what she was getting herself into,” Meera chuckles.

“What? Does that mean we’re stuck here?” I ask

“What do you mean by ‘stuck’ dear? We’re out of the grim reality; we’re no longer obliged to be lab rats. And she is not gonna survive it. It’s a gift from heaven!” Meera shrieks.

“Oh, good for us then,” I smirk.

“I’m gonna miss Junkie,” Ilango says. His lips curve into a thin smile but his eyes look sad.

“Don’t worry bro, I got your robot-version of us,” Ezhilan says as his hands reach his left hoodie pocket. He pulls out a hardware component. “I took this with me just to be careful, in case they tried to get data out of Junkie while we were in game,” he scratches behind his neck and smiles.

 “Junkie’s getting a new body then!” Apoorva sings it like a song.

                                                              Chapter Nine

[A few months later]

 We’re hanging out at the Dystopia mansion, once a prison now just a hang-spot. Here’s where Ezhilan shared about his interest background to everyone, he is the son of the famous smuggler, and I can see why he didn’t want us to know it before. It was too comfortable to be a prison, that’s our opinion but Lillian says it’s the smallest building they own and they found no reason for a prison to exist until her incident. They believed too much in people. I think to myself while Lillian keeps bragging about their family. The telephone! I wanted to ask about this but I kept forgetting.

“What about the- the taunts? Who was it?”

“The telephone one? That was me of course!” Lillian shrieks.

 “What about this inscription here? What does this mean?” I point at the one I found long back when we first entered this game.

“Oh, it just translates to ‘Thornsmaid family property’.”

“Doubts clarified?”

“Yeah”

Lillian and I have become friends, thank all the time we had to wait while the others were enthusiastically working on making Junkie a body.

“Guys! It’s done,” Apoorva yells from inside the room. We enter and catch the smug look on the chief-inventor’s face. We make fun of it. Junkie moves. He looks brand new but we decided to go with his old look.

 “Hello friends. It’s been a long time,” a smiley-eyes emoji shows up.

I hope, inventions in this world, doesn’t lead it to the same place our world finds itself in.

  

Writer’s note: They didn’t get their time to read the instructions, did they? If they did, they never would have made it out of their dark reality. It was a heaven’s gift maybe! Well, the instructions simply state:

 ‘A strange game.’ That’s it, nothing more and nothing less.