CHAPTER: 4 - The Game

Sana already took her first step towards her dream. Winning this race was just a beginning of her beautiful journey. They had their first year exams in two months, thus all other activities came to a complete stop. Sana was so thrilled that she put in extra study time even for the examinations this time. Though he couldn't trust his eyes, Suguru was genuinely delighted to see her happy and striving for her goals.

******* TIME SKIP **** ******* EXAMS WERE OVER AND ******** THEY ENTERED THE SECOND YEAR.********* *********** ****

Sana passed with good enough marks. And she was given the top position in Track and Field club. It was as if she became a celebrity overnight. She was even asked out by some boys but she didn't accept it.

Sana told her father that how serious she was about sports now. He got her a private coach without any second thought. You could say it was easy for him to get her a coach because he made good enough profit from business. But the fact that how deeply he cared about his daughter was even more priceless. She began her trainings, and she now attends training after school. 

It's not like she became very busy. Sana and Suguru would go out on Sundays to market, arcades, amusement parks or parks. And on regular workings days she would get free by seven and then go straight to Suguru's house. But sometimes it was not possible when she would be dead tired. 

One day she went to Suguru's house straight from training and didn't realized when she fall asleep. Suguru went downstairs to get her water to drink. And when he came back, he found her in deep sleep on bed. He didn't wanted to disturb her but he also had to sleep so he picked her up and took her to her house. His hands were not free so he called Sana's mom to open the door. She apologized to him for this but he explained her that it wasn't a bother and it was just too late so he brought her. He took her straight to her room and and laid her down on her bed, removed her socks and put blanket over her. As he was leaving he looked at the photograph from quite a few years back when they went for vacation on a beach and looked around to find that she had kept each one of photographs with him and the stuff he gave her and she had also kept all the notes he ever made for her. It was not like he came in her room for first time but it was after a long time. It's mostly Sana going to visit him. 

He closed the door and went downstairs.

"What took you so long??? You better stay away from her..." Sana's dad asked Suguru in a scary voice. 

Suguru was just about to say his sorry speech but Sana's mom interrupted in-between and asked her husband for help to wind up stuff in the bakery and close it. 

It was an escape for Suguru, he immediately went back home.

It was Saturday night and Sana and her dad were both watching a horror movie. No matter how strong they both act but they were extreme cowards when it came to ghost and stuff. They both were screaming and even muted the movie when they said cursed verses and closed their eyes when it was a spine chilling scene. 

After completion of the movie they both raced to sleep with her mother. They both denied to sleep on the corner and wished to sleep in middle. 

 It was morning already and her mom didn't wake up both of them as they hardly slept at night due to fear. They both wake up between ten and 10:30 in the morning. 

Today Sana and Suguru were gonna cook together. {They do just anything they can on every Sunday}

And at night she was going to stay at her friends house as it was a girl's out. It was the first time when Sana was Staying at someone's house at night apart from Suguru. (she goes to Suguru's house at night to watch movies , play games, snacking at time, or doing absolutely nothing just laying on sofa)

But she never stayed at anyone else's house before this. 

In the afternoon Suguru and Sana both cooked pasta and ate. Sana loves to eat pasta. Her parents were today for lunch. 

It was already evening and her parents were also back, she packed her stuff and left for the night out..

She finally reached her friends home almost half of the girls of her class were there. Sana was very thrilled as it was her first time she was gonna with so many friends and have fun.

The friend they were all staying at was quite rich, had a big enough house. Today there were not any house-helpers as well. Sana was impressed by just looking at that house she knew it was going to be very wonderful experience for her. First they all met and had a chat. Sana is a talkative person but only with the people who are closest to her heart. Today she was sitting in silence. 

They all started cooking for dinner, work was distributed among all and the quantity of food to be made was also not less. It took them almost two hours to make dinner. The music was blasting at full volume. Sana also opened up a bit.

They all had dinner and then everyone was asked to come to the basement. They were gonna play games. Everyone was sitting in a huge circle and then the girl who was hosting the party came with an expensive looking liquor bottle.

She poured it in all the glasses and it was mandatory to have it or you were not allowed to play the game. Sana was hesitant at first then the girl who was second in race shouted out "Star of the school is here, three cheers for Sana"and they all shouted and made her drink. 

Now the game was gonna start.

The host brought the game. It was quite shady looking stuff. She explained the game, the rule was quite simple. It was just a dice game. But 10 to 15 people could play it at once. The one who was left at last was looser. The fifteen rows started from corner of the board and finished at the center in a spiral manner. 

Everyone started playing now suddenly a very important rule was announced in the middle of the game. "The person who will be last was to perform a task, they have to go to a certain place."everyone was suddenly surprised to listen all this in the middle of the game. "but this is not the best part, the one who looses has to go inside a rumored cursed tunnel and come back. of course you would be given a torch." the girl said. 

Everyone started saying they won't play it. "if you leave the game in between you would be cursed. And i guess it's far more worse," the girl hosting said. 

Everyone sat back on the board. Sana is already a coward and Suguru has told her that these curse and stuff are real. They all started playing game. Everyone was suddenly motivated to finish first. Now they were monitoring carefully that no one was cheating. We already had the first winner. The girl was so relieved she was thanking heavens for this. One after the another were finishing the game. The girl who was hosting this was also finally out of it. then followed by two more girls the girl who was second in race was also out. 

The only last two people were left Sana and one other girl. Everyone had their own dice. That girl was four blocks behind Sana. Sana had a chance to win. She only needed seven points to win. Sana rolled the dice and it was four. She was relieved as she was going near the center. the other girl rolled the dice and got two. Sana again rolled the dice and got one. Now it was the girls turn to roll. The dice was rolling and when it was finally stable everyone had a look at it. It was a six. Now it was Sana's turn she rolled the dice and was continuously praying to get a six. Finally the dice was still and the number was one, she still needed two more points to reach the center called home. It was the girls turn she rolled the dice and the dice was rolling. It felt like eternity to Sana and her. The dice finally stopped. It was a three. Meaning Sana losses. The girl was so happy and couldn't hold her tears. 

This all meant Sana had to go inside the tunnel.

They all went out and Sana was handed the torch. She wanted to run away very bad. Nobody had cellphones. She wanted to call Suguru. Before she could deny. The host told that if you run away the curse would go after your loved ones. 

As we know no one would run away when told a thing like this. They were all standing quite far away from the tunnel. Sana started heading towards the tunnel. 

She finally reached the tunnel. The entrance of the tunnel was enough to scare everyone. There well a lot of talisman hanging outside. And some shady looking dolls were kept there. Sana knew from inside it was her end. She knew this was all real and the aura she was getting from the tunnel was enough to scare even a non-shaman. It was believed that a person centuries ago would used to turn living people into curses slowly through enchants to take away their luck and life to stay stay young and happy. So it had been sealed with talismans. But no doors, boulders or anything stayed for long on the entrance. It was a word of mouth to not go there now. But after that also many people who wanted to prove no such things existed or take a courage test went there and never came back. 

Sana was standing at the entrance and she remembered everyone. "I love you mom, dad, Suguru" she thought to herself. Tear rolled down her eyes. She took her first step to enter tunnel.....