Chapter VI - Dreamers (1/3)

A parrot-green coloured building lay ahead on the frozen abandoned road, which was Varun's house.

They were at a reasonable distance from Varun's house but, Varun could say that his parents weren't home. Or they might have closed up and hid inside the home, after the happening. Either way the shops connected to his house had a closed shutter, visible from this distance.

Varun was anxious but deep down knew his parents would be alright. If not for their reflexes being right on time, but at least due to the screaming and yelling of their elder son.

"For the first time I miss my brother," Varun said.

"Yeah we know, you already said that," Aria said.

"Yeah? Sorry, I thought it was the first time," Varun said.

"Yeah, first time after the previous ten times. I understand you are worried, but relax. You already spoke about how your parents will stay safe either way," Aria said.

"Good to know. Or I would have started with that," Varun sighed.

"Do we enter through the shutter?" Flint asked.

"No there is an entrance through the side," Varun said pointing to a smaller muddy road besides the building.

"Still muddy even after snow," Jay sighed; he knew this road from the last time he came here.

"Well not completely though," Varun said patting Jay's shoulder.

They moved through the half-muddy road and could see a gate to inside the building. Varun removed his bag and got down on one knee, searching through his bag.

"We can find the whole world in there," Maaz gestured.

"What do you mean?" Varun asked looking up.

Maaz turned behind pointing at his bag and everyone else's, compared to them Varun's bag was pretty big and filled.

"We don't go to… we need to carry more books. Hence a bigger and filled bag," Varun sighed and continued his searching.

"You seriously were going to say that we don't go to college? Nice move with the stopping," Jiant scoffed.

"For your size, your bag looks like a third sac," Varun said without even looking up.

"B-burn," Adam said.

"If you kids done complaining," Varun said and showed the key in his hand. "We need to break into my house."

"Look up 'breaking into' in your dictionary, when we go inside. Oh wait, you already carry one in your travel bag," Jiant said and gave Adam a Hi-Fi.

"Even if I laugh, it wouldn't reach up to your mountain ears, Jiant," Varun said packing his bag and getting up.

"That was a two-sided burn, you know that right?" Aria asked.

"Quid pro quo," Varun shrugged.

"And… with the random usage of other languages again," Jiant sighed.

Varun just ignored that and went to the locked gates, unlocked it and opened them up. Everyone one-by-one entered inside and there was a door, Varun put the larger key into the keyhole and unlocked it.

"No one home… or it'd have been locked from the inside," Varun said.

"Aunt's house then," Fara said.

"Hopefully," Varun said and entered inside, still in his shoes.

"Manner less, open your shoes first," Fara said.

"Yeah, everyone please do that," Varun said sitting on a red couch comfortably and started removing his shoes.

"It feels like Varun ignores me a lot these days," Fara said to Aria.

"Are you in love with him?" Aria asked.

"Good point," Fara said, Aria nodded.

Everyone removed their shoes and placed them out the door.

Varun sat on his couch again and Jay sat at the hand seat of the same couch. Aria and Fara sat on an identical couch and the other four guys sat on the smaller bed in the hall.

"The house isn't very huge. But, feel like home guys," Varun said.

"Doesn't matter; relax," Aria said.

On the TV table Varun found his mobile lying just in front of the TV. He had received three voice messages from his brother, 'The Brave 1'. He looked around and hoping his friends won't mind, played the message.

"You know who it is," a serious-tone voice came. "Your favourite brother in the world, hope that is me. I know that it is me," the tone changed to a normal-tone.

The message continued. "Jokes aside, the weather is… weirder… than usual. 'Typical Bengaluru weather' people complain, now we must wait for what they'd say. Hint: they can't. Not that they'll go dumb, tongue-wise. But the communication outage will occur, network outage I mean. So, I wanted to make sure you're alright. I know you won't be there now. But knowing you, you will come back on your own and listen to this."

Varun played the next voice message. "Unless you took your mobile to school, irrespectively of our parents telling you not to. Well, the situation at hand is one thing we both always hoped for, aliens… most probably. The snow started from our school, your previous school, so hallelujah. The big playground actually, but just for your understanding I said so. Whatever is over there is searching for something which of course we don't know of. Please do not go there."

Varun played the last voice message. "But if you do, then get a lot of information and tell me, let it not go to waste. I might just try going there myself, but can't because too far away. And don't worry; we are alright, all of us. Just you be careful. The network outage will be soon, according to calculations. 'The Brave 1', signing out."

Everyone was worried that Varun might get emotional and cry.

"You know the snow could be just another one of Bengaluru's weather," Flint said, usually trying to keep Varun calm.

"Not one person wants me away from this," Varun sighed.

"The universe wants you to then," Fara said, as usual motivating Varun.

"Let the universe not be the answer to everything here. The universe wanted the dinosaurs gone, but, Jurassic Park did happen anyways," Varun said.

"Should I tell him?" Adam whispered to Jiant.

Jiant just shook his head.

"How far is your school?" Flint asked.

"Two kilometres," Maaz said.

"How do you know?" Jiant asked.

"Five years, we talked about every possible thing," Maaz said.

"Unlike Jiant, Maaz talks with me," Varun said.

"Do you want to talk about the times when you were a complete bitch?" Jiant asked.

"What makes you think that now I'm not?" Varun asked.

"Expectations," Jiant said, staring into Varun.

"Stop fighting angry couple," Aria sighed.

"How many people will I be paired with?" Varun sighed.

"As much as possible," everyone chorused.

"So we all are on the same page on that, nice to know," Varun said, and nodded his head. "Well, before we go down on saving the world thing, I'm going to nap. You guys can too, anywhere. If any of you are hungry, then don't mind looking for something in the shop."

"We all did walk for a long way. We need to rest," Aria said.

"Not much place though. So, good luck finding a spot. I'm going to my usual spot on the bed. It would be fine if anyone wants to join," Varun said looking at everyone but Aria and Fara.

"And that is the reason you are paired more with guys, than girls," Aria said.

"Nice to know," Varun said, nodding and then went away into the room and jumped upon it, causing a loud thud. "I'm feeling more than fun guys. No worries!"

*

"Good morning," a girl's fading voice woke Varun.

"Hi," Varun said and tried to look at the girl's face, all he spotted was her beautiful smile and she turned away quickly. He didn't seem to want to ask her who it was.

"You seem to have slept well," again the fading voice of the girl said and laughed lightly.

"Yeah, it feels good," Varun said.

"Well, we need to go though. Kara and Jay will be waiting for us," the girl said.

"Kara and Jay…?" Varun asked. "Makes sense."

Varun exited out of the room and he was now sitting on a white table with Kara and Jay sitting ahead, holding hands. Besides Varun was the girl again, with the most beautiful smile he had ever seen.

"And they say it might snow this year again," Jay said.

"Well what's wrong with some cold anyways? It's always romantic," Kara winked at Varun.

"You both are," the girl beside Varun said.

"Well how long could this one prolong?" Varun asked.

"Probably even after my death," Jay laughed.

"Oh shut up with the dark jokes. Leave those ones to me or Varun," Kara said.

"Oh no, we need to go. Sorry you guys," the girl said looking at her wristwatch and then held Varun's hand.

"What's the hurry?" Kara asked.

"Another month and things don't change. We were supposed to be done with this in a few days but this continued more than six months," the girl said.

"Ok, go soon," Kara said.

"What is up?" Varun asked looking confused and turned towards the girl. She squeezed his hand tight, as her smile frowned down.

"Jayke… has left us," she said.

"What?" Varun said and turned to the other side of the table, Kara had put her head on the table and was sobbing. Jayke was nowhere around.

"It'll be alright," the girl sympathized with Kara, putting her arm up Kara's head.

"I lost him to Rahambose, nothing is alright," Kara continued sobbing.

"What do you mean?" Varun asked gasping.

"Relax, you don't have to fear this, we can stop this… together," the girl said as Kara disappeared and the girl put her hand on Varun's shoulder. "I'll be there for you… soon."

Finally Varun got a glimpse of her face for a second. The next moment he was woken up by someone and the first thing he saw was Aria's face. She just sighed looking at him wake up so suddenly.

"Someone is at the gate," Aria said.

"What? Oh…" Varun said and rubbed his eyes.

"Did you have a nightmare or something?" Aria asked.

"Not sure," Varun said confused between real world and dream. "What is happening?"

"Rahambose things," Aria scoffed.

"Is Jayke alright?" Varun asked.

"Yeah he is, but he just didn't sleep though. Guess he had enough in classes," Aria chuckled.

"Oh," Varun said blankly and calmed down.

"What's wrong?" Aria asked knowing that something sure was off with Varun. "Hey… the reason for sleeping is dreams. But that's all they are, not real," Aria said and smiled at Varun.

Varun had forgotten the glimpse of the girl from his dream by now. But the rest seemed to have dented into his mind.

"Why did you wake me up again?" Varun asked.

"Yeah, something seems to be here."

"Ok, I'll come."

Varun got up from the bed and walked to near the door as everything blurred out, he thought that it could be due to waking up quickly.

Everything cleared out once again and he was lying on the bed again.

"Oh, you are awake," Aria said walking into the room.

"Yeah… you woke me," Varun said confused of what was happening, and sat up.

"That was why I came in but you are already awake here," Aria said.

"Oh…" Varun said blankly.

"What's wrong?" Aria asked knowing that something sure was off with Varun.

"Nothing, I seem to have dreamt something," Varun said shaking his head.

"Reason for sleeping is dreams," Aria laughed trying to cheer Varun up.

"But that's all they are, not real," Varun whispered under his breath.

"What?"

"Why did you want me awake again?"

"Something seems off with the house and we wanted to check."

"Be right there."

Varun got up and reached the door again but he was not in the hall, but was in a huge ground. He felt smaller and when he looked down, he was. He was in half-pants, and looked like a fourth-grade student.