Help from the OtherSide

1. Before it started

Deccan's POV

I sat dangling my legs off the uneven rocks on the cliff overlooking the open cerulean expanse of the ocean. I closed my eyes and inhaled the strong saline breeze .

"So, what do you think?"  Kelvin came to a stop beside me. 

He opened his arms wide tilting his face towards the sky, inhaling the scent of the water body. The gentle winds swept his yellowish-golden mane across his argent face.

 He slowly opened his striking green irises, fresher than the grass of new spring that crinkled in the corners after landing on me.

"Alright I guess." I wasn't about to appreciate this place even though I would highly recommend it to first time tourists. Kelvin's head tended to grow massive with slightest of compliments.

I was dragged here, due to the bet I lost to him during the last year of university. In short, the winner could choose the destination of his choice and the loser had to bear the flight and travel expenses.

He wore a smug look for the entirety of our trip which irked me more. 

Kelvin faced me holding the buckle of his bag " Ah, nothing can beat Honiara! The coral-ringed coastline is worth the price we paid, right?" 

The price I paid. Yes.

"Whatever." I rolled my eyes disinterestedly, but a feeble smile creeped up my face anyway. "Let's head back my legs are getting sore." I laughed and tried giving him a noogie.

"Okay, okay! Last one down is the rotten egg." He playfully shoved me aside and ran down.

<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>

The sky had darkened considerably when we reached our inn. We could have made it back in less time had not been the million stops we made for Kelvin's window browsing,  as he called it.

Miss Serah sat on the porch of our inn surrounded with flowers. 
She's the kind owner of the inn, who let us crash there when Kelvin 'accidently forgot'  to book us a hotel. Not to forget that she looked as old as Time.

"Come here children." she smiled and beckoned us. "Take these." She handed Kelvin a beautiful white and pink garland and carefully placed a wreath of begonia on my head. 

"Thank you ma'am." I involuntarily did a half bow.

 "How many times do I have to tell, call me Serah." She patted my face. For some reason, calling her by her name did not sit right with me. Not only was she generous enough to let two grown men crash at her place for free, she looked thrice my age. 

 "I don't know about you, but my stomach's rumbling." Kelvin gave Serah a cheeky smile.

"Of course sugar, everything is prepared! Ask him to serve the food." She  motioned towards the butler inside through the windows, who placed crockery on the table. Kelvin nodded and headed inside. 

As I began to follow him I felt a hand around my wrist. I turned around to see Serah gently releasing my wrist and placed a finger on her lips, telling me to be quiet.

"What--" Before I could continue she  placed a small, slightly hot sphere in my hands. Confused as to what the item was; I kept looking. Certain swirly patterns started to form on the interior. It was certainly heavy and was slightly smaller than an average bowling ball.

"I don't understand, what is this ma'am?" I raised a brow at her.

 I expected a lengthy detailed explanation but all I got was, "All in due time child."

 She formed a wrinkly smile and gazed at me knowingly.
"Now go, don't keep your friend waiting." Her tiny stature hobbled into the inn.

I looked down at the ball which now started to hurt my hands.
 Lowering the bag from my shoulders; I quickly made space for it between my extra pair of clothes that I had brought, in case Kelvin 'forgot' me in the wilderness. 

Hey, better safe than sorry.

I finished a sumptuous meal of Poi; rinsed taro roots turned into a paste and some dearly cooked fried fish with rice. We also had a serving of the famous breadfruit; a flowering tree from the mulberry and jackfruit family. Serah made sure to dump my plate with a round two before allowing me to leave the room. 

That night, I lay on the narrow bed without a mattress provided to me, with my arm below my head pondering about the mysterious item Serah gave me. She seemed like the favourite grandma of the family, around whom everyone was comfortable. 

Anything but suspicious.

But my mind wandered to the possibility of that ball being a highly prized artefact which her gang smuggled and handed it to her for safekeeping. Obviously, a sweet grandmother won't be the first suspect for robbery. 

And when the cops burst into her inn they would return empty handed unless,  they search the guests. Eventually finding it in the bag of a naïve tourist who loses his crumble of remaining faith in humanity.

And then that misfortunate tourist would end up dragging his innocent friend as an accomplice in the heist  and spend the rest of their miserable lives in the prisons of Solomon Islands.

The happiest ending one could get for planning an international trip. 

"No no that can't be true." I muttered to myself. Just then something flew across the room and hit me on the side of my face. I didn't turn my head to see, because the whiff hit me right in the nostrils.

 "Dude?" I cried covering my nose from the stench that apparently came from Kelvin's dirty socks resting on my face.

 
"Sleep and let sleep brother." Kelvin sniggered and pulled the blanket over his head. I threw the specimen away and shut the light for the night.