The Lost Paradise

Chapter 45

Ryan reached for its mouth first. He pushed the door and waited for me to enter too. The inside of its mouth was gross. The teeth encircling its buccal cavity were still there behind the door, and we were walking on its tongue. GROSS...

"Looks like we are going to become its meal today", Lianna voiced her doubts, looking around and staring at everything in disgust. One by one my friends all entered in. And as soon as they all entered, the door behind us shut close on its own. This meant that we had no turning back now.

We walked deep into the darkness. Our surroundings changed suddenly, It felt like we were in some dirty room now. The path we were walking on turned into a hallway and at the end of it was something that I couldn't see clearly. We hurriedly moved till there, when I raised my feet to move further, I suddenly started falling down. Down into nothing. There was nothing below me, just dark empty space. The scream...our screams all remained in our chest itself, as they couldn't be heard. I kept falling and falling and falling into that dark space for what felt like an eternity.

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"Eliza...Eliza", someone shook me, vigorously. I rubbed my head and straightened myself up slowly. I took a quick sweep around me and realised that we were in some unfamiliar place. We were...somewhere. It was a big place which had many box-shaped things arranged in lines, well it wasn't exactly box-shaped, but it looked similar to that.

"Are you all fine?", I asked them, taking Henry's hand and getting up. "Fine", they nodded, but I knew none of them was even close to being fine. We had got a terrible hit from fighting the Kraken. Our clothes were torn, our skin was scarred and there were some open wounds too, for some of us.

"If this is the dark world. We need to be very careful", I warned them. "Let's stick together", I said. "And let's not stay here for long", Vanya shook her head, and I gave her a small smile.

A man who just entered the place took a quick glance at us and stood there perplexed. He stood there for a long minute, before approaching us. "Are you lost? Do you need some help?", He looked at us with concern. Before we could say something. "Oh, Jesus Christ. You all are hurt. Did you get into a fight? Or did someone do this to you guys?", He said, in a hurried tone. He rushed to one of the box-shaped things and came back with a small white box in his hand.

"Come show me your hand", he told Lianna, who was bleeding. She looked terrified at us. We did not know his intention. He seemed nice, but often nice things were dangerous. And this was the dark world, we had to remind ourselves. "No", she said retrieving her hand back in protest. "It's okay, calm down. I won't harm you", he said, trying to calm her down. I don't know what he did, but she relaxed finally. Noticing the change in her features, he started to move ahead. He gestured for her to sit down and relax. She did as he instructed.

He opened the box and removed a small white bottle, he dipped it in something and applied it to her wound, she flinched at its contact with her skin. He cleaned her wound and then applied some white liquid to it. Then wrapped the wound in some white cloth, closing the wound completely. "Do visit the doctor and take some antiseptic", he told her. He then gestured for Vanya to come forward.

Vanya shook her head. "No, I'm fine thank you", she told him. He looked at her displeased but then let it drop. He then looked at me. "I'm fine too", I forced a smile on my face. The boys said that they were fine too. So the man stood up and started to leave. But then he stopped again. "Get home safely. Don't get into a fight again", he told us before getting into that box-shaped thing and leaving...that box-shaped thing moved??? I looked at it flabbergasted.

"Was that magic?", Henry, opened his mouth wide. "How did it move on its own?", Lianna asked out loudly. "I have no idea", I said, looking around at those boxes. We then looked for an exit from this place. What we saw outside was mind-blowing. All of those box-shaped things were moving in straight lines on black lanes. Opposite me was a huge house? It was tall. Taller than my eyesight could reach, it was fully fitted with reflective glass.

We moved by the side, studying every unique thing around us. There were people, a lot of them walking past busily. A few of them threw a curious look at us, and some of them didn't even throw a glance at our sight. They were all busy with something. Some with babies, playing and getting them what they wanted. Some reading through what looked like a newspaper that my father read. Some looking into a handy rectangular box, that emitted light. They looked into it and smiled and moved their fingers on it continuously. I wondered what was so amusing about it, that everyone was so piqued about.

We passed places where there were many dresses. I felt an urge to go and check the place inside but resisted the temptation. "This place is nothing like what we were told about", Lianna finally spoke out. We wandered around for what felt like hours. The people here were very busy and in rush. They looked comfortable from the way they dressed. There was a smile on many of their faces, I didn't know if it reached their hearts but it did complete its purpose of making the other person believe in them.

'They live in rumbles, paying for their sins', my professor had said. But this was nothing like what they had described. They didn't live in rumbles. They looked comfortable from where I stood and looked at them. We had just spent a few hours here now, but I did not see any murder yet, no fight, no bad cat calling. No assault. It looked like anything but what they said. They were just busy, everyone deeply engrossed in their own lives. Sympathy, there was sympathy in the heart of the person who tried to help Lianna.

"If this is the truth then who are we fooling?", Henry said finally. We were now sitting on a bench in a place that looked like a garden. A garden where there were many children with their parents playing around. They looked happy, the smiles on their faces were beautiful and genuine. They looked like they were loved by their parents. My eyes refused to look away from them.

I was adoringly looking at a small girl playing in the sand. Noticing, that i was looking at her, she approached me. She came towards me and extended her arms out giving me something. I smiled at her and took it from her hand. She removed another one from her pocket broke the outer covering and put the inside contents into her mouth. I followed it the same way. The content melted into my mouth. "Woah", I said out loud involuntarily in bliss.

"What is this?", I asked her, crouching down so that I could reach her height. Behind her, I saw her mother smiling proudly. "Choc...olate", she said and laughing ran back into her mother's arms. "Thank you", I called behind her, laughing.

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