Lost | ✔

Chapter Five - Arnav (I)

The familiar nightmare, one of chaos and tragedy, began to wane the second Arnav felt the first ray of morning sunlight hit his face.

He didn’t groan or swear but merely scrunched his eyes in mild irritation, remembering fully well where he was. He let off a resigned sigh and prepared himself to face another possibly tiring and fruitless march around the forest, before opening his eyes. The bright, golden light, tinged with green specks, faded away to present to him the scenery of the sunlight filtering through the trees—a scenery that would have inspired serenity in anyone, but Arnav Singh Raizada.

Cursing the forest for the thousandth time under his breath, Arnav made an attempt to get off the makeshift bed they made last night with shawls, when he stopped. Or more precisely, froze. Because at that exact moment, the stowaway from his car and unexpected companion on this totally unwanted exploration of nature, made a dramatic turn in her sleep—her face and body being literally millimetres from him.

Arnav could not tell what was more confusing; how in the hell did she get so close to him or why in the world was he suddenly breathless when clearly, exasperation was the most natural reaction from him whenever someone breached his personal space? That strange perplexity lasted for solely a few seconds before Arnav managed to conjure an explanation; he was definitely allergic to people being this close to him.

That thought managed to ignite the anger that was supposed to make its entry minutes ago and he sat upright immediately, now cursing his companion too.

He took out his phone from the bag he used as a pillow the night before and saw that it was barely 8 a.m. He glanced at the time, then at Khushi who was now sleeping peacefully after having covered her head. The urge to disturb her sleep just like he was disturbed was great but greater was his desire to spare his ears from her constant bickering for a while longer; so, he simply got up and walked a few feet away from their open camp site in another desperate attempt to find signal on his godforsaken mobile. However, today seemed to be his lucky day, for only a few minutes later, the network bars on the phone started appearing.

A wave of relief washed over him, soon to be overcome by panic as the bars started flickering. Holding his arm in the same position, he hurriedly dialled the first contact number he could find that belonged to his family—his younger cousin, Akash Singh Raizada. The call was picked after the first two rings itself and Arnav felt a soothing contentment as the voice of his brother drifted to him, slightly unsteady but comprehensive nonetheless.

“Bhai! Bhai, are you there? Bhai? Where—”

“Yeah, it’s me Akash.” Arnav said, his tone firm and steady in contrast with the hasty and wobbly tone of Akash that he could make out despite the interference. “It’s me, I’m fine but—”

“You didn’t reach Nainital!” Akash cut him off, forgetting in his panic stricken moment that interrupting his brother would probably be the last thing he ever dared to do. “Aman told me! I have been trying to call you since yesterday but your phone was out of reach! Bhai, no one knew where you were and I even had to secretly alert the police—”

“That’s wonderful.” Arnav’s deadpan voice finally intervened into what was becoming a rebuking session, for he was not all interested in being told off by his younger brother. “Tell them to search the forest somewhere near the highway. That’s where we are. I don’t have an exact location, though.”

“Forest?” Akash was flabbergasted, “What are you doing there? And, and who’s we?”

“It’s a long story.” Said Arnav, irritated at the reminder of how he got company, “Just send someone to rescue us here, we’re—hello? Hello? DAMN IT!” The broken voice of his brother had barely reduced to a single beep when Arnav cursed, out loud this time, and was about to flung his phone aside when another voice reached him.