The Burned Building

Part 1

This story started when I was in my village to visit my grandparents. Compared to the cities, most of the people in the village share a strong bond.
I was visited by friends who were here and after promising my mom that I would be back before night.

I was strolling along the roadside of a lake when my friends asked me questions about my current school. While the sudden movement to a new place isn't the best thing, I told them I was trying to be ok.

In talking with them, I realized that it had been almost 3 years since I had come to the city.

 There were around 4 people: me, one of my friends Aditya with his brother Avi, and another friend Rahul. We keep talking about the weather, memories of schools, sports, and other things. The topic just kept jumping to other things.

We were walking on a narrow pathway, barely wide enough for 3 people to walk side by side. On either side, there was a significant gap between the muddy road and the pathway, easily traversable with a small leap.

To the left, there was a lake. Covered with swans up to the near end. Towards the right were the houses abandoned by people and left to break down.

I realized it must be around 7 in the evening; the sun was almost down. The lake was colored warm by the setting sun and the air was filled with swan calls. I realized I had to be back soon.
Towards the end of the lake, on the opposite side of it, I saw a half-burned building. I asked my friends what it was.

Rahul told me he had no idea about it, and Aditya suddenly interrupted in excitement and wanted to tell me things. I saw his brother trying to slow him down.

Regardless, I asked him about that, and he wanted to spill out. This area was almost at the end of our village.

He tells us that there was a pretty famous school out here. 50 years ago, only this was the School in the whole village. From this school, all our grandparents and even parents did their schooling.

It was an important part of our history, but sometimes back, almost around 30-35 years ago, that building got burned for some reason.

All the documents, all the records burned off, giving out smoke that covered the whole village. Students kept running out of the School. The nearby residents all tried their best to clear out the fire, but it was impossible. As the fire increased in strength, people realized it was futile to do anything. After around 30 minutes, the entire building started going down.

Because of the location of the village, it was only around the night when finally the fire fighting vehicles reached and quelled the fire.

I wanna go home, asked Avi.

I realized the time must be around 8. Aditya asked me, and I agreed, "It's already late, It's good if we all go home" I replied.

While returning, the topic changed and again started about different things.

As I reached home, Rahul saw me off, He lived just after my house. Before leaving, I asked all of them to meet again tomorrow.

During Dinner, I asked my dad about that building and the school and he said he was a small kid when this incident happened. After this, since there was no school in the entire village, he had to go to a different village for the time being.

As I and my dad were conversing about it, my grandma asked what we were talking about. I told her about the burned school building.

Her entire facial expression changed, and she seemed a bit more agitated. She suddenly shouted at me, Not to talk about these things at home, and also not with other people.
This surprised my dad, as was I.

Around night, I was thinking about what happened to that school and how it happened.
But I was so exhausted, that I just dozed off.

By 7 a.m., I was fresh. Getting breakfast at the hands of grandma is truly the best of things. I had a walk with my granddad around the block. I avoided asking about that burned building for fear of what he may say.
But as we talked, he told me about things. He told that he was an alumnus of that School and the principal of that school loved him pretty much. Everyone in town loved the principal of that school, who was awarded by the President, and our school attracted students from other villages.

He told me he heard about the thing last night and wanted to tell a few things. I thought these things had been in his mind for some time and he wanted someone to listen to them.

By the time we came back from the walk, there were a lot of things we had to do and lots of places we had to visit. But according to our promise, I met with my friends at around 5 p.m.
This time a cousin of Aditya joined. He was a little older than us. Guessing my his height, I was thinking around 2-3 years older. He introduced himself as Aman.

As we started walking again at that border of lake and village, we started talking about several things. The topic again came up to that of that building. I told them the things my grandpa told me about. Aman added up with details. He told us that the town center was actually at this point and not the other, but after the incident, soon people started moving at a different point and that became the main part. That's why we see so many abandoned buildings.

It was pretty exciting to hear all these things. For me, It was huge because personally the whole thing about the village and their stories are not found in cities.

I asked them can we could go around the building. By this point, we had arrived at the place where we could see the building. 
The only thing stopping us was the small gap, but even Avi could jump over that.

Some of us agreed some of us didn't.  Aman said, "We could move around, but we shouldn't enter as the entire building is weak".  I agreed. After giving some courage to Avi, we all jumped over the gap.

We walked around the building. There were lots of school benches outside. The area covered by the broken fence was big. There was the main gate where we could see several things, the main stage facing the ground, the ground beneath it. The mast flag pole burned and broke off totally. 

"Can you guys hear something ?", Avi asked. We all looked at each other in the face. I for sure wasn't hearing anything.

His brother consoled him. It was just wind. It was 6 or 7, probably. But because of the moon, the light was visible.

Again, we started going around and talking. I asked Aditya to come with me for some things; I had some questions in my mind I wanted to talk about. I told Avi to give us some time. And they did.

He asked me what was going on in my mind. I asked him how is he not pressured by his studies. In the city, I for one, am so scared by the things that were gonna come to us.

It was around that time of our student life when we had to choose how we wanted to go ahead with our career and the syllabus and the whole subjects were gonna be tougher. I wanted to throw out an entire rant, but he stopped me and told me to relax.

He told me that tough things would keep on coming regardless of where you are. These things were happening before and aren't stopping in the new future. It would stop if you let that fear out of yourself. Not getting scared about things is not ignorance, it's more about how we have to keep working on that and not letting others affect us.

I honestly needed that. I told him thanks, and we kept on walking. Walking to the main gate, I saw Rahul, looking a bit pale. We ran towards him, asking what happened and where are the others.

Rahul mentioned that Avi claimed to hear something and dashed into the school, which led Aman to rush inside in an attempt to halt him. Aditya, upon hearing this, reacted impulsively and rushed inside as well. I was filled with dread as I realized it was now just Rahul and me outside. Summoning our courage, we decided to enter the building as well.

Once inside, we spotted Aditya sprinting towards a particular area, which caused us to give chase. However, our pursuit came to a halt when Aditya suddenly stopped, causing Rahul and me to pause as well, our hearts pounding in our chests.

We almost stopped outside a burned glass window. He was gasping, and so were we. While It didn't look like it, the building was big and complex compared to the outside.
Aditya shouted at me, "I can't believe my brother is so stupid". We were gasping for air when I suddenly saw and pointed my fingers towards someone.

Others looked at it. It was Avi and Aman. Aditya finally relaxed. Once they came, Aditya gave a tap on Avi's head, His frustration was evident but he got calm after that. We all met and were returning to the gate when I realized a nail had somehow scratched my toe. The pain was immense. My friend consoled me we were gonna head home right away and apply medicine to it.

While We were just returning, a strange cold eerie wind blew up on us and then it was suddenly silent. It felt as if the wind just stopped. The window left to use started creaking open slowly causing us all to instinctively look left. Inside was a man, light flickering from the room beyond, kids with white faces and void like a moon. His voice echoed in the empty ground, with the moon shining on us. "You shouldn't be here".