A Sew Through Time [Banbudh And Budbak]

43: Come as You Are

The red striker hit the edge of the board and flew back, sending a thin smoke of talc whirling in the air. Khushi waved it off and placed it back between the lines. It had missed a yellow coin nearest to the pocket.

"Try harder chuha!" Budh encouraged her. He pulled his striker back after her two tries, putting his index finger against the thumb. The angle was perfect once it hit four black coins into two pockets.

She picked up her striker and lowered her face to aim for the queen. Cowering over the edge, she eyed the striker so close to the board she could smell the moldy wood and cool mint powder. She bent her fingers in a circle hyperfixated on the red piece on the other side, and on its other other side was her brother and Gyan inspecting some zip lock pouch.

The queen pivoted into the middle circle.

Sitting on a wooden bench with a broken backrest, Gyan shifted from the yellow plants and kept it down. He did not want Khushi to notice it. A broken soda freezer at the right side provided some privacy from the rest, whose feeble cool air eased the little bruises on his ankle. Daylight shone off white tiled pillars, cracks peeping with cement.

Badri slammed his palms over his back loudly, shaking him up and pushing him front. Climbing up the bench from behind, he sat with folded legs and chuckled,

"Whatever they did, those scientists should had been sent to jail"

"Why jail?" Gyan did not comply as it sounded like an insult, "We know the entire story because she had written it down in the diary. Other than the assumptions we build over them"

"Whatever" He leaned back and placed his feet on the potted plants, "Anyways, you found about that other thing?"

The floor was glowing, not from daylight but the slithering entity. It was beautiful to Gyan, he wished to take it home and out of this place. Whenever he crouched below, it would peek out, sent a puff like a steam engine, wriggle its head and dive down.

"Poor creature, " he added, "To dump them in the dimensions before closure and let them roam around in poor conditions has brought me to reconsider how cruel the Plati is "

"What about that?" Badri held the pouch near his face, "Budh thought it was baby powder and was about to sprinkle some on the carrom board"

"Achha kiya" He snatched it away, "Else he would have been a goner by now"

"Why a goner?"

"This thing, "Gyan hid the pouch from plain sight, "This might be a drug"

"Mujhe bhi wahi lagatha! " he exclaimed, "But what could it be?"

"Some type of neutralizer I think" He hid it in his hand, fingers shielding it, "It must had been injected into the subject before the experiment was conducted. If I remember correctly, Dr. Laxmi had mentioned some extraction process in the diary"

"Toh der kis baat ki, take a guess""

"Might be scopolamine"

"Scooby Doo what?"

"Nahi" Gyan clicked his tongue, "Scopolamine. It's derived from the night shade plant and can influence the brain's cognitive functions. The diary had spare pictures of vials and white powder" he ran the red line between it fingers to seal it properly, "This powder must be scop's solid form"

"A drug in the dimensions?" Badri looked at the pouch, "Where could it come from?"

"Must be the Plati, " Gyan stood up, "They are the ones who used it after all"

"You said it can influence someone's brain?" He leaped up and followed him, "That means it could turn you into some forgetful zombie who knows no shit?"