A Sew Through Time [Bandbudh And Budbak]

4: Math homework

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.

"Try again chuha!" Budh encouraged her. He pulled the striker back and 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 could smell the moldy wood and cool mint powder.

On the other other side of the board, she saw her brother and Gyan inspecting some zip lock pouch.

The queen pivoted in the middle.

Sitting on a bench with a broken backrest, Gyan 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.

Badri slammed his back loudly, pushing him front.

"How did it go?"

He pulled our Karan's phone to show him the emergency stories in his Insta profile. He and Budh had typed them out, trying to contact the real world.

None of his 5000 followers saw it.

"No luck huh"

"Whatever they did" Badri put it back, "Those scientists should had been sent to jail"

"Why jail?" Gyan said, "We know the entire story because she had written it down in the diary. Other than the assumptions"

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

The floor was glowing, not from daylight but by 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, and dive down,

"Poor creature. Dumping them here before closure has brought me to reconsider how cruel the Plati is"

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

"Achha kiya. Else he would have been a goner by now"

"Why a goner?"

"This might be a drug"

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

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

"Toh der kis baat ki? Take a guess"

"I can't say exactly" he ran the red line between it fingers to seal it properly, "But all I know is this thing could influence someone's brain cognition. I feel I've seen pictures of this in the diary"

"Where could it come from?"

"Must be the Plati," he stood up.

"You said it can influence someone's brain?" Badri followed him, "That means... it could turn you into some forgetful zombie?"

"Very much"

He blocked his way.

Gyan halted.

"Is this why Khushi can't remember what happened to her?"

"Dr. Laxmi had mentioned that temporary amnesia and dizziness could be a side effect of time traveling" he assured him, "It takes some time to go away"

"Tu sach bolraha hai na?"