A Sew Through Time [Bandbudh And Budbak]

17: Apna School

Once vast corridors began shrinking for Gyan, Sabina and Laxmi find the link. Sprinting through the walls that radiated a hallucinogenic yellow colour, their legs pounded over the bright, white tiles spreading infinitely for miles, grand pillars battering over their breathless faces with dark, merciless shadows. The shadows and light contested and contrasted against each other, making their eyes teary and sanities crumble.

"Where's the link?!" Sabina grabbed Gyan's shoulder and caught up, her cheeks glowing bright red, "This place is fooling us!"

"It must be... locked in some roo!" Gyan panted, "If we find Reyansh we can-"

"WATCH OUT!"

The doors threw open and almost slammed their faces hadn't Laxmi pulled them away. The walls cracked, dust settled down.

The three stood stunned at the sight, the sound of wood clattering over and over till they had to shut their ears.

"Jump down!" Laxmi shouted, shoving them into the colurless row of flowers.

Latching onto the pillars with angry, tired eyes, Gyan and Sabina were out of breath. The doors closed.

"Those things will break us if we step in!" Gyan turned towards them, "No use searching those classrooms!"

"If the link was outside, we would have been destroyed seconds before landing" Laxmi began glancing around for clues, "The fact its reacting to us... something is there"

"But how will we get on the corridors?!" Sabina huffed, holding her knees and bending below, "How will we make it stop?"

"Listen to me" the scientist held their sweaty faces drenched in pinks, "I'll go find the link, the two of you go look for Reyansh"

Sabina held her dusky hands with worry, "But what if something happens to you?"

Leaving them on the ground, Laxmi stepped up on the corridor ground.

No sound.

She waited for the doors, waiting to flap and send her away. Nothing happened, the doors behaved like doors.

Stopping behind a pillar, Laxmi discovered a closed door. Gyan hopped up and scrutinized it.

"What's there?" Sabina arrived next.

"A... data room" Laxmi replied in awe, holding the brass knob and staring.

"Oh this one!" She noticed the cryptic-looking password lock, "We had digitalized Apna school once, all our information had been stored here for our academic performances. Surprising that it's here"

"It contains all the information of our school and some about our town" Gyan failed to open it, "Needs a password"

Noticing the box-shaped lock to her left, Laxmi watched the children bend down and type in correct sequences, everything pulled out of their childhood memories. A bizarre alarm went off after every failed attempt, often overlapping if they typed in wrong things too fast.

"Wait! It might auto-lock," Laxmi sided them and crouched, "A word-password, three words" she counted, "8... 3... 3"

"A number sequence?" Gyan shuddered.

"Letters" Sabina deciphered, "We need three words with that number of letters in each"

"Right" she straightened up, "Do you remember anyone using this room the most?"

"Our principal"

She nodded, typing in the first word. The alarm did not come,

"Two more!"