MaNan: Tamasha (The Twisted Tale) (#multimedia)

28. Love is in the Air

ALIA

I drove back to my home. I was really stressed. I mean, Manik and Nandini are fighting but they really look cute together and I don't want them to break up. I mean, its only because of them that today we all are friends.

Any ways, it was 11:00 P.M.. I parked my car and entered my home. I pressed the lights' switch but it didn't turn on. I tried again but only to fail. I called bhai but then the charging of my phone finished and my phone died.

Then...

"AAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!" I shouted as I saw a flying candle approaching towards me. I thought of opening the flashlight of my phone but then it was dead. I felt sweat swim down my face. I quickly grabbed a vase and threw it over the candle. The candle disappeared and I took a deep breadth in relief. I quickly turned around to step out of my home when something grab my hand.

I froze.

I turned around to find no one standing there. And even if someone was standing there, I really couldn't see him because of the lights.

"UNHAND ME! LEAVE ME!" I shouted.

The hand left me.

I quickly tried to open the door when I heard something.

"Alia." someone called. The voice was too thin.

"Who-who's there?" I said.

There is a huge difference in when you see such things and when you see them in real life. In real life, you actually have no time to use sarcasm or try to find out whether its a prank or not. You just try to run.

"Alia?" the voice said again.

"Off you moron!" I shouted and tried to unlock the door but I was too tensed to put in the key in the lock hole. My hands were shivering when I heard the squeals of ghost-like sounds. The key fell down and I quickly sat on the ground searching for it.

Then....

I felt someone grabbing my leg and pulling me towards him or her. I was being dragged along the floor for like two seconds when I shouted, "LEAVE ME!!!!PLEASE!!" I began to cry really loudly. Then, something felt on my face and a candle slid towards my face.

I touched the liquid on my face and in the dim light of the candle, I realised that it was....

It was thick red, iron smelling liquid people often refer to as.... Blood.

I felt huge black spots forming in front of my eyes. I couldn't recognize what was happening now. The sounds of the ghost began to fade away and I felt dizzy...

MUKTI

"Hi." I said to him.

"Hey wanna play?" he asked.

"Sure." I said shyly and soon he, I mean Abhi, appeared with a football.

"The one who goals first wins." he said as he kept the ball in between both of us.

"Three." I said.

"Two." he said.

"ONE!" we both shouted together and before he could realise a thing, I was running with the football towards the goal when he out of nowhere appeared in front of me and slid with the ball and began to run in the opposite direction, towards his goal.

I followed him and tried to take the ball but he was really good at dodging it. He turned around with the ball when I quickly appeared in front of him and kicked the ball in any direction possible. Then we both began to run for the ball to grab it before the other one does and we both banged with each other and fell on the ground.

"Ah!" we both shouted and as we sat on the ground breathing heavily, our pain turned into laughter.

"Oh it was fun." he said when I got up and said, "The game isn't over yet." and I ran towards the ball and took it. I then ran towards the goal and before he could even reach me, I hit the ball in the goal and I won!

Yes!

"YEAH!!!! YES!!!" I shouted.

"This is cheating."

"Everything is fare in love and war." I said proudly.

"Well," he said, "As far as I know, this isn't war. Then, what is it? Love?"

"You know what?" I said and looked straight into his eyes and continued, "..."

NAVYA

I and Cabir were sitting on the grill of his terrace.

"Everyone's so busy." he said to me.

"Ya..." I said and took a sip of beer. Even he took a sip of beer from his can.

A cold breeze blew but I didn't move. It felt nice. My hair flew but it was perfect.

"Everyone's so tensed. Manik and Nandini are fighting, Harshad is going crazy over bike racing, Mukti is keeping secrets from us and everything sucks." he complained.

"I know. Everything sucks." I repeated.

"You know, yesterday Ranbir called. He has lost his job." he said.

"Oh that's sad. But wasn't he an intern?" I asked.

"Yes, but then now he won't get in any other hospital because he practically tried to kill a patient."

"WHAT?"

"unknowingly." he completed.

"Oh..."

Then we both remained silent. We drank and enjoyed the cold breeze at night.

I really wanted him to say something but he didn't.

"Cabir." I finally grabbed the courage to say him something and said, "My dad too died."

He was shocked. He looked at me and my eyes became cloudy.

"Why didn't you tell us? I mean, you only told us about your grandfather right? That's why you went to your hometown!"

"He too was in the car during the accident." I said and a lonely tear rolled down my cheek.

"Oh Miss. Navya. Don't cry. See, your new doll. Now smile." A memory of my dad telling me not to cry came in front of my eyes and Cabir hugged me.

"I'm sorry." he said.

"Cabir." I said breaking the hug, "Is there something you want to say to me?" I looked at him expectingly.

I really wanted to here something... Because maybe I too felt the same.

"W-what? Nothing." he said shyly.

"My mom's trying to find a guy for me and maybe she found one." I declared.