Second Chance (Vol.1) Squandered

35: Spinoff - Dreamcatcher - Flu's 7th year with Clu

(Hi - Parts 31-39 are on the spinoff characters Clu and Flu. Aditya enters their lives in part 34. To continue with the AdiYa story jump to part 41- yours truly MissWW)

Clu had 5 passes for the opening night at the new DonJon Park. The evening was warm and pleasant. But Flu refused to join them. Adi noticed Flu was unusually glum.

DJ park was touted to be next sensational tourist attraction in Paris and very popular because it was a real haunted Castle with a maze of dungeons converted into a gallows humour and screamfest theme park. Mysterious deaths and vandalization of the castle had forced the government to give in to commercially viable means to maintain the heritage site while keeping crime off the property.

A TV channel had broadcasted a program on lightning. It usually did not affect Flu but today was different. She felt strangely painfully empty like the calm before a storm; foreboding; presentiment that tonight would be another milestone in her timeline. And Flu's milestones were always inscribed on tombstone headstones.

Adi refused to leave her in such a mood. Clu signed an encouraging thumbs-up to Adi and simply sat down on the floor at the open door and lost herself in her cellphone.

Adi pulled Flu off the window ledge and said, "I am not taking no for an answer. In fact I am not asking you. Just come" Flu just froze and stared at Adi. Adi looked back at her confused. What had he said?

Adi shook Flu and ordered her to get ready in 5 else he would take her to the park in the same clothes she was in and he would drag her out caveman style if he had to. The 2 threats hit home. Flu quickly changed and left with Clu and Adi. They picked up Ethan and Aman on the way.

The opening night was grand and the whos-who were there. One look at the crowd and Flu had stepped back overwhelmed; a forgotten agoraphobia kicking in. Unfortunately she backed into Adi; trampling his shoes.

Adi did not take his arm off Flu all night. It was crowded and he knew Flu avoided crowds. He repeatedly apologized. He regretted dragging her into this party. He had expected the invitees to be a select few. They could leave.

Flu did not want to press her discomfort further on Adi. She pretended she was fine and tried to relax. They finally found a less crowded part of the park.

Nothing had scared the others but they were kicked; the park was morbid and creepy but the acts were lame. Probably the acts were good but how could one get scared when it was overcrowded. Flu disagreed but kept her counsel.

Then Clu announced she was not leaving the place after closing hours and dared them to join her. They all groaned in chorus. Flu regretted coming along and Adi again regretted dragging her into this. Ethan and Clu were soon high sampling something at each gothic themed Bar and Pub in the park. Aman and Adi stopped after a few drinks. Flu abstained.

Hiding in the park turned out to be no big deal. At 3AM it was all quiet with just the 5 of them in a sprawling gory and macabre park with an ominous castle looming behind. They looked for a place to spend the night and came upon the haunted graveyard.

Ethan promptly chose the biggest grave slab as his bed for the night and rolled his jacket into a pillow and made himself comfortable. Suddenly the temperature dropped. They felt the biting chill in the air. Something cold slithered around their ankles. Looking down they could see some cold damp mist dropping and rising again in swirling waves. A hazy apparition appeared a few tombstones away and said something conveying it was very upset.

Flu was the only one who understood what it was saying. She quickly rushed a few steps ahead and apologized and said they meant no disrespect. Then in a strange language she seemed to apologize again and again. The ghost said something horrible in some weird tongue-less language. She looked at Ethan and back to the ghost. The ghost told her something more. She asked Ethan to get off the slab and again apologized to the ghost. She fell to her knees, lowered her head, chin on her clasped hands and said sorry again and again and chanted some solemn hymns. The apparition left them.