"Okay... Let's do this!" Avinash whispered as he stared at the rusty old gate resting in front of us.
"Huh...!" I sighed, staring at my new sports shoes completely covered in mud. The place we were standing was located at the very end of our college campus, just behind the pond adjacent to the hostel dorms.
There was a concrete pavement that extended throughout the campus up until the hostel dorms, beyond which natural vegetation predominated. Accounting the rain factor into the equation, we get an extremely muddy and slippery terrain, one would usually avoid... And there I was - standing in the middle of nowhere, with absolutely no clue regarding the indicator, 'Why?'
"What are we even doing in a place like this...?" I exhaled, glancing at the greyish white tone of the sky.
"Ad-ven-ture," recited Avinash, excitedly.
Grrrrr...rrrrrnnnn..kiiiiiiiiiii!
A low, rumbling noise accompanied by a high-pitched metallic clank filled the atmosphere as he slowly pushed open the weighty gate.
"Whoa...!" I exclaimed, gaping at him in disbelief, "Shouldn't there have been a lock on this gate!? Also... Why is this place so damn empty?"
"Hmm... Well, there should have been a guard somewhere around here. I can't seem to comprehend the reason for his absence today," muttered Avinash, scratching his head.
"..."
Peeking on the other side of the gate to check the surroundings, he added, "I think he must have taken shelter inside the hostel dorms, given the 'condition' of this place."
" 'Today'..? How often do you come here!?" I inquired, taking a quick peek at the 'condition' on the other side.
"As I mentioned earlier... save the questions for later," he whispered, cautiously stepping outside the gate, "For now, just focus on your surroundings and... Okaaaay!" he exclaimed all of a sudden, glancing back at me wearing that same expression once again. "Follow me!"
"Hmm," I affirmed, complying with his aura of enthusiasm.
"Careful now," he jested, in an accent that sounded almost taunting, before suddenly dashing out of the gate, making a rhythmic *thump* *thump* sound, splashing water all over the place as he advanced towards the woods on the other side.
The terrain on the other side sloped down from where I was standing, creating what seemed like a pool of stagnant water on that side.
"Well, okay..!" I whispered, carefully choosing my steps as I walked out through the gate onto the other side.
The water level was almost reaching my ankles, making an even bigger mess of my already messed-up shoes... A cold sensation ran down my spine as my shoes soaked in the chilly water.
"You know, the reason for which I am going through all of this nonsense, right in the morning... must be really damn satisfying, or else, you are gonna pay!" I declared in a heavy voice, which sounded almost like a warning.
"C'mon, chill... It's only rain water with some leaves and tree twigs in it. Remember how we've done these types of activities so many times previously! There's no need to worry at all." He whispered, in his causual dreamy accent.
The only reason I was doing all of that was indeed for the trust we mutually shared. Over the last two years, while exploring places in search of ideas for Shilpi, we've had numerous interesting experiences.
As I vaguely recalled the feel of the experiences we had, a sense of relief momentarily washed over my tensed outlook on the whole situation.
"Oi!"
"Hmm...?" I glanced at Avinash to find that he was pointing at a cctv camera, located nearly twenty metres to my right, on the fence surrounding the college. It was only partially visible from where I was standing,
"Close the gate and come here, quick!" he stated.
Gently pushing back the door of the gate, I dashed towards Avinash as fast as I possibly could without splashing water all over my outfit.
"Did we actually get caught sneaking out of the college in broad daylight?" I inquired on reaching him, pathetically smiling at our despair-filled scenario.
"I don't think so... the cctv's are quite useless these days, don't worry about it; C'mon let's advance now!" He expressed, triumphantly.
"Okay, I guess..."
'Well in the worst case scenario I could always tell Sushmin to get rid of the evidence later' I thought, assuring myself to an extent.
And thus began our journey through the woods.
The look and feel of the place were honestly quite intriguing. It was like stepping into a world draped in a thick green canopy of trees and intertwined vegetation, a realm seemingly untouched by the hand of man for ages. The air was crisp with the nostalgic scent of the rain-soaked earth and the symphony of rustling leaves, creating an atmosphere that resonated with nature's untouched beauty.
Something about it all felt very ancient, mostly the sheer amount of greenery, I would guess, as I was quite unaccustomed to seeing such greenery living in a jungle of concrete since birth.
As I continued staring at the woods in the distance, at some point the entire atmospheric ambiance surrounding me slowly transformed into something akin to a mystical trance.
It was like a very powerful feeling of deja vu... !
'Everything, starting from the cirspy texture of the greenery, t-to the vibrant aura of... of history radiating from all around the place... I-I have been here before!'
A strange refreshing sensation enveloped the front side of my brain, relaxing my senses to a point where it almost made me tear up... It could be a distant memory from another lifetime... or it could also be the feeling of familiarity... born as a reaction to supposedly... a temporal overlap... or wait, what was that again?
My mind was in a state of absolute chaos but even from within that, another feeling emerged slowly and quickly took control of the whole situation... It was the enthusiastic spirit of that curious, hot-blooded young story writer that resided in me... My own subconscious!
As I slowly regained back my mental composure from my artistic urge of fictionalizing reality, I glanced over at Avinash who was excitedly pacing up at some distance in front of me.
'Thank You, brother,' I whispered to myself, as I found a strange feeling of happiness radiating from deep within my conscience.
I was so immersed in the situation that I had almost forgotten about the moist feeling of water at my ankles and the string of mysteries surrounding the whole scenario.
"W-we are almost there...!" Avinash expressed all of a sudden, gathering my undivided attention. His voice nearly shaking with excitement, he declared, "Prepare yourself to be absolutely blown away by what you are about to witness!"
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