chandu lay unconcious across a rough-hewn wooden cot, his breathing slow and shallow.

nearby, exhaustion had finally taken its toll.

 darshan, viyog and sarunya had all drifted into a light, uneasy slumber, the heavy silence of the sanctuary wrapping around them.

slowly, chandu's eyelids fluttered open.

his vision blurred at first, then focused on the strange surroundings. he gingerly turned his head, looking left and right, his mind foggy mess.

"where...where am i?"  he thought, confusion freezing him in place.

his eyes instinctively drifted toward a narrow, window-like opening carved directly into the colossal tree trunk.

there, peering straight through the wooden opening, a stark white entity was looming- it's hollow, featureless face staring directly back at him.

chandu's eyes widened in sheer terror.

"AAAAAAHHHH!" he shrieked at the top of his lungs.

the sudden, blood-curdling scream jolted darshan, viyog, and sarunya awake. they bolted upright, defenses instantly drawn.

darshan scrambled over."what happened?"

chandu was hyperventilating, pointing a trembling finger at the window. "bro! a ghost just broke into the hostel! save me, oh my god, save me!"

before the panic could escalate , viyog, darting toward the opening and aggressively driving the white entity away into the dark  woods.

"oh my..." chandu whimpered. he stared blanky at the towering  viyog  and the sharp-eyed sarunya standing before him.

"who... who are these people?" he scanned the vast, surreal interior of the massive tree. 

"what kind of place is this? it looks like a house built inside a giant jungle. wait... did you guys kidnap me?!" he looked at them, completely stunned and clueless.

"chandu, you idiot!" darshan barked, grabbing his shoulders.

chandu jumped, finally recognizing his friend's voice. the familiar sight of darshan seemed to calm his racing heart, but the confusion remained.

"macha.... where are we? who are they? did we actually get kidnapped or what?"

darshan took a deep breath, locking eyes with his friend. 

"it's nothing like that, macha. just listen to me very carefulluy. we are no longer in our real world. we are stuck in an  alternate dimension."

chandu stared at him like he had grown a second head. "are you out of your mind? have you gone completely insane?"

"i am telling you the absolute truth, chandu!" darshan pleaded, his voice dead serious.

 "i know it sounds completely crazy, but this is reality. we are in a completely different world."

refusing to buy into a single word of it, chandu snapped. 

"yeah, right. forget this. i'm going outside to look for myself." he bolted to the heavy wooden door.

but sarunya was faster. in a swift, practiced motion, she lunged forward, grabbed chandu firmly by his collar, slamming him hard onto the floor.

"you are in no condition to go outside," sarunya said coldly, looking down at him.

darshan rushed to his side. "if you step foot out there, you will die, chandu! just up and listen to what they have to say!"

*** 

viyog walked back over, his shadow looming large in the room.

 he stared down at the crackling  fire pit in the center of the sanctuary, the amber flames casting long, flickering shadows against the wooden walls.

"this is a twisted world," viyog began, his deep voice carrying a heavy weight. 

"the absolute truth of this dimension is simple: everything that humanity has ever imagned or created in fiction back in our real world.... exists as a living reality here."

he kept his gaze fixed on the burning logs.

"so, no matter how breathtakingly beautiful or incomprehensibly vast this place might look to your eyes, it is a hundred times more lethal."

chandu, still on the floor, frowned. "what do you mean, 'imagined by humanity'?"

sarunya stepped forward to explain, her tone calm but precise.

"think about it. dragons, superpowers,mystical anomalies-things like that. 

haven't you ever watched english movies like harry potter or game of thrones, or stories where mythical creature talk? those exact human concepts and imaginations... you could say 70% of them are fully real and living in this dimension."

chandu's jaw dropped. the skepticism on his face slowly melted into pure shock.

"but they are incredibly dangerous," viyog cut in sharply.

he paused, letting the weight of his words sink in before dropping the next bombshell.

"and there is another crucial factor you need to understand, look at us right now. these are not our actual, physical bodies. we are currently existing here as our souls."

darshan and chandu froze, completely paralyzed by the statement. "souls? what do you mean by that?"

"yes," viyog continued, "the laws of this dimension treat our souls exactly like physical bodies. that is the only reason we are able to feel pain, exhaustion, touch, and everything else so vividly here."

his expression darkened. "but as for what condition our actual bodies are in back in the real world right now... i have absolutely no idea. did we die over there and get sent here? i can't tell you for sure."

darshan swallowed hard, trying to process the cosmic scale of the nightmare. "but mr.viyog.... if that's true, how did we even get pulled into a place like this?"

viyog's eyes turned cold. "MACHINE-EX"

"MACHINE....EX?" darshan repeated.

"to tell you the truth, we aren't the only ones trapped in this nightmare," viyog confessed.

he leaned against his staff, a bitter look crossing his face.

  "years ago, my freinds and i were working on a major college project. that was when we engineered and built machine-ex.

 but that invention turned out to be our ultimate undoing. it backfired completely, tearing open a rift and trapping us here ever since."

hearing the name of the machine, chandu and darshan slowly turned their heads, locking eyes in a sudden wave of horrifying realization.

"MACHINE-EX..?"

the memory clicked instantly. it all traced back to that fateful day.

"oh god.... so all of this.... it started because of that industrial visit...?!"

TO BE CONTINUED.....