Chapter 4

                         Sad Lands

 

A new day had come, it was Sunday morning when students heard announcement on the speakers, which was to inform everybody that the school was back to its routine from the next day.

 

Wayne was done with morning routine, like bathing etc; Students were still meant to be in there respective rooms and halls. Wayne was sitting on a sofa chair; there were two, another chair was empty; placed in front the huge twenty feet tall glass window, which was not even quarter of the size of the hall; the gigantic hall had no balconies but many huge windows. Wayne was peering at the trees in the enormous garden of the school castle and the woods beyond where all the mess begun.

 

William came to Wayne; he looked out of the window and remembered the scene happened with Chelsea long ago, He had almost read Wayne’s mind, William filled the empty chair and placed his right hand Wayne’s right shoulder.

 

“Bloody woods, aren’t they?” muttered William.

 

“Absolutely,” Wayne replied in a low voice.

 

“Where are you these days?”

 

 “I am just into this new thing, just reading books.”

 

William took a deep breath and said, “Remember our old days, we used to hang out all the time, all four of us.”

 

“How can anybody even think of forgetting such golden time,” Wayne smiled and replied, “We used to skip our classes most of the time, seniors might not be hanging out while the day times, but we were.”

 

William smiled too and said, “Absolutely, do you remember fifth grade when Chelsea tried to play with the soccer ball and fell on her butt?”

 

Wayne again looked out of the window and smiled “That was one of the funniest moments I had ever seen on a soccer field and after watching you laughing at her, she took the ball and threw on your face, I was laughing like… I don’t know what?”

 

“It seemed like heaven; so, why did it end?” quoted William.

 

“MJ”

 

“Absolutely, unfortunately even he has left the building,” William replied and moved his hand through his silky hair.

 

William sat with Wayne and they spent a lot time, looking at the scenery and talking about their old amazing days. Wayne talked about everything, but he didn’t mention his escapades. He didn’t wanted William to worry about him neither he wanted William to come after him and risk his life as well.

 

In bedroom number 172, Rob was done with his reading and examining of the map; he stood up, settled the chair back under the table and walked out of the room towards the hall to Wayne to inform about his little accomplishment.

 

When he reached hall, out of thousands of boys, he managed to find Wayne, from quite a distance he, saw William with Wayne; Wayne had asked him earlier not to mention anything about the search to William; So, Rob preferred to leave them alone.

 

“You are looking quite different,” Wayne asked,

 

“Different? What difference do you see?”

 

“Your body, it seems more stronger and toned, have you been working out lately?”

 

“Yes, I am working on my abs these days,”

 

“Your work out is actually showing it off,” said Wayne.

 

“So, finally after so many days you will be meeting Amy”

 

“I guess” replied Wayne.

 

“Wondering what Chelsea and other vampires would be doing after we sleep?” William asked looking above towards the ceiling, the ceiling was far higher than in any average hall.

 

“Staying Awake, I guess” Wayne gagged a poor joke.

 

“Hey, this Bernard from biology class gave me a way to communicate with Chelsea. According to him, as she’s a vampire now and I am a human. He asked me to write a note and stick it under Chelsea’s seat desk, when she’ll sit she’ll get it and we’ll talk…”

 

“Instead just IM her on ‘MSN’ or ‘Yahoo’?” Wayne interrupted, “Or you can even leave her a message on facebook. But, A note? I wonder where or how he thought of that kind of idea, stupid ideas, to be frank,” taunted Wayne.

 

“Exactly my point” replied William.

 

“Are you coming to ‘Hayfields’ next week?” asked Wayne

 

“Why? What’s up there? Why are you going to High school of another city?” asked Will.

 

“My soccer Match? Dude that psycho Vampire guy might have interrupted, but we actually got one point which put us in the semis,” replied Wayne.

 

“I don’t think so,” there was bit harshness in William’s voice, may be around 0.01%

 

“What? Semis? You doubt it?” asked Wayne

 

“No, I was talking about my presence there” replied Will.

 

“No? You are saying no to your childhood buddy, your brother?”

 

“I am sorry but, I have got to complete five assignments”

 

“You have grown a book worm now,” Wayne yelled, “Anyway, good luck for paper chasing.”

 

“Well, all the best for Ball chasing” replied William

 

Just then, William’s Smart phone made a sound, Will said Wayne he had to go and he walked away from there. Rob was sitting with another classmate on the other side of the hall, he saw William going, so he walked to Wayne.

 

At the same time, in the Girls’ room. Everyone was busy with their smart phones or Laptops or talking with each other or Pedicure or any other things; it was just like a slumber party all the time there; as they had nothing else to do nowhere to go in such a Red Alert situation.

 

Amy was busy checking here touch screen mobile phone, she was looking at the screen with keen interest and she was having cold blooded expressions on her face, as if she was a contract killer as seen in the movies.

 

She was using facebook, was talking to a person in the inbox, whose username was made up of invisible characters. They were messaging frequently to each other, and it definitely wasn’t Wayne. But, the person on the other side was a Vampire for sure.

 

In the boys’ room, Rob came to Wayne; He explained that he had read the whole book and examined it as well. But, he didn’t understand one part at all; neither had he found it on the internet or anywhere, the topic this time was something named, ‘Rebonhason’. As always, they preferred to ask their human encyclopedia, to Hastings.

 

They been to Hastings’ room, but he wasn’t there. They asked other teachers, but they got no useful reply. Hastings was out for some ‘paranormal’ business, and human students were not supposed to know about that. Rob called Hastings on the phone; Hastings rejected the call for first time. Rob kept calling and after eight calls, Hastings picked up the ninth call.

 

Rob explained him about the whole matter and all doubts, he asked whether there was a book in library for the topic or not. But, Hastings asked them to wait for him to come and this time he strictly wanted them to do what he said.

 

Hastings was at Hayfields to verify the fields, referees and installing few devices to make sure no vampires get their noses in the match, this time it was nothing to worry about as Hayfields high was surrounded by concrete jungle in the city of Firenze. Yet Hastings had doubts, as he was once a Vampire slayer and most of his cases were found in the city full of people, full of humans.

 

After disconnecting the call, Hastings asked his junior colleagues to carry on with everything and walked out of the school building to the car parking. Even though it was a school parking, still it was full of different type of SUVs, Coupes and Sedans etc.

 

Hastings walked a little and pressed buttons of his remote control, little do he just touched the button and the beep sound came out from a ‘Lamborghini Gallardo’. Hastings walked to his car and opened the door, he put his laptop in Gallardo and sat inside, he turned the engine on and drifted the car out of the parking lot and drove it straight on the highway; he was worried about boys and Rebonhason matter. Hastings raised speed of his car from zero to hundred and twenty kilometers per hour (120 km/hr), Hastings was expert at driving the any car; he got himself to the school really quick.

 

Hastings parked his car in the teacher’s parking and decided to take a secret root from the parking, He plugged his Smart phone into a lightening shape crack in the wall of Parking, the crack first sucked this phone in an unusual manner, after couple of seconds, his phone came out and also opened a lift door in the wall. This secret root was designed by new engineers it was, fully automatic with new technology, only for teachers.

 

The elevator stopped, Hastings got out of the wardrobe of the Boys’ room and then got out of the bedroom; he walked to the hall and searched for Wayne and Rob. Just a little effort and he found them near the book shelves; Wayne was looking out side the window while Rob was searching for he books. Hastings was wearing a tux; tie was undone and also a long coat was on. Hastings walked to Wayne and Rob, but before that, he placed his expensive coat on the coat hanger that looked like a tree with no leaves.

 

“What is Rebonhason?” Wayne turned his head towards Hastings and asked calmly.

 

“Something very dangerous,” Hastings replied, “I guess I can’t let you boys get through it, we’ll have to abort the search operation. I can’t even risk my job and ask the school trust, if I do so you are going to jail Lucas and even you’re Robin,”

 

Wayne stood up from the chair walked and stood in the front of Coach Hastings. He looked up into the eyes of his coach, one and a half foot taller than him.

 

“Abort? You don’t have a right to abort anything, if you don’t wanna help; then don’t we will do it on our own or I’ll do it on my own, if Gates turns his back on me too.”

 

“I am with you Lucas” Rob warned him.

 

“Try to understand the gravity of situation,” Hastings replied, “It is way too dangerous. It’s a gamble where you’ll have risk your life and if you lose, you will have nothing else to stake for another chance and you’ll never get to return,”

 

“I don’t give a damn to whatever game it is,” Wayne retorted.

 

They kept arguing for a long on the topic, Hastings surely didn’t want them to continue. After a 2 hours long discussion, they put their hands down and stopped arguing.

 

A working guy brought cups of hot chocolate for three of them, apparently they were the last three in the room of thousand people to receiver their cup. Chocolate was too hot and was having one marshmallow floating in each cup; the cup was really big and full of hot liquid chocolate with milk and marshmallow with a mixed aroma Hazelnut flavor.

 

After having few sips, Wayne asked, “What is this Rebonhason thing by the way?”

 

Hastings took a deep breath, looked at his cup, and took a sip; he took another deep breath and decided to tell what the catch was.

 

“’Rebonhason’ is a term used for an extremely sad and depressing energy in our world.” Hastings began, “It can be a room or a portal or even a speck of dust. Once you enter the Rebonhason’s dimension; if you don’t have strong will power and a clear heart, you’ll definitely lose your desire to live. You see things which are not actually there but are somewhere in the world and are these things are very depressing and disturbing, they have the ability to make you feel disgusting about being a human, the aroma of Rebonhason has a power, that can makes you sad.”

 

“What the…?” Baffled Rob interrupted.

“Rebonhason here, is not a room or a spot, it is a village.” Hastings continued, “Rules: You enter from one side and exit from another, but there’s no guarantee you’ll get through. It is a portal somewhere in the school which has not even been shown to vampire students; I am sure it will come to you, Rebonhason portals are always in way of people who are working hard to get something; if you’re kind hearted, it’ll fulfill your wish, if there are stains on your heart, the hell will be unleashed on you, it is an outlandish energy.

 

“Well,” Wayne interrupted, “If it gets in way of people working hard, all the scholars and Hard working athletes of this school would have been digested by this portal already.”

 

“No,” Hastings smacked his hand on this forehead, “Hard, in the sense, you’re even willing to risk your life. Take my advice and forget all we have planned forget Amy and find a new girlfriend, because no one ever has returned from Rebonhason, You can’t risk your life for just one girl. Can you do it Wayne, for Amy?”

 

After Hastings was done with his explanation, they started thinking deep about the matter. Wayne put his cup on a table besides the bookshelf. Wayne walked to his bedroom, Hastings and Rob followed him, there was no one the bedroom. Wayne was restless, he was moving from here and there; then he walked near the window and peeked outside at nothing. Rob had started to think that Wayne might agree with Hastings and forget Amy. Hastings was confused he didn’t know what was coming back, he was desperate to know what did Wayne preferred to do?

 

“I am ready to do this.” After a silence of ten to fifteen minutes, Wayne broke his silence and replied, “I am facing Rebonhason.” Wayne turned to Rob, “Rob, thanks for all your support so far; I have a reason to get into this, you are just doing this for your interest of knowledge; I’ll do it on my own from now onwards,” he smiled and walked to showers.

 

In there, instead of having a shower in the glass box or a bath in the luxurious bathtub provided for six students; Wayne went to the washbasin, he took some water in his hands and washed his face; then he looked himself in the mirror. Wayne looked in his eyes and he saw Amy there, He knew he had to do anything to get her back. Wayne took the towel and got out of there. Hastings was standing there Rob was gone for some work.

 

“You are very brave Lucas, appreciate it.” Hastings smiled, “Now you got to do me a favor,”

 

“What favor?”

 

“Stay Alive!”

 

Wayne shook his head and walked out to the hall.

 

 

Sunday was yesterday; now it was Monday, everyone was back to routine. After all classes, Wayne was searching for Rob, in his way; he met Hastings who asked for football practice. Naturally Wayne refused and kept searching Rob.

 

Rob was collecting some equipment from storeroom on the third floor. Collecting some things almost all related to hiking etc, when he was done with this work; he didn’t wanted anybody to see what he was carrying so he left the bag in the storeroom and got out to search Wayne. He wasn’t worried because there was a secret way from the storeroom as well, mentioned in the book map he had.

 

Wayne was searching on the first floor and Rob was searching Wayne on third floor. Wayne looked in a classroom, he found nobody there; While he was walking; his phone started vibrating and it was Rob. Wayne picked up the call and answered Rob. Rob asked Wayne to meet in the storeroom on the third floor, as soon as possible.

 

Wayne went to the storeroom as Rob had asked him to be. Wayne entered in and looked in; it was dark; Like any other average person, he pulled out his phone from his pocket used his phone’s screen as flashlight to search the switch. He searched on the wall near the door first and his guess was a 100% right, found it, he turned the light on.

 

Wayne found nobody there, so he called Rob; Wayne was about to touch the green button on his touch screen mobile; Rob opened the door and came in. Wayne was so surprised that he kept looking at Rob for about ten seconds.

 

“You’ve started to scare me, Lucas.” Rob was shocked too. Wayne didn’t bother to reply him on this note and stood there.

 

“What are we here for?” Wayne looked around and asked.

 

Rob showed the college bag, which was quite slim and having something in it.

 

“What’s that bag for?” Wayne asked.

 

“It’s just bag full of useful things,” Rob replied. Wayne asked no further questions and let Rob do his thing.

 

Rob took the bag, wore it on his shoulder and scratched the left wall with all his fingers and then tapped his foot on the floor twice. Couple of seconds later, A crack on the wall begun to appear and soon it widened into a huge crack, huge enough for an adult human to enter. Rob and Wayne got in it; they got into a huge metallic box like place, soon the lights automatically turned on and they found, they were in a elevator now. Wayne’s expression was like question mark on his face, he raised his brow while looking at Rob. Rob smiled and clicked the button to the sixth floor.

 

It seemed like a normal lift and did go up like any other lift, Wayne was pretty confused that even a lift was there in plan of Vegenza?

 

“Coach told me, this elevator was installed last year,” Rob looked at Wayne, “because storeroom contains lots of things to take up there.”

 

Wayne was clear now and started waiting for the sixth floor to come.

 

The elevator stopped a bell rung and the door opened. They stepped out, it wasn’t sixth floor; it was the car parking of the school.

 

“I thought we were going up?” Wayne taunted.

 

“I thought the same,” Rob shrugged, “but we can’t always trust this concrete monster, can we…”

 

“Look at that thing.” Wayne interrupted Rob.

 

Rob thought Wayne had found some other secret passage, but Wayne was merely pointing at Hastings’ Lamborghini Gallardo.

 

“Unbelievable!” Wayne’s jaws had dropped, “Somebody’s got a Gallardo in our school?”

 

“Hah! We personally know the owner of that toy,” Rob smiled.

 

“Whom?” asked Wayne with a surprised and curios expression;

 

“Coach Charles Rafael Hastings” Rob replied.

 

“Whoa!” was the only sound that came from Wayne’s mouth.

 

Wayne kept looking at all the cars present there, while Rob was busy looking in the book, even when he had read it before.

 

“What you got in that million year old trash?” Wayne asked Rob.

 

“I didn’t know we were coming in the basement; So, why don’t you leave me alone...” Rob was quite annoyed as it was taking too much time for him to find useful information, “Hey! Why don’t you check out that Ferrari? It’s on the opposite side of the basement, do whatever on earth, just don’t disturb me.”

 

Wayne didn’t get annoyed on Rob’s behavior, as he knew searching things about a centuries old castle wasn’t child’s play. So, Wayne kept looking at the different types of cars in the parking lot and let Rob continue with the book.

 

“Hard luck, there’s no passage here, according to this book,” Rob concluded.

 

He didn’t know the passage Hastings used previously as it was a passage made by new designers.

 

“Fine, we’ll do it at the night time” Wayne suggested laboring a breath.

 

“Night? I guess you forgot that we’re in a castle where even vampires live.”

 

“Don’t worry, I know somebody who will help us that time. Now it’s time for you to study or have ice-cream or you can simply check out that Ferrari you talked about.” Wayne smiled and walked out of the Parking to the Football ground.

 

Wayne went to the locker room first and got his uniform up. Hastings saw Wayne walking on the football ground, coming to him.

“I thought you weren’t coming,” Hastings asked.

 

Wayne smiled and placed his finger on his number on jersey, the legendary No. 7.

 

“It took a long time to get this.” Wayne replied, “How can I let it go?” and started moving towards a group of few boys practicing free kicks; he took two steps and paused, he turned back towards Hastings and said, “By the way, Nice Gallardo.”

 

Wayne practiced for two hours, in which he practiced skills like shooting, dribbling and a little bit of juggling, which actually wasn’t required much. He practiced shooting most of the time; he banged the ball perfectly each and every time, he hardly missed a shot. It seemed like a really great day for him, but he had a lot to do and face something undesirable.

 

Wayne was done with practice; it was still 3:00 pm on the clock, there was still a lot time left for the dark. Wayne changed his kit and walked to the boys’ room, in the lockers; Wayne had a very different feeling, it was pure, positive, powerful and refreshing. After changing his dress and having shower, getting his hair fixed and wearing clothes, he put his blazer on and went out.

 

Wayne got in the boys’ section, he crossed the huge hall went to his bedroom, found nobody their. He walked to the wardrobe and placed changed to comfortable clothes, school was over and the day was all free. There was nothing else on his mind so he decided and turned the TV and PS3 on; he inserted DVD of the movie ‘Armageddon’. It was a 56 inch LCD TV installed some six months ago along with a PlayStation 3 system, provided by the school. School wanted students to feel like home. But, the real catch was, if students are satisfied they would never bother to interfere in school’s secret services.

 

Rob came searching for Wayne, his search ended when he found Wayne in his bedroom. Rob came in the room, he saw Wayne lying on the bed and watching the movie.

 

“I love this movie,” Rob said.

 

“Even mine and the songs were fabulous,” Wayne replied.

 

“Sit back and watch it with us; I just texted my room mates, William and others are on the way with popcorn and other things,”

 

Rob sat on the other bed and waited for rests to come. Couple of minutes later, William and four other guys came in the room; they were all set for the movie, with popcorns and sandwiched and other snacks in their hands, there was plenty of it for everyone.

 

“Okay, so I am about to start it again,” William warned.

 

They all sat back on the on bed each.

 

After the movie was done, everyone seemed happy. Clock was about to hit the 7 ‘o clock mark, thanks to the multiple bathroom breaks they took in between he movie. Now, almost every human boy was in the hall. Wayne walked to Rob

 

“Hope you’ve taken your bag and phone with you,“ Rob asked, “we are really gonna need it.”

 

“Locked and load,” replied Wayne.

 

They still had a lot of time to spend, somewhat five more hours.

 

In the hall many were talking with each other, many were on the phone with their girlfriends or any other person. There were over three thousand boys in the hall and the hall was huge enough that even figure like three thousand students looked small. There were about five hundred bedrooms in the boys’ section, containing 12 beds each; same was at the girls’ section. Anyone can imagine how huge the castle was and more amazingly confusing thing was, it had a town and a same huge castle within it, which made it about seven times huger than it actually looked. Citrus Vegenza’s creation was beyond a person’s imaginations. Yet it looked like a normal Italian castle.

 

Wayne and Rob were idly sitting on a table for two, both playing games on their phones. A black haired guy came to Rob and Wayne to invite them to play Poker. Rob and Wayne had a lot of time to pass and besides that, Rob was an expert gambit, so they accepted the invitation. Wayne preferred to stay in the audience, while Rob chooses 5^th seat on table. The boy who came to invite served the cards, they were playing Texas Hold’em Poker.

 

Game went on for 3 hours, Rob almost won everything but in the end, one of the players on the table had a marvelous hand of Four-of-a-kind, to which Rob lost his all amount.

 

Announcement was made on the speaker, it was dinner time. Dinning room was a huge hall connected to the main hall, with 100s of Dinning tables, Oval shaped dinning tables were having capacity of six people at a time. Teachers were not present there; all the teachers were having dinner at the teachers’ lounge. There were guards on the wall, which were actually illusions made by hologram machines to fool students and make them believe that somebody had an eye on what they were doing.

 

Rob and Wayne went to William, along with these three there were three more guys, one was the black hair guy who invited them for poker and the other one was the guy who won Poker game defeating Rob and the last one was roommate of Wayne and William. They were all talking and eating, Rob and Wayne knew that they might have to do high flying stunts, so both preferred to avoid food which might make them feel bulky or sleepy.

 

Finally, it was midnight. Wayne and Rob text each other and met at the place where Hastings had first shown the secret passage of boys’ section. They connected the code of actions and got into the parking lot of the school, School had installed no close circuit cams or appointed any security guards, they trusted on their heavy doors more than anything.

 

When they were in the parking lot, Rob asked Wayne, what he was up to. Wayne didn’t reply him; he took out his phone and saw a new text message he read it and replied it.

 

“What’s next?” Rob asked.

 

“Wait and watch,” replied Wayne.

 

In couple of minutes, they heard footsteps heading to them, Rob thought it might be some school person; he was afraid of getting expelled, so he started searching place to hide. While Wayne was calm and cool as if he knew who was coming; in fact he actually knew who was coming. Soon, they saw someone, the person was heading towards them; Rob peeked the figure which wasn’t in light yet, It seemed like a super model coming to them, with enough height, might be 5 feet or more according to Rob, and had perfect female figure.

 

Finally the person came in the light; She was looking extremely attractive, her eyes were brown but looked red at that time, her black hair were straight and nicely done, she was wearing a black T-shirt, covered by a black jacket, and followed by black leather like pants ending with black shoes having a 6 inch heel, certainly they never would get to see something like that in the day time. Her lips were red like petals of rose, nothing crimson, nothing pink; 100% red; her skin was flawlessly white like snow. She seemed the symbol of what a vampire should look like. Rob couldn’t stop himself looking at her; Wayne called Rob to him and introduced this girl, it was non-other than William’s girlfriend Chelsea. Rob had heard about her but had never met. At the moment he was extremely jealous of William.

 

“How will she help us?” Rob asked.

 

“Last night, Wayne texted me everything; So, I started moving my hands, read few books, asked few seniors; reliable school people of our part (the vampire part, she meant) and blah blah blah and got the thing we were looking for.”

 

“You found it!? You found the Rebonhason portal?” Rob asked with curiosity.

 

“Yeah!” said Chelsea.

 

“How could you?” Rob was still stunned, “I mean I was searching it all over the map, library and don’t know what, but I couldn’t find it.”

 

“She’s a vampire,” Wayne notified Rob, “She has got super speed, also very good ears and a lot more.”

 

“I just banged a metal rod with my super strength, on the wall of the castle, in a way that the sound waves touches everything, every brick of the castle; and hope you know bats and Vampires too have great hearing ability, I absorbed that sound back and every shaking brick, the sound gave me a map in mind of the whole castle, just like a submarine’s sonar and I found it. It surely did the same with each and every other vampire in the castle but they had no idea what was going on.” replied Chelsea.

 

“That’s the reason I felt like a little earthquake last night” Rob replied, “I so wanna know more about these Vampire powers.”

 

Chelsea explained the whole thing about her plan and also said she would help them in the night time, day was impossible even if she had Bloophine, because all the school teachers knew her and all what happened to her.

 

“If you have the whole map,” Rob exclaimed, “Then why don’t you take us to the control room itself?”

 

“I did try find that genius,” Chelsea taunted, “But, It’s nowhere in the school.”

 

“It must be inside Rebonhason.” Wayne suggested.

 

“So, we can’t run from it now, we have got no way out now,” Rob replied.

 

Chelsea told them, sound waves from everywhere in the building came back to her sonar like mind; But, waves from one place didn’t come back, she figured out portal’s entrance was on the third floor’s kitchen.

 

Wayne was ready to go at the same night, but Chelsea advised not to do it, as she had some plans. She was powerful, witty, most intelligent amongst three of them, so they had no choice, but to go with her design. It seemed, now Chelsea was the captain of the ship now. Rob and Wayne none had a problem with that, Wayne had faith in her and Rob was totally lost in her eyes and had became fan of her beauty.

 

Next day, at the biology class; Rob was doing what he always used to do in biology class. He was secretly staring at sexy Ms. Rachel Camford with his mobile phone’s secondary camera. Rob was a good looking guy, but he never gathered guts to speak up, he was really shy.

 

When Wayne reached the class, he decided to sit with Rob, because he wanted to discuss few things. When he reached to Rob, he found Rob was totally lost, Wayne sat besides him on the empty part of the bench, he looked at Rob but, Rob didn’t even looked back, his eyes were constantly in the phone, he really adored Rachel with all respect. Wayne gazed in the phone secretly and he managed to read Rob’s mind, Wayne was now Rob’s friend. To show his friendship, he stood up and went straight to Rachel.

 

Wayne started talking to Rachel, Rob saw him in the screen and then turned back to check what was he doing? Now Rachel and Wayne were talking and Rachel was looking at Rob frequently. When Rob’s eyes met Rachel’s he looked away, he had began to think million things, good ones, bad ones, sweet ones and dread ones; He tried to listen to their conversation, but he just heard one word from Rachel in low sound, “Great!”

 

Rob started wondering what was happening. His mind was working like a running cheetah; he looked in front and started turning pages of his book very fast. Just then a voice stuck his ears, his eyes became broad and when he turned around and saw it was Rachel.

 

“Can I sit with you?” she said sweetly.

 

It was like a dream come true for Rob, the answer to Rachel’s question was obvious, he let her sit with him.

 

Wayne dropped his plan of discussion and let Rachel and Rob talk for a while. He went to William instead, William saw the whole scene and he managed to figure out what was happening; Wayne sat besides William.

 

“Hitch!” William raised his brow.

 

“What? Hitch?” Wayne smiled and asked, “What are you talking about?”

 

“You remember that Will smith movie,” William replied, “In which he teaches a person how to get his love, and he sets it all up,”

 

“Yeah, it was quite a movie,” Wayne nodded.

 

“You’re just playing Will Smith for Gates,” William replied and giggled.

 

“Great!” Wayne shrugged and smiled, “I always wanted to be like Will Smith,”

 

Before they could talk about anything else, Mrs. Hewitt came in and started the class.

 

As always hardly anybody was listening to Hewitt; this time even Rob wasn’t listening to Hewitt; he was talking with Rachel in very low voice, Wayne and William where playing online video games together on their phones. Many were reading novels on devices, few were even sleeping and some were sharing lunch.

 

After the boring class, William said he was not gonna attend the next class, instead he would have some food at the cafeteria he explained and left, Wayne was gonna skip the class too. Wayne was waiting for Rachel to leave Rob, but it seemed they were glued. Wayne thought he had hit an axe on his own foot. Having no other option, he preferred to go to the Football ground and started practicing.

 

After some one hour, when he was done. He went to fountain again, the one thing that he had it in his mind was, he might find Amy there with that stranger. This time she wasn’t there. Wayne’s mood was quite low, after drinking some water and washing his head and face, he was ready to go. As soon as he turned around, Amy was standing there right in front of him; His eyes went straight into hers and he kept looking.

 

Her eyes were tired, she was fair like always. But, she had arrogance flowing from her face, like a death dealer. But her eyes were dim; Wayne looked her into the eyes, and only found pain and just pain.

 

Wayne looked somewhere, then again to her, “seems you haven’t slept since a long time.”

 

“Since 15 days, I haven’t slept,” she replied with pain her voice.

 

“Why not?” Wayne yelled, he was worried and stunned.

 

“My man said so,” Amy replied with arrogance.

 

“I didn’t ask you, not to sleep,”

 

“You aren’t anybody for me, Lucas.” Amy replied and walked away in the shadow towards’ her room.

 

Wayne was broken, he couldn’t see her that way and his eyes became wet for Amy. He couldn’t wait for the night and his latter job. He started searching for Rob like a mad person, Amy’s love had made him mad; he didn’t find Rob anywhere around on the places he was usually found. Then Wayne realized, instead for moving here and there like a moron, he could just give him a call. So, he pulled out his phone from the pocket and called him on Rob phone. Rob asked Wayne to meet near the garden and disconnected the phone; the call merely lasted for ten seconds.

 

Wayne went to the garden; Rob was sitting on a bench alone. Wayne came near him and tapped on his foot.

 

“Any luck with Camford?”

 

“Rachel?” Rob asked.

 

“Yeah, Rachel,” Wayne replied.

 

“You know what?” Rob looked at Wayne, “I’m so thankful to you. I liked her since last two years, but I could never manage gather enough strength to even ask her out; I adored her so badly, and now I’m going on a date with her this Saturday.”

 

“No problem at all,” Wayne replied, “Friends helps each other all the time.”

 

Wayne was happy for Rob; but, suddenly his expressions changes into a question mark,

 

“Saturday?” Wayne exclaimed.

 

“Yep! Saturday, is that a problem?”

 

“Rebonhason?”

 

“Oh! Yeah!” Rob sighed, “Well don’t worry; you’ll be out in a day or two maximum. Not more than that. Before Saturday I guess we would have slain that culprit Vampire.”

 

“Amen!” Wayne sighed while staring at the ground.

 

“Amen?” Robbed was confused, “I thought you didn’t believe in all this.”

 

“Whatever,” Wayne replied, “I didn’t find any other word suitable to reply to what you said.”

 

“Absolutely,” Rob replied. Then they started discussing the things Wayne wanted to discuss.

 

It was night time, the time had come. Wayne and Rob managed to get in the underground parking; they met Chelsea there. Then they went to the kitchen in a way that nobody can catch them, they had to be really careful in the corridors, I little smell of human blood could arouse 1000s of vampires in the castle. Chelsea gave them an expensive and strong perfume, Chelsea used to use it before her vampirification, then she found out, her Vampire nose hated it and so did every other vampire.

 

Secret passages helped but they had to remain really careful. The kitchen was for humans and not for Vampires so, nobody was there at the moment. Before Chelsea entered, Wayne and Rob entered the kitchen and investigated the kitchen and got rid of all Garlic and garlic items which might harm Chelsea; they also kept all silver utensils in the dishwasher.

 

Chelsea got into the kitchen, Chelsea knew where the door to portal was; it was near the refrigerator, but didn’t know how to open it up. So, they looked into the book once again about any secret door in the kitchen. But they found nothing; So, Wayne picked a spoon. Chelsea and Rob were looking at him; wasting no time, he dropped the spoon on the floor. Sound waves produced by the collision of spoon and floor echoed in the kitchen; Chelsea observed a detailed map of the room in her mind, she closed her eyes to get a visual on her eyelids.

 

“There are tunnels near the fridge.” Chelsea said.

 

Wayne and Rob moved near the huge fridge, Chelsea directed to look under the tiles. Rob begun to think there must be some way to open up these to tiles too. So, he searched in the book, but found absolutely nothing. While Wayne brought another spoon and started to remove the seal of concrete between the tiles. After labor of some time, they had carved enough to take the tile off. Then Chelsea said there were three tunnels, so the removed three tiles and found there were three man holes.

 

Rob and Wayne were in dilemma about what was to be done? All three put their brains at work, some minutes later, Chelsea’s face brightened up with a smile; she took out two phones from her back pocket and showed them to guys, but they didn’t get her at the first time, Chelsea explained she always has three cell phones with her. One was the latest model, rest two were older models. She didn’t want through away any of them, so she had three phones with three different numbers. But boys still were clueless.

 

“How will your mobile phones help us?” Rob asked curiously

 

“Even, I’m clueless Chells,” Wayne added.

 

“Do you guys live in Stone Age,” She exclaimed, “Well, look; I’m not gonna tell you but show it to you. Wayne you have got your phone with you, right?”

 

“Yep!” Wayne replied.

 

“Give it to me!” She said;

 

Wayne gave his phone to Chelsea. She dialed a number and instead of making a simple call she made a video call,

 

“It’s a postpaid connection, right?” Chelsea asked Wayne.

 

“Yep,” Wayne replied, “Where was I gonna get coupons at a place like this? That I would keep a prepaid with me.”

 

“Good boy!” Chelsea replied.

 

The number she had dialed was of one of her old models. She picked up the call, now they were able to see through the video phone. She went to the hole near the refrigerator, put her phone in a sponge cover and threw it in the first hole from right; giving it a little spin. Now, Wayne and Rob had got a little idea, but they weren’t all clear. They looked on Wayne’s video phone, where was the phone going.

 

The first video phone was in the tunnel and was rolling down and when it was in light; just in a second it was in water. Due to water, phone’s circuits burnt and connection was lost. Cunning Chelsea was already recording the video call. She opened the clip recorded on Wayne’s phone and replayed it. Wayne’s phone had a super slow-motion feature which they used well.

 

She replayed it in slow-motion and saw the place phone came out rolling and fell in the water. During the slow motion, they saw tiles, a door and a roll of paper. It was toilet paper and they finally saw a pot, they figured out it was lavatory somewhere in the school. So, they crossed out that man hole off their list.

Chelsea dialed another number; this one was to her another video phone. She threw it in the second hole, the middle one; again she gave it a spin before letting it go. Going down the tunnel, the phone was rolling, and it opened up in some room which seemed brown, may be with wood work and also they saw books even in normal speed. Then it fell down on the ground from 15 or 20 feet above; the phone was protected by a sponge cover so nothing went wrong to phone’s mechanism or body this time. The camera was facing the ground so they weren’t able to see nothing.

 

Chelsea used the same trick again; super slow-motion. This time she stopped the footage at a point when the phone was facing the front side, they got a clear and wide view of the room; but Chelsea hadn’t seen that room ever before in her life, neither had Rob. They asked Wayne about it.

 

Wayne took a pause and the replied, “I know this place, me and Will have been there a million times.”

 

“A million times!?” Rob was surprised, “What is the place where you’ve been but I haven’t ever been?”

 

“It’s the Principal’s office,” Wayne replied, “And the view we’re watching is the principal’s side.”

 

“No wonder, you and Will have been there so many times,” Chelsea uttered her gag.

 

“But how do you know about the Principal’s side very well?” Rob asked, “Have both of you watched the office very carefully or may be it is because you’ve been there so many times?”

 

“Do you remember, two years ago, Principal had to sleep in his office because someone had gave him sleeping pills and the keys to the Video-Library and Principal’s bedroom were missing for three days and then were found from principal’s car on the forth day itself?” Wayne asked.

 

“I remember that,” Rob replied.

 

“Glad you do.”

 

“So, I guess we’ve got the way to portal,” Chelsea recalled them.

 

“We do!” both, Wayne and Rob uttered at the same time.

 

“It’s time to get in,” Wayne looked at Chelsea and rob, “I’ll keep the Video call on if the network keeps streaming in there as well, so that you can know what’s happening.”

 

“I’ve never heard of inter-dimensional communication ever before” Chelsea poked.

 

“Might be possible,” Rob said, “I mean we can place a strong radio transmitter somewhere round here so that frequencies get stronger.”

 

“Is that possible really?” Wayne asked.

 

“Might be,” Rob replied, “Once my roommate was talking to his mom on the phone who lives in Rio de Janeiro, while I was listening to music, I felt like searching if there’s any local radio channel around; I scanned for stations and was able to listen to a Brazilian radio live from Rio; they’ve got really amazing music; but, I don’t know whether it will work with this one or not.”

 

“There’s no loss, let’s give it a try, at least!” Chelsea asked.

 

“Fine, have you got the transmitter then?” Wayne asked to Rob.

 

“Nope,” Rob replied, “But, I’ve got this Army’s latest video walkie-talkie thing with me, it has got Radio connections and also a satellite one.”

 

Wayne smacked on Rob’s head and said, “Why are you acting like a weed? If you’ve got something cool already, why you want me to take just radio with me?”

 

“I am Sorry,” Rob apologized rubbing his head, “I just forget that; let’s see if it works the inter-dimensional way or not.”

 

“Okay, give it to me.” Rob passed one part of the Walkie-Talkie to Wayne, “Now let’s get the job done, before the sunrise.”

 

They started assembling the rope so that Wayne can land in safely.

 

The rope was all set, Wayne was about to get in, before he did so, Chelsea stopped him.

 

“I know, Amy won’t be a human again,” Chelsea said, “But this one’s for her life and you know what? I’m just seeing William in you; William when he killed that Vampire years ago to save me.”

 

“Don’t worry!” Wayne held Chelsea’s shoulders and gave them a squeeze, “I’ll be back soon, when I’ll be done with all this, Amy will be free, we’ll spend our last year in school, then after graduation, you bite Will, Am will bite me and we’ll live our life for hundreds of years like we used to live before.”

 

“All the best.” Rob interrupted, “If anybody ever asks me about my favorite love story, I’ll name yours’ and Amy’s.”

 

“Robinson,” Wayne hugged Rob, “Man you’ve really been like my best friend through out these days, sorry for hitting you that day in the library.”

“You already paid me for that, when you convinced Rachel.”

 

“Rachel Camford?” Chelsea interrupted.

 

“Yeah!” Rob replied.

 

“I hate her,” Chelsea replied, “She had stolen my crayons in grade 1 and also my favorite geometry box. She is such a…”

 

Chelsea could barely complete her sentence, Rob interrupted her.

 

“You better don’t say that Chelsea or else I’ll kick you on the curve,” Rob retorted.

 

Wayne kept starring at Rob after he said so, Wayne’s eyes grew wider and his face became very funny.

 

Chelsea took a deep breath and in a childish manner replied, “Really? Before you do that I’ll rip off your limbs and courier them into different parts of the world, then you’ll have to go to India for your left leg, Russia for Left hand, Kenya for Right hand, and Rio for right leg.”

 

Wayne was now starring at Chelsea in a strange manner and his face became funnier this time.

 

Chelsea and Rob started quarrelling with each other; Wayne now had to stop and he did stopped them

 

“Rob, don’t mess with her, she really can do all what she said, and Chells forget all what Rachel did in grade one, I’ll get all that to you when I come back. Now patch up and work together and when I’m in; rush to Hastings, he’ll be more helpful to me.”

 

“Fine, I’m sorry,” Rob apologized.

 

“Okay, I’m sorry too!” replied Chelsea.

 

Wayne took a school bag filled with some packed food, ropes, hooks, nails etc and also wore a suit like a swat commando, which was filled with some helpful accessories, which was all bought by Chelsea, her so called plan, which she had demanded one more day for.

 

They turned the Video walkie-talkie on. Wayne pulled out one of the two pinhole cameras and placed it on his shoulder, it was working fine. Wayne hugged Chelsea and Rob. He grabbed the rope and started going down the tunnel. He got in and on the other side on Rob’s screen the video quality was really good but dark as Wayne was in the tunnel.

 

They thought Wayne was going down, but he climbed up once again, he didn’t bring his entire body up but his head was out.

 

“I forgot to make you guys remember,” He begun, “Get both of your phones back, Chelsea, from Principal’s Office and from that toilet as well, I really don’t wanna get busted.”

 

“You scarred me idiot,” Chelsea replied in a strange way

 

“Let’s kick on his face and make him fall down,” Rob joked.

 

“Good evil Idea, Gates,” Chelsea gave a sarcastic evil grin.

 

They didn’t actually did it, Wayne turned his flashlight on, placed it on his leg facing down and started going down again. He was going down and down and down. Soon he saw a light downside and felt like his leg was in water, but his legs weren’t wet. Rope was floating in the air.

 

“Guys! I’m getting a funny feeling.” Wayne uttered and explained what was happening.

 

“I guess you’ve reached the portal, get in,” Chelsea suggested.

 

“Now, let’s see how effective this Army stuff is,” Rob added.

 

Wayne went through the invisible water, he wasn’t feeling gravity now, but was still breathing. He wasn’t able to move down as pull of gravity was absent. The first thing come to his mind was Walkie-Talkie; he took out the screen and turned it on. He was still able to see Rob and Chelsea; he spoke something on the microphone to know whether the thing was working fine or not. Chelsea and Rob replied.

 

“How do I believe, it’s the real you and not a trick or illusion from the new dimension?” Wayne asked, “Chelsea, tell me something I don’t know.”

 

It was a part of his secret question to which Chelsea was supposed to reply, it was just like the game they used to play when the were young.

 

Listening to What Wayne asked, Rob was tricked but Chelsea was calm on the surface, she smiled and asked, “Selena Gomez?”

 

Game was based on getting password. It was simple but very much complicated if one didn’t know what’s going on, one person would say something irrelevant and the other one had to say something relevant related to the asked question; nothing was fixed but the relevant answer was the password, Question could be anything and answer would have been anything, right answer was not required but something relevant was required.

e.g. Here Wayne asked to “Tell me something I don’t know”, which were lyrics of a the song by Selena Gomez, Wayne’s favorite female singer. Chelsea got his trick and replied the name, which became a password on the spot.

 

“Approved!” Wayne replied and continued with his work.

 

Now there wasn’t gravity in the tunnel and also Wayne and extra long part his rope were floating in mid air; so Wayne tied the Rope on his leg; now one part was tied up with a pillar in the kitchen and another was on Wayne’s leg. He turned upside down and started going down gripping the sides of Tunnel, he was also updating on the microphone. He kept going down and down.

 

Finally the tunnel was over, Wayne saw land and light and the pull of gravity was back too. It pulled Wayne, due to Wayne’s weight rope followed him down and Wayne’s head was about to get smashed on road like surface. Wayne showed some quickness and within a fraction of a second he grabbed an upper part of the rope as soon as he felt gravity’s pull. He saved himself and landed safely in; he untied the rope and stood up.

 

The scenario was strange and damned. It wasn’t a destroyed village, but surely was a destroyed city; broken buildings and corpses were everywhere. Wayne looked around, on the church instead of cross; dead bodies were placed. Wayne looked another side; he saw dead female bodies hanged upside down, without clothes. He saw a man’s dead body, reason of his death was 3 metal rods, two in his both eyes coming out from upwards and one rod in his mouth, down his throat coming out from his belly; three rods were like a tripod for his dead body; also there were many other disgusting things which would make anybody wanna puke; Dead kids, dead dogs, body parts everywhere and a lot.

 

“This place is doomed already,” Wayne uttered to Rob and Chelsea on microphone.  He knew it was all unreal, but was horrifying.

 

“We can see that on the screen, it’s terrifying,” Chelsea replied.

 

“Close the tunnel entrance with tiles,” Wayne replied, “Get your phones and go to Hastings, I’ll wait till then… Oh and tie the end of the rope somewhere tight secretly.”

 

After listening Wayne; Rob and Chelsea brought both phones from the toilet and principal’s office; nailed the rope using a huge nail Rob had with him. Rob called Coach Hastings on the phone; Hastings asked them to meet in the library; agreeing Hastings, Chelsea and Rob rushed to library.

 

While at the same time in the portal, Wayne tied the rope with a destroyed car. He looked over the place; he saw some one sitting one the bus stop from backside of that person. He walked there; he tried to tap on that person’s shoulder from behind. As soon as Wayne placed his palm on the shoulder, that person fell down; his face was on the ground. Wayne got in front of the bus stop, he turned the person and saw a horrible scene; his eye balls were out like his tongue; his forehead was blasted and Wayne was able to see his damaged brain, all clear. As soon as he saw the body he quickly stood up and felt miserable. All over the place, there was no life.

 

He was again looking here and there and the scenario was worsening on every next step. Just then he heard some cracking voice on his ear piece, it was Chelsea’s sound, followed by Hastings and Rob.

 

“Do you hear me Lucas?” Hastings yelled a little bit.

 

“Loud and clear,” Wayne took a breathe and replied looking around.

 

“Listen to me, Wayne,” Hastings’s cracking voice strikes again, “All what you see is unreal; there’s no such thing there, it’s all an illusion, get over it and find a way out.”

 

“I don’t come to this place everyday,” Wayne replied, “So, I don’t know where to go; the illusion part… I’ll keep that in mind.”

 

“I know that,” Hastings replied, “Go to the place where you entered in from.”

 

Wayne walked back near the rope and asked, “What now?”

 

“Turn slowly and let me examine it on the cam,” Hastings asked.

 

Wayne took a 360 turn and couldn’t stop himself from asking, “Any luck?”

 

“Did you notice?” Hastings asked, “You are at the entrance of the city.”

 

“I see the ‘Welcome sign’ here,” Wayne replied.

 

“Who would like to go to a place like that? That there’s a Welcome sign.” Chelsea whispered to Rob.

 

“It’s a city, you entered from the spot you’re on right now; find an exit to the city.” Hastings suggested, “Look at the maps around, find address books, Phone directories, Road routes anything, I don’t exactly know but this might work.”

 

“I get you loud and clear Coach, Surf’s up!” Wayne replied.

 

“And remember,” Hastings forced, “All what you see is fake and has never happened.”

 

As soon as Hastings said so, an anonymous voice from the city said, “It has happened.”

 

Wayne was amazed and so were everyone else. Wayne’s dilemma made him ask, “Who was that?”

 

A person came walking out of a dust cloud to Wayne; he was wearing a white shirt and white pants, they seemed really comfortable cloths; the sand didn’t seem to affect the whiteness of the cloths. He was an old black man, a French cut beard on his face, he wasn’t scary at all instead his face looked very much friendly and kind. He came to Wayne and stood there.

 

“All people…” Wayne forgot the fact of seeing a live person at some place and asked about the carnage, “All these people were really here?”

 

“All what you see is fake,” that guy stood there; he frowned and replied, “But, all these different kind of horrible things have happened on earth once; done by a humans to another human.”

 

“Disgusting!” Wayne replied.

 

“You ain’t seen nothing yet,” Anonymous old man replied, “These are all just few examples. All this is nothing compared to what humans have done till now, If I make you look at all what was done through ages; you would kill yourself.”

 

As soon as Hastings heard the word ‘kill’, he said, “Don’t do what he says Wayne, he’s Rebonhason’s keeper,”

 

“Don’t worry Mr. Hastings,” Old man smiled towards the cracking voice, “I won’t let him kill him, before he goes through.”

 

“Who are you?” Wayne asked.

 

“I am Rebon of Hason,” Old man replied, “You can call me, Mr. Soul or Mr. S.”

 

“Mr. Soul?” Wayne asked, “What actually are you doing here?”

 

“I am an examiner,” Old man replied, “Examiner of the Rebonhason. I’m supposed examine kindness of people who enters this place, I’ll show you a story and then will ask a question about it; if you are a kind person, you’ll pass, because kindness can’t be faked. If you pass, the portal will take you to your destiny within a second; it’ll grant you a wish that’ll take you anywhere; it can take you anywhere in the universe. But, if you fail to be a kind person and you’re humanity is dead; you’ll be thrown into a illusionary world of horrible scenes, which will make you feel disgusted and make you wanna kill yourself, you’ll be doomed by yourself, but you won’t be able to kill yourself. You have to options, either you can accept and continue or you can refuse to proceed and I’ll send you back to the kitchen. But, remember if you agree to continue, there’s no return other than passing the test. Your one word will decide now.”

 

Examiner waved his hand in the air and water begun to form, soon there was a lots of water floating in the air around examiner’s hand. “Mr. Lucas,” he asked, “If you say yes, this floating water will turn into ice; if you refuse, it’s convert into steam and disappear in the air. What is your call?”

 

“Yes, I agree.” Wayne replied without thinking for even a second; like the examiner said, Water converted into ice and disappeared around his palm.

 

“NO!!!” Hastings yelled over the radio, “Wayne? What the hell did you do?”

 

“I just want the Control room,” Wayne yelled back, “I’ll go through anything.”

 

“If Rebonhason is like a Lamp of Genie, then why is it placed in a school kitchen?” Hastings asked a senseless question, because he was going mad about the situation and his head was blank due to anger. “And if it is so, why don’t you simply go to the control room in the portal, why this entire test s**t?”

 

“Mr. Hastings,” Examiner interrupted, “Control Room? I beg your pardon, but there’s no control room here.”

 

“What the f**k!” Wayne exclaimed. “You mean I came here in Vain?”

 

“Sorry to say,” Examiner replied, “In context to the control room, I’m afraid; Yes, Mr. Lucas and since you’ve made this agreement, you don’t have any other choice.”

 

“I guess, I’m trapped,” Wayne uttered while waving his hand on his forehead.

 

“But,” Chelsea suggested, “If you don’t have any other choice than completing this; Wayne, go for it and it’ll directly take you to the control room.”

 

“She’s right!” Rob added.

 

“I know it.” Wayne replied on the radio and turned to the Examiner, “Mr. S, let’s get the thing done ASAP.”

 

“Sure Mr. Lucas.” Examiner replied.

 

“Call me Wayne!”

 

Mr. S asked Wayne to walk after him and Wayne did as he was directed; they were in the abandoned city now. Wayne had no courage to look on sides after he heard that all these murders were really done in the real world. Every building, every block, every street had a dead body. Wayne was feeling disgusting, ‘how could someone become so ruthless,’ was all what he was thinking. In his heart, he was ashamed of being a human at the moment. Examiner took Wayne to the center of the city.

 

Examiner stopped walking as soon as they reached the center of the city; He asked Wayne, if he was physically and mentally ready; Wayne replied he was, though he feared, if he had to face a massacre.

 

The Examiner raised his right hand in the air; he looked towards his palm and out of nowhere, a wooden scepter appeared in his hands, which was taller than him and was having a huge green oval shaped gem on its top vertically. He stamped it on the ground and the whole city started to change.

 

The dead doomed city was getting sucked in the air and a new city was emerging moment by moment; Wayne couldn’t watch it properly as everything was happening very fast. Within few seconds, the doomed city had changed.

 

The scene changes into a busy metro city; there were many people walking on the street, there were thousands of cars moving on the road. It was a busy day in that city, people had no time for even looking at each other; they were all into themselves and in a hurry of reaching to their destiny. Examiner reckoned it was the center of the dreams for millions, it was New York City. People were talking on phones. Huge digital billboards were displaying songs, ads; sports or news.

 

Wayne had no idea, what the Examiner wanted to show. A moment later, a blinding beam of light of stuck Wayne in the eye; it soon spread into a circle. Wayne later figured out, it was an explosion of a bomb. Part of the city where Wayne was standing and area in 10 km diameter was destroyed. Explosion didn’t affect Wayne or Mr. S as it was illusion.

 

After the explosion, What Wayne saw moments ago, was totally changed, there were burning cars, limbs of people were shattered everywhere, dead bodies covered the street. It was all like hell. Wayne felt really bad for what happened.

 

Just then, Mr. S asked Wayne, “Before we begin Mr. Lucas. What do you think about this explosion? Forget that, what do you think about the person who was the reason for this explosion?”

 

Wayne looked all over and replied, “He must be a terrorist. A very cruel person, he might be some very…very cruel person.”

 

“Enough,” Examiner replied, “I was just testing your ideology; this never happened, neither it has anything to do with the real test.”

 

Examiner stamped his scepter again and the scene started to change. Everything got sucked into a whole behind Wayne and new scenes started to appear from a whole in front of Wayne, it seemed like Wayne was living a science fiction movie.

 

Examiner took Wayne in the past; they were still in New York. Examiner took Wayne to see a person’s life, a cop. Examiner explained about that cop, his name was Henry Perkins, he was 32. Perkins was a patriot to the nation; His father was in Army, his father died in the first year of the Gulf war when Perkins was merely 12. Perkins hated eastern people and hatred had taken over him completely, he not only hated Middle Eastern people but he had started to hate the religion of the person whose bullet killed his father; all of the religion.

 

Wayne was confused, why did Mr. S took him to a cop’s life? But he didn’t ask anything, may be because, he knew asking anything was just useless at the moment, he let examiner do his job.

Examiner stamped his scepter again, the scene changed again. This time examiner took Wayne to another person. His name was Nuah Benyumin; his American best friends and colleagues used to say his name sounded like ‘Noah Benjamin,’ Nuah used to say, Noah was one of his favorite prophet and Benjamin Franklin was his most favorite Inventor President, after Honest Abe.

 

Benyumin was 29; his father was born in Lebanon and came to USA later in 1980s, he started his family with a kind American woman. Nuah was a certified American citizen undoubtedly, Nuah loved America and even he was a patriot for his mother land, he loved his neighbors and colleagues almost everyone in the USA, He respected everyone on the planet and he was really a kind person. He used to regularly donate at orphanages, following one of the five pillars of his religion; he helped other citizens on the street even if he didn’t know them and used to donate his blood on regular basis.

 

Examiner looked at Wayne and said, “We’re about to begin, Mr. Lucas. But, as it is done with everyone, I’ll make it harder for you as well. Now onwards, all the depression and sad feelings of you, will amplify and pain will be immense and unbearable, it’ll depend upon you, if you have nerve to care about others; then this test will be really hard for you.”

 

Little do he completed his sentence and stamped his scepter again this time a blue light came to Wayne and went into his eyes, Wayne found himself drowning into a black pit.

 

“If you feel sad, sadness will be amplified and it’ll bring you down on your knees.” Examiner’s voice said, “It’s not going to be easy, Mr. Lucas. You are about to go through living hell.”

 

“Alright!” Wayne looked at Examiner’s floating head and nodded, “But, before we begin; I wanna ask you something.”

 

“What is it?” Examiner asked.

 

“How many people have came to this portal and conquered it, till the date.”

 

“Zero.”

 

Wayne’s eyes went wide and seemed his eyeballs might fell out; he was amazed that no one had ever succeeded to complete the quest.

And so it all begun, Examiner’s floating head disappeared. Wayne was half drowned the pit, but he could feel the floor below his leg, his body had disappeared, but he could feel it too. He was there as if he was watching a movie, may be in 5-6D; he didn’t wanted to miss  anything or wanted anything to go wrong, so he kept focusing on the scenario and nothing else.

 

It was a bright day; commuters were all over the place at Manhattan and probably everywhere in NY; Benyumin was at his work, he was one of the finest yet quite younger Brain Surgeons. It was a busy day at the hospital, because Benyumin was working on serious case; test suggested, surgery was the only cure to this patient now.

 

The Patient was a 48 year old woman, who was a single mother of 2; both of her kids were girls, one was 15 and another one was 17. Patient’s economical condition wasn’t sound and neither her siblings or parents or any other family member had enough money to pay for such a surgery Nuah was about to talk of. Surgery was compulsory, tumor had become serious now.

 

Nuah came out of his office to inform patient’s parents and daughters. When he stepped out he sees patient’s daughters weeping for their mother. Nuah looked in the eyes of teens; all he found was endless and immeasurable pain, about the thought of losing their mother.

 

Benyumin informed patient’s parents, cost of surgery was estimated $200,000; land under their feet had vanished; patient’s medical insurance had lapsed a long time ago so it wasn’t an option either. Nuah felt really bad about patient’s daughters.

 

Nuah went to his office and sat on his chair to ponder about the matter; he couldn’t think of anything, sad faces of two girls were humming in his head. He slammed his fist on a file on the table in anger, he was really feeling bad for those girls and their mother, he remained on the chair and started to pull his hair because of rankle thoughts.

 

Nuah came out of his office after around fifteen minutes; he walked to the elder daughter of patient and glanced into her crystal like shining eyes which were oozing tears every single second.

 

“Everything will be fine,” Nuah sighed.

 

“No,” she sniveled, “Nothing ever will be, fine. How will anything be fine, my mom will die.”

 

“Don’t say that,” Nuah requested.

 

“None of us has enough money to support this surgery,” she replied, tears didn’t seem to stop from their eyes.

 

Nuah hugged her so that she feels good; he gently pushed her away, “Well, I do have enough money,” he replied.

 

“So, what? We don’t.” the other weeping daughter replied.

 

“But, honey. I can pay for you; can’t I?” he surprised all the family members, they were in dilemma, how could a stranger from totally different religion and class, remunerate for strangers?

 

“But,” Patient’s young daughter came to Nuah and hugged him tight “But, why will you do that for us?”

 

“Because,” he looked at her and smiled, “When I became a doctor, I had taken an oath, to help people who suffered.”

 

Nuah had made his mind; he gave his platinum credit card to the hospital and asked to bill him. Linkins had a 4 years experience and had conquered almost 47 brain surgeries in different countries, making the patients perfectly fine.

 

He went into the operation theater, with his companions; after a long 8 hours, they were done. Operation was successful; patient was fine and still needed some rest.

 

Patient’s elder daughter came to Nuah and hugged him tight, Nuah smiled at her, before he could utter a word his eyes met the clock; it was 1:30 am. It was his younger daughter’s birthday and family had planned a surprise at midnight where Nuah was supposed to be.

 

“I got to go, honey.” He took a deep breathe, “It’ my daughter’s birthday,”

 

“Wish her happy birthday on my behalf, doctor,” patient’s daughter sighed.

 

“Sure will!” Nuah smiled, “And call me Uncle Nuah.” He said and went to the parking lot.

 

He sat into his Audi A6, on the driver’s seat. Before turning the engine on, he gathered his thoughts. He was thinking what will happen when he’ll go home, he was late. What will his wife say? Or what will his father do? He was also thinking about the patient’s family. He had a huge smile on his face, full of joy. He chuckled at the funny feeling that he had done something good today; he had done such a thing for the first time and was really happy for it.

 

Benyumin started his car and drove it all the way to his home in New Jersey; he parked his car in front of the garage. Came out and turned the electric of his car lock on and walked towards the front door. He inserted the keys and turned them, opening the lock. Before pushing it, he looked at the door and smiled. He opened the door and went in, hung his over coat on the hanger and locked the door from inside.

 

Benyumin ogled if someone was there or not? He started walking slowly without making a sound. He was crossing from the living room; some one turned the lights on. Nuah paused and turned around to find his 60 year old father sitting there, looking at him.

 

“I know your works are very hard, but it was your daughter’s birthday, Nu.” His father asked.

 

Nuah smiled and walked to his father, he sat on the sofa with his dad and explained the whole story that took place at the hospital that day. His father stood up and so did Nuah; his father took a moseyed a little thinking something.

 

“Money is nothing,” Nuah said, “I’ll earn that amount of money in couple of months, dad. You know my luck’s very good at the stock exchange.”

 

“Who’s cares about money, now?” His father turned to him and looked into Nuah’s eyes, he smiled and said, “I’m proud of you for what you do, you make me proud and I am sure one day you’ll make the humanity proud as well.” He gave his beloved son a hugged.

 

They went to sleep, next day Linkins spent his whole day with his family and daughter; he took them to watch movie his daughter wanted to see, they also had a rollercoaster ride at the theme park. He was all the time with his family like a good son, husband and father; but also a good doctor, he used call his juniors for regular updates about the patients; according to the juniors, everything was fine.

 

Days went and it seemed all happy. Time that was flowing in the portal was very different from the earth’s time; 1 year time in Rebonhason was merely 5 hours in the real world. Wayne was looking at the scene, he was amazed and Nuah’s kindness had made him very happy, due to Examiner’s spell, his feelings were amplified and he felt like he was flying.

 

On the other side, Perkins was following daily his life routine. He used to have junk food, chase robbers and collect medals for his acts. Both the patriots were doing their job well and it seemed all fine so far.

 

Then came an ugly eve. Nuah was with his family, they were coming out of a theater after watching a play. They were waiting for the driver to bring the family car; on the wide road between skyscrapers. His father, his elder son and his son’s girlfriend along with Nuah’s wife and his mother were with him. Perkins was sitting on the opposite side of the road; he was having donuts with his colleague in undercover car.

 

“Hey, Henry.” Perkins’ partner looked at Benyumin and said, “Do you see there? That’s Dr. Nuah Benyumin. He was on the cover of ‘Times Magazine’. He’s one of the kindest people in the city and very sophisticated too,”

 

Perkins looked at Linkins with side of his eyes and didn’t give any importance. He knew Nuah’s father’s nationality and his religion, “Outsider pig!” Perkins said.

 

Nuah and his family were still waiting; the driver was on his way from the basement parking. Just then, a guy showed up, he had tied a cloth on his face like a mob mask, he came to Nuah and his family; he had a revolver in his hands.

 

“Give me the jewelry and money rich people!” He pointed it towards Nuah and growled; Thug wasn’t aware that there was a cop’s car on the opposite side of the road.

 

Perkins’ colleague glanced on opposite side and he found the thug with gun, he alarmed Perkins. They both came out of the car with their guns in hands; Perkins alarmed the thug aiming at him, “Put your gun down, you’re surrounded. Throw your gun.”

 

Thug was confused, he turned around and point towards cops, one by one, frequently. He knew it was his end, so he turned around towards Nuah, within a fraction, he went behind Nuah’s father and grabbed him pointing gun on his head and he walked on the footpath dragging Nuah’s father away from the family.

 

Gun was on Nuah’s old father, thug was walking backward and cops were aiming at the thug, while Nuah and his family were worried and were able to do nothing. Nuah Benyumin was a kind person but like any average person he had anger in him too, but at the moment he counted on the cops.

 

“Put your gun down, copper or he’s dead. Put the damn gun down,” the thug growled.

 

“Okay! Easy Tyler easy!” Perkins’ colleague muttered and put his gun down gently on the floor; While Perkin begin to put his gun down and pretended as if he was doing what the thug asked to, but suddenly he pulled his gun up again.

 

“You gonna kill him, huh?” Perkins asked emotionlessly and fired bullet on the chest of Nuah’s father and second on thug’s head.

 

Nuah’s father was diabetic and an old person too; the bullet tore his skin and had hit his heart, he was too to take such a pain, resultant he collapsed on the spot, and so did the thug.

 

Nuah was lost, his world was shattered; He was looking at his dead father, his father had not died, he was murdered by Perkins for no reason. Perkins could have taken other actions like calling back up or any other tactical skill, but he choose inhuman act of killing an old helpless man.

 

Nuah ran to his father, he grabbed him. Tears erupted from his eyes, he cried, anger was growing badly under his skin. Nuah’s son grabbed Perkins arm and asked for what was he thinking.

 

“What the f**k do you just did,” Nuah’s son yelled with anger and tears, “That was grandpa, damn it. What was his fault, you jerk?”

 

Even Perkins’ colleague was stunned and so was Wayne, the portal’s effect had blown Wayne away as his surprise was magnified.

 

Perkins still had his gun in hand, he looked Nuah’s son with hatred that he had for Middle Eastern and people of Nuah’s religion. He glanced at Linkins’ son and fired two bullets in his stomach. Perkins’ colleague had sensed the hatred Perkins’ had; he immediately aimed his gun to his 10 year old partner.

 

Nuah still hadn’t gathered himself from his father’s death and here his son was dead too. His world was falling like castle of cards and that too for no reason, he had done nothing yet his family was being murdered.

 

Nuah’s mother ran to her grandson, away from her dead husband’s body, she grabbed her grandson, he was dying, blood was constantly flowing out of his stomach, within few seconds, her grandson collapsed in her arms; the same arms she had held him when he had born. She stood up and slapped the killer of his husband and grandson. Perkins’ was still full of hatred and he became extremely angry and shot a bullet in old lady’s head. She died on the very spot.

 

As Wayne had observed Nuah’s kindness and had lived this, he was quite attached to the story. When he saw Nuah’s father, son and mother die, he drowned in a sad ocean of heartbreaking atmosphere. Portal had sensed his emotions and had magnified them a 1000 times more. Wayne was now on his knees and his heart was deeply paining.

 

The entire massacre took place in just period of hardly 10 minutes. Nuah was angry; he was near to his father where the dead thug’s body and his revolver on the footpath. He grabbed the gun, stood up and pointed on Perkins. Nuah Benyumin, the person who had dedicated his life to save people and did everything to be kind had lost his parents and his son for a cops’ racism, was now holding a gun in his hand.

 

Perkins’ partner had targeted his gun on Nuah now, he was aiming at Perkins too; he was damn confused and considered himself guilty for letting three people get murdered.

 

“He was my father,” Nuah bellowed, “That was my son and this is my mother that you murdered, mother f****r. I’m not gonna let you live.”

 

 Perkins looked at broken Nuah; he put his gun up again and aimed at Nuah. Watching Perkins’ moments change, his partner had now aimed his gun at his partner again. But, he was confused; he was frequently changing his targets, one moment the gun was aimed on Perkins and the other moment it was on Nuah.

 

“Even I had a father, Pig!” the villain growled, “He was in Army. He was killed by a bloody terrorist like you on your bloody land”

 

“I am not a terrorist and I belong to this nation,” Nuah replied, gun in his hand weighted more because of his sorrow,

 

“You all are the same… pests,” said Perkins with hatred.

 

“Pest? You’re the only pest on the face of America right now.” Nuah retorted, “My father served this nation for 30 years; he was a cop, definitely nothing like you. He took 7 bullets on his body to save people like you. When you were in you diapers he was taking bullets on him by filthy jerks like you,” tears were flooding out of his eyes.

 

“Enough!” Perkins roared at the top of his throat. Both had sense the feeling and both pulled the trigger at the same time, not a nano-second less neither a nano-second more.

 

Both men head shot each other. Perkins’ bullet hit Nuah on his chest, While, bullet fired by Nuah hit Perkins on his head. Perkins died on the on the spot, while Nuah fell down on the ground. His wife came to him and held him in her arms; he was dying and she was shouting for an ambulance at the top of her throat. Some one on the street had called the ambulance from his mobile phone, but Nuah knew; it was his end.

 

Nuah’s eyes were wet, he was bleeding abruptly, he used his almost dead right hand to hold his wife’s face.

 

“Relax,” she cried, “You’ll be okay,”

 

“No,” dying Nuah replied, “Damage has already been done…”

 

“No…” his wife interrupted him, “You’ll be okay.”

 

 “Take care of our daughter,” He used his last energy to notify his wife, “tell her Daddy has gone to a trip away from her, to serve people from other world, make her good, make her better human; no matter whatever it takes, make her love everything on earth. And you, you’re not too old, find a better man, who-who reaches home in time.” before his wife could reply, Nuah had passed away in her arms.

 

Nuah’s whole family; a group of kind hearted people was now shattered and suffered for no fault.

 

“Inhuman.” Perkins’ partner submitted the oral report to the court, “Officer Henry Perkins, inhumanly murdered 3 innocent American citizens. I have been his partner for 10 years; he had helped NYPD a lots of time, but this act of absurdity was worse than anything. In my opinion, his name should be trashed out of the history of NYPD.”

 

 

The whole scene started to disappear into black hole appeared, it sucked all the light. Now there was endless darkness, nothing was in sight. Wayne was on his knees and a spot light was on him.

 

A light flicked, it happened when Mr. S stamped his Scepter. Darkness changed into white light and soon into something else. Now they were on a mountain covered into snow, flat surface on the mountain, like a balcony in theatre.

 

Mr. S wields his specter in the air and the extreme emotion effect was gone. Wayne wasn’t experiencing pain now. It was nothing compared to what he was experiencing moments ago. Dingy feeling was gone now, It was way better for Wayne. Wayne stood up, he examined the place. He could see clouds from where they were standing, when he took few more steps near the edge and gazed down, he saw endless deepness; he found he was at zenith of some mountain.

 

Wayne turned around and looked at Mr. S, he walked to him.

 

“Was it real?” he ventured looking straight in Examiner’s eyes.

 

“I am afraid, no,” he replied gently, “But, humans have done far worse than that.”

 

Wayne was amazed, he started to imagine. What else would have people done? His mind was again lost in a grimy dilemma. He was thinking like a human being at the moment as he was able to feel the pain of other humans without portal’s any effect.

 

“Might sound stupid but, what else people have done?” he asked with curiosity.

 

“You don’t wanna know that,” Examiner spoke gently.

 

“Sure, I want to, I know nothing about the cruel side of humans.”

 

“Imagine a scene, where a person slashes out a pregnant woman’s stomach and pulls out her baby then kills them both. Imagine people first rapes a woman, slashes off her breasts and the kill her”

 

Words blown Wayne away, he was stunned that some one can even do something like that?

 

“You must be lying,” declared Wayne.

 

“Would you like me to take you to some such scene in the history?” Examiner inquired.

 

“No!” bellowed Wayne.

 

Examiner just grinned.

 

“We must precede, Mr. Lucas,” Examiner stressed. “Look around, Wayne. Tell me what do you see?” Examiner asked queerly.

 

“Snow,” reacted Wayne.

 

“And what about the height?” Examiner asked

 

“It’s higher than anything, I guess.” Wayne replied.

 

“How many people can you see here?”

 

“Not even one! Unfortunately” replied Wayne.

 

“That’s because, people have stopped becoming thoughtful. This is a place, where humans are actually meant to be; above everything. But greed and cruelty has made humanity disable to climb any good thing,”

 

Wayne was amazed and confused, what was actually gonna hit him?

 

“So, my question is, ‘What’s the verdict? What’s the cure? What is your opinion?’” Examiner asked.

 

Wayne was dazed; What Cure was he asking for? He was now getting an idea, why no one had ever got through the cruel tests of the Portal. It was confusing and totally different. Portal was dingy, grimy or cruel but it was merely a reflection of Human’s cruel behavior.

 

“Take your time,” Mr. S stated.

 

Wayne was wondering what to respond, because he had only one opportunity. Wayne recollected the whole story of Nuah and Perkins; he tried to connect it with the quote Mr. S stated about the height of the mountain and humanity. He was thinking and thinking.

 

Meanwhile, at the school; Rob, Hastings and Chelsea were concerned about what was happening with Wayne. Chelsea was wondering what will happen to Wayne? She was upset and worried about Amy too.

 

In the Portal, Wayne was still pondering about the matter. After mulling over the whole matter for hours, he finally came to a conclusion. He peeped back to the assessor, Mr. S.

 

“I’ve found it,” Wayne declared.

 

“There’s no end to my curiosity!” Mr. S replied, soothingly, “What is the key according to you then?”

 

‘The Word’ that came out of Wayne was trouble-free, famous, unfussy and down to earth yet astoundingly precise. “Love” an only word, it Marveled Mr. S. Finally after stretched fruitless strives of numerous people, one had conquered the Rebonhason.

 

Examiner beamed at what Wayne replied, he knew that Wayne’s answer was valid, he still wanted to know Wayne’s thoughts. “Would bother to explain how ‘Love’ is the solution?”

 

“Love is,” Wayne replied, “If Perkins had love in his heart like Nuah, he would have never done that, if countries had thought of understanding instead of War, Perkins’ father would have never gone to War, no discrimination would have formed any terrorists and all this matter would have never came up. Perkins would have lived a happy life with his father and he would grown up like a real patriot and a real human.”

 

“So you want to say; only Perkins’ nation was blameworthy for the War?” perplexed Mr. S.

 

“No!” replied Wayne.

 

“Then be a little bit more transparent with your answer,” asked the Examiner

 

“What I want to connote is, its archetypal human nature. There’s always tightfistedness in every human, we’re always greedy and can never settle for less, we can share, yet we don’t. This off beam nature of human grows sick when it’s at a huge level, like Nations. Both nations were equally faulty, if they had helped each other, war would have never come up!” Wayne took a deep breath after talking this much.

 

“Outstanding,” words ejaculated out of examiner. He was happy and he smiled at Wayne. “You’re right. It’s only up to people now.” He said finishing the Quest. “Well, now we must proceed towards what I promised you.”

 

Wayne was excited that finally it was all over, he had an opportunity to get anywhere in the universe. He was pondering, where to go? It was a lifetime opportunity for him. He was baffled where exactly to go? Control room was still in his mind but he had started to think a little different now.

 

“I hope you know where to go!” Mr. S grilled, gently.

 

“I guess. Yes!” Wayne was ready!

 

“All the best,” wished Mr. S

 

“What’s next?” Wayne cried,

 

“Nothing!” Mr. S muttered

 

Wayne was utterly confused, what was that guy saying? Was he being sarcastic? Did he really meant ‘Nothing’? Questions flooded within fraction in Wayne’s mind.

 

“So, I guess I’ll have to tell you the place first?” inquired Wayne,

 

“No-Not at all, it’s Automatic, Mr. Lucas.”

 

Wayne was confused again and the word ‘Automatic’ reminded him one of Amy’s favorite songs; which she used to shout out all the day, instead of singing in her sweet voice, to draw attention in an annoying manner.

 

“Look, stop puzzling me,” Wayne bellowed, “please tell me what am I supposed to do next? My girlfriend’s dying.”

 

Mr. S grinned at Wayne, and trudged towards Wayne in a scary manner. Wayne was at the edge of the cliff, he couldn’t go back even he wanted, he had no choice left at all except for standing. Mr. S came near Wayne and stood there, he took a deep breath.

 

“Think about the place you want to go, nothing else, Mr. Lucas.” he declared.

 

Wayne was curios, he started the engine of his imagination about what will the Examiner do? And also started to think about the place where he wanted to go.

 

Mr. S’s scepter had disappeared long ago in an outlandish manner, he looked into the eyes of Wayne with satisfaction and trust, Just before Wayne could wonder what will he do, Examiner pushed him off the cliff.

 

Wayne received a minuscule heart attack after knowing he was pushed off the cliff instead of getting reward that he was promised for. Gravity was pulling him down; peak he was push off from was very high, indeed it was a false Mt. Everest. All Wayne could see was white bright clouds, as he passed through them cold air was freezing him, he had no parachute either. After falling for 3-4 minutes a blinding light appeared and Wayne fainted in the air.

 

 

Author's Note

Ignore the grammar completely. Still, Working on it. ;)

Reviews

[misha]

Its a good story. I enjoyed the first part. Great job