Everyone wants adventure in life but not everyone is willing to pay the cost.

*Hi My name is Jasmin Arora but my friends and family call me jasmin? After the cold rain today is a bright and sunny day perfect for a new beginning and I am looking forward to it. It's because... *

suddenly, my internal monologue ends when the car comes to a halt.We have reached our destination.

"This is the place!", the driver says. I look around my eyes glittering with the bright sun, I turn and and look at my father, a glint of sadness in his eyes.

*You see I am my father's princess and after an extensive study life from kindergarten, school to college I am finally moving out of my parents safe house, for my new job in Pune, I have been living in Delhi ever since I took my first cry, poop or step whatever you feel like thinking. My whole life was concerned with that place and my parent's house but Now, I am a grown up and it's time for me to learn and face the world on my own! I think I am ready, but Am I?*

pushing my thoughts aside I hurriedly got out of the cab. After paying the cabbie we got our suitcases out and rush to the 4th floor through the elevator.

"what's is the address again? ", my father asks as we enter the elevator.

*Even though I love my father but his paranoia irritates the hell out me sometimes, Don't get me wrong, I love him but I am 22 already for heaven's sake and it's the fifth time since morning he has asked me the same question*

" It's Room no 405 4th floor, New Garden Colony, Pune Dad", I try to cover my annoyance by opting a neutral tone.

"I know you're are a big girl now jas but we care for you, Now don't forget about calling your mother that we reached the destination", he replies a bit irritatedly.

*I understand that he is scared and paranoid for me, even I am scared for myself, I have never lived alone in my life, and with alone I mean without my parents. Even though I am looking forward to it but a part of me is really scared to begin this new journey as well. Of course I am not going to tell my father about it...i want to do this adult independent thing correctly and being in Delhi would never help that's why I had to move out.*

"I will be okay dad, don't worry I can handle this, and yeah I will call Mom as soon as we reach the apartment", I gently smile at him, because even though I am scared as hell I know I have to do this and move forward.

Soon we reach the assigned apartment with our bags, I ring the bell three times before the door opens and my friend Mansi smiles at me brightly,

"Hi Jas! Good to see you", mansi states while hugging me tightly.

"Hey Mansi, I am glad to see you too", I reply back.

she finally let's us in and after a long 20+ hours journey I finally relax a bit. As soon as we move inside the apartment and through the narrow gallery we start to settle down on the common lounge, I try to capture the structure of my new home suddenly my phone starts ringing my father looks at me and chuckles softly clearly his mild irritation on me lifts off, and even without seeing, I know whose call it's gonna be. I click the green on the screen and pace towards the balcony which is just attached to the common lounge, the moment I saw the floor to length glass window I wanted to check out what it was, this house is a dream, but it's temporary.

"Hey mom, yes we just reached the apartment and it's pretty good.", I know I haven't seen much of the place but there is no point in saying otherwise.

" Have you guys eaten something? Don't forget to eat the extra food I packed for you", my mom reminds me. I roll my eyes, " Mom, we just entered the place, we will have something in a while, don't worry", I reply while catching a glimpse of the evening view from my new home. The place looks quite sated and peaceful and since my apartment is on the fifth floor the wind is also swift that it tingles me softly. After making a small talk with my mom for a while, I come back inside the apartment and hand the phone to my father, who was apparently annoying mansi by bombarding her with millions of questions. Mansi and I joined the same company her joining was weeks before mine, so she came early we were friends ever since our college so the thought of living with her was much less uncomfortable than it would have been with a stranger.

As soon as I hand the phone to dad, just like me he stood up and paced towards the exit of the apartment to talk to mom, I turned to Mansi, who was now more comfortable than minutes ago.

The rest of evening went by quickly, touring the two bedroom apartment with a common bathroom and a kitchen. The place was quite tiny but had a very homely and welcoming vibe. We finally, ordered some dinner and ate it along with the lunch packed by my mom, mansi enjoyed the home made food more than the take out and this reminded me that I am gonna be feeling the same in a while. By the evening my Dad left the apartment to go rest in the hotel nearby, he was going back home tomorrow, after properly settling me down but before that we had to overcome the tiredness of the journey so we went to bed at 9:00. As soon as my dad left, mansi and I also parted ways, she had to go to sleep early for work tomorrow and I was glad to be not moving anymore, the constant train travelling was finally hitting on me. I took an unusual night shower to feel fresh and crawled back to my new fresh bed. I was pretty sure many people came and lived in this apartment as it was the temporary arrangement the company provided to new employees but the tiny butterflies in my stomach were excited and scared at the same time. Millions of thoughts crossed my mind while I lay down and wait for sleep to engulf me repeating to myself while taking deep breaths Everything's gonna be okay, Everything's gonna be okay...I am gonna be fine and I finally dozed off.

"Hello! Anybody here?....Hello? "

I am walking in a dark corridor, all I can see is darkness and a path that goes straight ahead. Usually I am not scared of darkness, but something about this lonely path creates a knot in my stomach... the coldness that surrounds me is unusual, Something tells me I need to get out of this place as soon as possible, I start walking on the dreadful path suddenly I see a tinge of light, squinting my eyes I finally see it... it's a door, happiness strikes me and I start to run towards the ray of hope.... finally I can get out of this horrible place... I am so close... my feet feels heavy and my throat is numb but there is no time... I just have to get out of this place... as soon as I reach the door and place my sweaty palm on the wooden door's door knob the floor beneath me disappears...

I am falling... into this infinite abyss of darkness

"Noooooooooo!!!!!! "

I wake up screaming, my forehead covered in sweat, my body trembling my hands shaking, coldness all around me..

"I am okay.. I am okay... I am okay!!", I mumble to myself trying to calm myself down. Mansi rushes to my room in panic... "Are you okay? what happened??", she exclaims clearly terrified of my sudden midnight outburst.

"Nothing just a bad dream, sorry to wake you up mansi", " it's okay sweetheart I was getting water for myself when I heard you, if I was sleeping I wouldn't be able to come", she smirks. Her light headedness calms me a bit. "wow man! you are shivering what happened?", I vividly explain to her my dream when she finally starts giggling, "oh dude, you will be fine... maybe it's the jitters of the new place you will get the hang of it." "I hope so too mansi." "offcourse you will", she smiles and places her hand on mine, "Woaw, you are freezing dude" as soon as she says this her eyes goes towards the open window behind my bed, "jas you should close the window in the night the Morning breeze here is way too cold, you will get sick before you know it", "Okay Mom", I smile at her, she rolls her eyes at me in reverse, "Now get up we are gonna have our breakfast, then I will show you around before leaving for office", I nod her in agreement still being unable to find any words, she gives me a big confirming smile before finally leaving my room in a brisk. As soon as she leaves the room, I take a deep breath, I check my phone which lies beside my pillow, 4:47 a.m.

I close my eyes, trying to remember why I was so scared,

*I have never been afraid of the dark... what the hell was that, the knot inside my stomach tells me something is not wrong!*

*Maybe my period or something the voice inside my head suggests, I smile at my lame humor*

Pushing myself harder, I finally got out of bad... I entered the washroom and stare my reflection on the mirror "It's gonna be okay", I mumble to myself again. I wash my face with some cold splashes of water and brush my teeth, by the time I reach the common living room I find mansi cuddled on the sofa with her coffee and her cell phone, totally engrossed in something as soon as she hear me coming, " Hey, I made Coffee, you want some?", "It's drinkable?" I tease, rolling her eyes mansi replied, "Looks like someone got their sense of humour back, after an early morning crisis", I ignored her comment and went back to the kitchen to get some caffeine based distraction. I had a long day today, and I can't let my emotions get the better of me. We went for breakfast and tour around the living quarters the company provided temporarily for us. I enquired mansi about the new company's environment to get familiarize before my first day. DSA was one of the top digital solutions company in the country, It was an honor to work for such a brand, the CEO Mr. Himanshu Kapoor built the company from the scratch, and I was really looking forward to this new experience in such environment, even though it made me nervous but it was a good kinda nervous. At 8:00 mansi left for her office, while I left for dad's hotel. We had some last minute shopping to do, so from his hotel we decided to buy those last items from our checklist. After roaming and tiring ourself in the hot July morning, we decided to have lunch. we went to a nearby restaurant when dad begin, "Honey, we still have to buy your mother's favorite sweet, she very strictly reminded me this morning". *My mom has a sweet tooth, even though my mother is the epitome of endurance at times, but when it comes to her favourite sweets she becomes really nasty* shuddering at the memory of her angry image, I shift my gaze and thoughts to my father, "Don't worry dad, you should go to the hotel and get your luggage, I will get the sweets and meet you at the train station at 4:00.", at first my dad seemed Skeptical about my idea, but after thinking for a while he nodded in agreement.

*I know my father still See me as a child, who can't take care of herself, but that's not true I am much more capable than I look and I gotta prove that to him* After finishing our lunch we went to our respective destinations. The sweet shop whose sweets my mother wanted was on the other side of the city it took me one hour to reach there and buy the damn sweets. *Finally! I am here and it's only been 2:20 p.m, according to Google Maps it would take me half hour to reach the train station. Well done Jas! see you didn't needed help, I self patted myself in my mind, but I still have plenty of time left, Oh I know what I will do, there must be a mall nearby, I can go there and spend some time there, it would be better to wait in the air conditioned super market, than the hot and dusty railway station, I can even look for a farewell present for dad* finally, I stated locating a nearby mall on my google maps and found one that was a 10 min walk from the sweet shop I turned my heels and started walking according to my GPS. I was window shopping when I saw a wrist watch shop, this reminded me that while coming to pune dad's watch got broken while handling my suitcases, I felt a light bulb blinking at my head and I went inside the shop. It was already 3:10 p.m, when I finally bought the watch, even though I still had more time I decided that it was better to get going towards my final destination as soon as I opened my phone to book an uber for the station my phone started ringing, it was mansi, I immediately picked up her call, "Hey mansi what's up?", " You won't believe what happen, harsh is moving to pune, near us", at that moment, my mouth immediately became dry, everything became blank for a second and I felt dizzy, realizing that I was still on call with mansi, I tried to contain my emotions while acting casual, "But, how? I thought his company placed him in banglore?!, so why pune now?", " Well, apparently, banglore was his temporary training location, after his performance, they have decided to shift him to a more central location of the company. isn't it so cool, all three of us together again, just like college", * a shrieking scream was going on in my mind, at that moment*

"it's really great, really really great!",I responded even realizing that I am not handling the information properly." Hey Are you okay, what happened? " mansi inquired, at my funny reaction. " I am fine don't worry about it,Hey listen, can I talk to you, in a while.. okay bye", I hung up realizing I didn't even wait for her reply, but the bomb of the information she has given me twisted my thoughts weirdly.. memories of the past knocking their way up. *No it's not the right time Jas, it's not even a big deal, control yourself. I tried to calm my elevated heartbeat by deep breathing but I knew, nothing was registering, I was already being pulled in my past's demons. The once I tried to leave behind home. Suddenly, My phone started buzzing again, It was dad's call, "Honey, I will reach the station in a few minutes, where are you?", " I am on my way dad, I confirmed with as much strength, I could muster. I pulled my attention to the present and started to walk towards the exit door after booking my taxi, it was already 3:20 and I knew I would be late to catch up with my dad, if I didn't hurry, so I started mildly running towards the entrance. I was on the escalator and tried to get in front of people by crossing over them, I knew I could wait but my panicky state contributed to my misjudgements, I almost reached the top when my leg slightly slipped and the girl in front of me got tugged in forward direction. Her balance got lost and she fell on the titled floor on all her fours. Her coffee fell on the floor too, as soon as she turned to me her eyes blazed with ranging anger.

"I..I am really sorry, I didn't... mean to.. to.. ", I tried to explain while helping her to get up, she shoved my hand away from her bluntly. " What the hell, don't you have eyes or manners?!", she shouted, "I am really.. sorry, I didn't mean to", I tried to sound confident but the anxiety of the moment got the best of me... suddenly my phone started buzzing again, it was my uber driver. I asked him to wait for me, while I tried to clear the matter at hands out. The girl when finally got up, with the help of the guy along with her, maybe her boyfriend. She gave me a disgusting look, while accessing my clothing and me from head to toe. Clearly, my action of talking with the uber driver didn't suit well with her, suddenly she started babbling and creating a scene, "I know girls like you, bloody savage!, You spoiled my dress, do you have any idea how much this dress cost? A person like you can't even imagine to afford these expensive clothes. If you can't walk straight don't go to public places", Even though her words triggered me at that moment but I knew I can't waste any more time here, else I would miss my dad on the station, so I tried to solve the situation as fast as possible, " Listen, I am really sorry for your coffee and dress and I will try to compensate, give me your number I will contact you but I really have to go right now", I tried to act civil but she wanted something else, "Oh you want to compensate, how's this for a compensation?", she suddenly took the cold drink from her boyfriend's hand and splashed it over my face and clothes. Shocked and completely baffled by her action I tried to retort when my phone started buzzing again, It was my father's call. This wasn't the time jas, I reminded myself "I don't know about your clothes but your shady act clearly suits your bi***y personality", and with that I left the scene. It was already 3:40 when I climbed into my uber. Exactly 30 mins later I was outside the railway station. I knew I was late, but trains usually were a bit late and out of schedule, hopping for the best with the sweets and dad's gift tightly clenched in my hand, I called my father, " Daddy, I am here, on which platform are you?", he sighed, "The train has already left Jasmin, you missed it, I tried to call you but you didn't picked up, now go back home", there was crisp criticism in his voice and even though he didn't said a word, I knew what he meant.