THE SHED.

CHAPTER-ONE

The lantern swings low as he walks forward, his feet almost tumbling over the logs scattered on the ground. Casie was right; it had been one hell of a bon-fire.

Ilesha nudges him with a bony elbow that strikes him right on his ribs.

“Ouch!” He yelps, before he can stop himself, almost doubling in pain. This earns him a smack across his face by the green haired, long legged, Jeremiah.

Casie was right here as well, they were one hell of a violent couple.

“Shut up now, will you?” Jeremiah whisper-screams, “You’ll get us all caught.”

Nicolai just gulps and trudges along the path as silently as possible, avoiding every urge to scream whenever the dirty water splashed across his new shoes or when they sank inside the marshy land. He had been savingup for them for months and this was the first time he was wearing them. You may call him stupid, but in his defense he did not know what Casie meant by ‘Resolving the greatest mystery of all time’. But now as he looks around the muddy path, at whose sides the Night-Fern* -although clearly deep rooted inside the soil- swayed dangerously low whenever the wind slapped against their trunks and the Erons* sat on the marshy land cawing and shoving their claws in their faces every time they walked past them\, it was suddenly clear what his friends were up to.

Fear creeps up his toes to his legs, slides up his stomach,where it splashes him with sweat and then climbs up his arms and rests in the crook of his neck. When they are deep inside the jungle, it breathes down his neck, causing a chill to run down his spine.

He halts suddenly, “I’m not going to the shed.” He says.

Ilesha groans a low groan, stuffing her hands in her jacket’s pockets, “And why, may I ask?”

“Cause its too dangerous!” Nicolai exclaims as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world.

Because, it was the most obvious thing in the world.  You don’t go to the shed at the end of the jungle, this was the first lesson they learnt as kids.

You might never come back.

“Let me go back home Ilesha and you guys can go back to the camp.” He pleads tugging her white jacket. “Please, I don’t want to die. Not

when I have Sora, Noodle and Bootsie waiting for me at home.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Jeremiah raises a quizzical eyebrow at Nicolai’s direction, “Who are these people again?”

“His cats,” Ilesha gives a dismissal wave in his direction, before turning to her cousin brother, “I thought you gave them cat food before

we left!” She barks.

“I did-” Nicolai starts but she just shrugs.

“Well then miss smarty pants, what is the problem?” She leans down to match his height. “Your little girlfriend is there to take care of them anyways.”

Before he could correct Ilesha that he was a ‘mister’ and not a ‘miss’ and declare grandly that Casie and he had decided to take a break for the time being and were only friends for now, she had already grabbed the lantern-that Jeremiah had brought instead of a flashlight, to get the ‘feels’ of being in an old movie-and was marching off with her boyfriend close on her heels.

Nicolai doesn’t even stop to think and rushes off behind the two. The jungle was alive with all sorts of bugs, pests and animals he had only

ever seen before in Miss Pitcherfork’s biology lab. He shudders, suddenly wantingto be even closer to the two; he remembered how those little glass bottles were filled up with worms and insects with their eyes wide open and their face plastered into smug grins. Nicolai always

thought bugs had the smuggest of all grins. Too bad no one ever seemed to agree.

A sudden wind blows in their direction and the lantern rattles violently. Nicolai creeps up behind Jeremiah’s shoulder and whispers, “Are

you sure we’re on the right way?” He looks ahead but he can’t see anything except of their feet. “We’ve been walking for an hour already. You sure we’re not lost?”

Before Jeremiah can answer, Ilesha does, pursing her lips, “It’s a one way path Nic,” She says as if she can’t believe they shared the same blood, “We’ve only been heading straight, how in the world will we get lost?”

Nicolai backs off Jeremiah’s shoulder, making a face. She was always so rude. But also that was a relief, at least they weren’t lost.

Nicolai walks silently for a few more seconds, before creeping up Jeremiah’s shoulder again.

“You guys ran away from the camp right?” He asks, “Don’t you think Mr. Merryweather must be looking for you all right now?”

“Nah.” Jeremiah answers, pulling out a key from his pocket and dangling it from his fingers, “I took care of that.”

“Wait, you locked Merry in the washroom?” Ilesha asks bewildered, when Jeremiah nods, she wraps an arm around him holding him in a

chokehold, “Damn, I’m proud of you Jer-Jer.”

Jeremiah’s face is red from all the blood rushing into his brain from the chokehold, but he tries his best to smile, his chubby cheeks

squishing against her arm. He looks like a dying chicken instead.

“Thwanks babe.” He says his voice muffled by his girlfriend’s jacket. Nicolai looks away tutting, even their PDA was so violent.  There’s a

sudden movement at the corner of his eyes and he snatches the lantern out of Ilesha’s hands.

“Hey!” She yells, reaching out for the lantern again,releasing Jeremiah in the process who gasps and pants like a fish.

Nicolai lifts the lantern and slowly takes a step forward,jumping when the something crunches underneath his feet.

“Calm down, its only hay.” Ilesha whispers, pulling him back by his arm.

“Hay?” Jeremiah looks at his feet and there it is in front of them. Bundles and bundles of hay.

Nicolai turns the lantern to his side; he never realized when the chain of the Night-fern alongside the muddy track ended. There were no dividers here; the whole big, fat land had been used. He recognizes the silhouette of a few houses-or barns, he couldn’t really make them  out.

“What is this place?” Ilesha asks, “A farm?” Her voice is layered with disbelief. There was no shed with witches or ghosts here. No ground painted with blood of a thousand humans. So, why in the world would people stop each other from coming here?

“Well, we like to call it that.”

The three of them jerk their heads towards  the source of the noise.

“Lift up the lantern you idiot!” Jeremiah whispers, smacking him on his back, before grabbing it from his hands and lifting it up.

The girl, in a tattered red dress and muddy shoes, with her brown hair braided giggles, “Why do you all look so scared? We are kind to our

guests.”

She turns around then and pushes open the gate of the farm, in whose center stood a small house.

“Come on in, this is our land.”

Then before they could make out that the girl didn’t have colored hair, or colored eyes and what exactly made her stand out so much among the rest of the Evations,* she rushes off to the door, rings the bell and screams.

“Mom, we have visitors!”

Then all of a sudden like rain, it all comes crashing down.The hair, the eyes, the ringing of the bell, the voice.

As they exchange troubled glances and exaggerated sighs, taking in the vast amount of land they had occupied on their planet-it was true

they spread like viruses- only one thing rings inside their heads.

Eek! She is human.

They were so, so, so,

dead.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

SOME EVATION

VOCABULARY-

*Night-Fern- One of the most common trees

found in the tiny planet of Evata. These were cut widely in the 20th and 19th Century to build homes, since then they are usually just

found in Jungles. The Hazers(see the next definition) use its wood for bon-fires around which they pray and sing songs to the Gods.  White spot on its leaves means the plant is sick.

Trivia- Women till the

15th Century used its leaves to lower down their children’s temperature when they were sick until it was found that its use on the body can cause side effects like rashes and cause diarrhea.

*Hazers- A tribe of shepherds who are known for their righteousness and devotedness towards the  Gods.

They have their own language, in which they pass down songs and ballads generation to generation.

Trivia- Hazers are rich because till the 18th Century, they were given gold coins and other such valuables by the royals in return for their prayers; the value of those items increased drastically in the 19th Century, when the gold levels declined. So, if you find shepherds living in skyscrapers it’s not an unusual thing.

*Evations-People living on planet Evata are known as Evations. Commonly called Planet Akira on Venus, Planet Samala on Mars and Planet Pluto on Earth.

Trivia- Planet Evata belongs to the same solar system as Earth and has expressed its displeasure on being classified as a dwarf planet by Earth more than once.. In a recent conference held on Jupiter, the Evation spokesperson Mr.Olly expressed the anger and fury experienced by the Evations on this unjust classification,

“…..It’s disappointing that Planet Evata is no longer being taught in human schools as a normal planet, the reclassification on the basis of size is very unjust and discriminatory. The word ‘dwarf’ is highly deteriorating, we do not call the Earth a ‘giant planet’…”

Since no action was taken, Humans are now referred to as ‘Stubborn Mules’ on the planet Evata.

*Erons- A type of bird. They are known for their unpleasant cawing that often sounds like laughter and huge beaks.

Trivia- People till  the 18th Century used to kill them because it seemed they were laughing at them. Now they hate Evations despite several apologies.

………..End of Chapter One...…...