_____ March 23, 2018 _____

- doc -

Suddenly everything came back!

Jumping off that gate and flashing the light on the building, I stood there. It was still the same. The walls, the grasses, the burns, the feels. Untouched for years, KRI was lost in the chaos of the calmness and striving to live in the forgotten land. Gosh! This was the total Horror version of the KRI I once was a part of. I felt weakness creep up my knees. All those terrors and those media lights falling on my eyes, all the dead bodies of people I laughed with, the burnt hands, the burnt work, my two and a half years of life that went by without any proof, everything just flashed right in front of me. The same fountain side, where I cried on my knees, when I saw the whole place burning even after 18 hours of the blast. The garden, now dried up, where we all had a favorite plant planted, so we could always be happy for the importance we held in KRI. The huge front door which had the best architecture in the country, back when it was built and clicking a picture in front of it was always a pleasure, an honor. I never imagined that coming back to KRI would be this difficult.

A small inch of this huge spear named 'Anxiety' pricked my heart and all I wanted to do was go back. Tanik and Manhar were just staring at me, sadness in their eyes. They felt me. If I didn't like them, I probably wouldn't be here. T told me on the way here that Kanishk was Tanik and Tanav's brother. I will always be grateful for what Kanishk had done. This was the best way to show him that his sacrifice will be preserved in me. He was always the smartest and the loving one. If I came to know what had exactly happened that night, it will probably mean I'm just making his sacrifice worth it.

T guided us towards the building after taking the light from me seeing I couldn't hold it without a shivering hand. The darkness was creeping into the sky, into me, too! We entered the place through the window they had broken the last time they were here. Time is a Funny Man, you know! I  once had the building keys with me, 24 cross 7.

"Any new updates? Anything?" the earpiece was killing me. The level of pain I was in right now was the level of excitement the kids had!

"Don't scream!" Thank you Tanik. "We are entering." He had the camcorder whose strap, he firmly wrapped around his neck holding it in his left hand.

I just blankly followed both the boys, not even recognizing the place. Wherever the light fell, it looked very different. I couldn't even imagine that we actually worked almost 24 hours a day in this place and had no idea of the timing unless we stepped outside! And now, no power? 

First floor.

Nick and T just dragged me with them not even letting me take a look at the place. T had a small torch using which he kept seeing left and right to see if anything has changed, while Nick had the huge night light. They then stopped in a room. I even don't know which direction we went!

This isn't the room I think it is, is it?

Well, yeah, It is. This was our archive room which sometimes became our partying room. Everything this room had was happiness and laughs. Every time someone entered this room, we knew it meant, end of one trial of experiment and hence, No Stress, No Work Load, Have Fun Folks! But, look at it now! My heart sank even more. It was destroyed completely!

"Guys? Anything? What about the feeling, is it there? You didn't even mention it. Doc, checked the walls?" April was trying hard to make a conversation.

I went near the wall that shined under the moonlight that came pouring in through the moonlight. Feeling the hoarseness in it's touch, I slowly scrapped a little of it and put it in my bag. The eerie feeling that I felt, the one the kids told about, was the maximum in this room! These kids were right, there is something here! This feeling was accelerating as I neared the walls. That Spectacle girl might be right. Infinity might actually be here. The feeling was a bad one, getting worse every passing second. We should leave as soon as possible!

Wait, where are the boys?

"Tanik? Manhar? Are you there?" A sudden shadow of fear surrounded me. I didn't have a light strong enough to reach the other side of the room. The area my phone flashlight covered, all I could see is nothing! No Human!

"Doctor!" Phew. That echoed like water wrinkles!

"Guys? You listening? There is a serious problem here." Nick spoke up, while T was waving his flashlight at me to go their direction.

"What happened, all okay?" came in April's voice. It was one hell of a voice on tape!

"The painting. It's gone!"

What? I went closer to where they were standing and saw the wall. Nothing except a raw mark of a big rectangle covered it. The painting must have been there.

"But.. How? I mean, where can it go? Check again!" Tanav was worried bad.

"I found this!" Manhar said taking a paper in his hand. "Right next to the table here.."

Tanik opened the piece of paper that T found. His eyes just kept widening along with T's, who was holding the torch light for him.

"What's it Kids?" I asked, going closer to them and peeping in.

It was a handwritten note. Beautiful handwriting, I must say.

"What's it guys? God! Don't kill us here." Voices.

I read it aloud for them, while Nick let me take the paper out of his hands..

"

Searching for something? Well, you better stop. Instead of having girlfriends and partying out and minding your own business like a  bunch of good teenagers, peeking in your fat-ass heads where you are nowhere needed. Especially the eldest of you'll! You, Boy, better get these kids back on the right track, else you are going to pay real bad for this. Cut off this place from anywhere near being your project topic and continue with the topic you're doing now. That's better and a risk-free one.
Don't ever even come here again.

"

What?

No wonder Nick's face got all paled up and T was in a open mouth state for like 10 minutes.

"You must be kidding me? The painting is gone and a Threat is right there? What even? I think, Nick, they did have cameras and saw us coming that day. Else, it's impossible for them to know it. And how do they know about the project and all. No one knows that other than us!" Jake was all worried.

"No Jake! There are no recording devices there. I'm sure." started April. She does talk a lot, rather Interfere. "My watch detects any of the recording device 50 square meters around me. This was brought to me by my brother, as he was super scared of Delhi population and the increasing crimes there. I had worn it the last time we were in KRI and nope! There's no recording device there, audio, or video! Any new device around me, and I get a vibration. I had installed all your phones previously in the watch. Just have to click a button saying 'Known Device'. I usually keep the recording device tracker mode off in college and outside as vibrations are continuous due to phones and cctv cameras around, but I had intentionally kept it on while visiting KRI. Since, the watch didn't get any new device, I didn't tell any of you about this." Smart.

"So, you mean, wait!" Manhar panicked. "Someone knows about us in some other way? How is that even possible? I mean, like, I mean, Guys! Who and all knows about this except us?"

"Doctor!" "That lecturer I asked! He's out of town now!" April and Tanav said it together!

"Anyone else has any idea of what we're doing here?" "Nope."

"We have a serious problem! I think someone has overheard us somewhere and is spying right into us and we have no idea. They know our every step and our every move. And they might even know about your device, April. They might have installed themselves in it! Hacking these days is common. But, when I came the next morning to keep the papers back, I didn't see any difference. The painting was right here! So, this is recent!" Tanik's face clearly revealed confusion. 

Manhar flashed the light on his face. The sparkles on his sweat was clearly visible. He was scared. This was uncalled trouble. 

"You feeling it too?" Manhar spoke, after like 20 seconds of dead silence. I became a dead person as soon I came in through those gates. Nods and 2 words max, was my conversation right now. Coming back here would be so harsh, never knew that! 

Yes, Manhar. We feeling that feeling too.

"Yes!" Both, me and Tanik managed to answer.

"What feeling?" 4 voices were screaming from the other side.

"The eerie magnetic feeling is increasing guys. It's power is increasing much faster now than it was the other day we came. Total darkness is dangerous here. We better leave now. It's 9 o'clock already. I don't want to be sucked in right now!" Manhar started walking away.

Tanik just kept quite. He kept reading and re-reading the paper. Manhar flashed the light in front of us on our way. I got this sudden urge of seeing the place a little more. So, I asked Manhar for the light and flashed it around. Manhar quickly understood what I was doing. He just slowed his steps to meet my dragging feet. 

He was the only family there right next to me, when I was going through the 'Burnt People Scenario, Un-erasable Memory' Phase of my life. He was always in the hospital as soon as his school left. He was so young. Everyday, he came and sat next to me telling his school stories and his great works. He was like my living medicine back then. No one else who I knew, knew that I survived except for him and his Mom, Meera. So, Meera only worried about me and gave me emotional support, while this boy was my painkiller, the paradise in the Hell named Me! His positivity, innocence, belief in me, the little hugs, the 'I'll give you half of my chocolate if you take your medicines' bribes, his smile made me want to live, want to become Murugan again. My soul is stuck with this boy, though I never told him that! Main reason for me to visit this place right now was him. Meera told me about his situation and I had to see him! I'm happy that he is in a better state than what Meera had told me. That's the only reason why I was ready to tell his friends about KRI. They kind of brought him back! 

The dripping water in the corner of the hall gave me another of those pricks. This was the place where even air had to ask prior permission before entering, and now? How it was! The huge air conditioned building, palace, with the best security system ever, the walls, the checked floors. The windows, all from different parts of India was one rare art right there! It was what we were doing in here that required all this specifications. We needed walls and windows that never rusted. Floors that never slipped no matter what spilled over them. And more over, the people! The people who sacrificed themselves for others, I can still see them running around in their lab coats. They were Gems. One room full of walking Google, added with experience and smiles this place was. And now!

I was just letting out sighs as I scanned around. We went to the same window through which we came in, one of those art, broken into pieces!

Nick still had the camera in his hands. He was probably still recording, or doesn't even know he's holding it upside down! Aghh! This eerie feeling actually is irritating. An hour more and probably I would be even moving towards the walls without effort!

We got out and went back to Tanik's place.

We had to go in through the back door. It was 8 o' clock. Tanav had told Tanik that there were some guests who didn't know there were so many people in the house. So, we better get in carefully.

Everyone were still in the room upstairs, waiting eagerly. They saw the letter.

"So, that's it? This is where we stop? This threat and done? I'm sure you are going to make it stop even if we don't stop. Right?" Tanav said, looking at Tanik. He knows his brother quite well. Nods.

"Aghh! This is not how I imagined this to end. You found nothing guys? Why?" Jake went all mushy again with dragging words. He had this twelve year old attitude at times.

Oh! I totally forgot! "I brought a sample from the wall while I lost track with these boys for 10 minutes!" That brightened many faces.

"Test it, can you?" asked Niha.

"Not now. Since this is an old sample I need few more things and I actually need to read the papers that Tanik gave, to have a proper test. It has the chapter that explains testing. I have to go back home. By tomorrow morning I'll let you know. But, the feeling we were feeling there, is sort of same feeling that Infinity produced back then to things. So, test will mostly be positive." But, what can we do after knowing?

"So. Even if it is there, what about it? We can't go further. Can we? We have nothing against this  Threatening people, do we? We can't enter KRI. We don't even know how they knew we'll be going today. So, another plan and they'll know it. What do we do?" said Jake, quite gloomy.

"Wait! How do you tell that they knew we'll be going today?" Tanav looked at him with a raised hand.

"See the paper guys. It's not even a day since it was taken out of its place. If this was kept long back, by the condition KRI is in right now, it would have been browned out or at least dusty and definitely wet. But, does this seem any of that to you?" He was holding the paper in the corner and swaying it in the air. This boy was smarter than I hoped.

"Right! But, how?" Tanik seemed even more disturbed now. As soon as he found the paper, he sort of put all this on his head. He started thinking we are going to fall in trouble because of him. His face read that!

"Guys! Guys!" April started screaming suddenly out of nowhere. She was standing right in front of the TV that was on the other side of the room. I didn't even know when she went there.

"What's it?"

"I was going through your camcorder recording Nick, and guess what I found? See.. that?"

Oh, Holy heaven God!

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So.. This was a bit about Doctor's POV on KRI. Hope you are knowing about KRI  more and more as every chapter passes by.

And.. don't forget to vote!

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