_____ June 25, 2018 _____

This chapter is dedicated to all of my friends, who supported me IRL, but are Bad Bad People when it comes to reading the book as they don't read incomplete books (And some of them know the plot already, that's why!) But, whatever.. I love you guys and you guys mean everything. Thank You for always being there and for motivating me and being happy with every little steps that I took as a Writer. ❤ 

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- april -

I was busy Eyeing the food counters that were in every corner and anyone could take anything they wanted any time! If only we were allowed too! I totally forgot to go up to Rami. 'You need to learn to control the Hunger, April!' I said to myself.

And that blue dressed girl who admired my eyes came up with me as we climbed the beautiful glass stairs of what was said to me as KRI, but I highly doubt this is the same place I cried when three people went missing right next room!

The volunteer was made to stand to right of Rami, while I was made to stand to the left. She was supposed to pick a chit and I was supposed to make teams.

"So, the little twist we are talking about is that this girl, Rihi, as her beautiful name is, is going to pick out a number for you and our Arabian Lady here is going to chose the members in the two teams. The number that Rihi's chit reads is going to be the exact number of moves you are allowed to play. The two teams have to figure out somehow how this game would go, each of you with the number of moves on the chit, so, all in all, double the number what is given here are the number of moves in total you'll have. And once you are done with the number of moves, we'll see which team wins and after 3 games, the winner will be decided. This isn't about winning or losing, this is about the number of moves! The teams each should show the volunteers their idea of the game and once the volunteers approve, they can start. The approving criteria is a smart one as they see the compatibility of both the teams! And mind it, if you don't get a checkmate at the exact number that you were given, the game is off and the teams have to make an explanation of how would they complete for a checkmate. Hence, the teams who have the least number of moves until Checkmate will win that round. Cool?"

Everyone suddenly got excited now. All the boring faces seemed interesting. I already had a list of who belonged to which team. Two Team, Team Meera and Team Mihir! Avi did it before the whole Nirvana happened. That women is a charmer. She is supposed to be the most hated right now and looks like the whole place knew her. T's Mom was giving her a glare, I'm sure, would have burnt her if Aunty had superpowers. She was just standing with her head down. Wait till we all speak to her and Jake, asshole! She even knows me! How might he have explained me to her then! Wow! That would be the last thing I would want, T's ex calling my name and smiling! Huh!

I started calling out the names in the list and they walked to their sides. Our first idea was to separate two Ancestor families, but that utterly failed as the number was a large difference. So, this is random! Rihi got 32 on her chit. Well, the plan was to keep our 7 for the last round!

"32 it is! Teams, think up!" Rami said. "You've got 64 moves in total!"

"But, where's the chess board?" A shaggy looking guy, who was eyeing me and Niha with lust as he entered started to talk. His voice is even worse! Disgusting!

"You're standing on it!" And that bought a little squeal and whispers and Woos in the room!

"I would like the white pieces of the board to go to that corner and the black pieces this corner of the board. Floor, I mean!" Rami never smiled this much till today! The toss had decided who'd black and who's white! 

The oldies, kids and everyone walked, admiring how very beautifully this place was decorated. They were surprised with the walls that were cut just so they could stand on the floor. They were all given head gears. They had to put it around their head depending on which piece of the board were they! The king and the queen got crowns, like literally, spray painted with white and black. The head piece covered all of their head and around their faces. It wasn't heavy, but it bent along with their head and it was the funniest sight!

 The boys helped them stand in their places and wear the head gears, while me and Niha were the one to count the moves. From the first floor, this did look like some battlefield whose theme was Party-wear though! 

Cutest was when, the eldest couple in each team were sent to be the King and the Queen. Gosh! So freaking cute when the Team Black had the oldest couple. The energy here is eternal! Seemingly, they got the answer, both the team, for the moves. Didn't know there were people still interested in Chess so much, they figured out the game in 10 minutes! Cool! Nick called us just to tell how fun this is going to be as both the team has two different way for Checkmate. At 10 o'clock in the night, this did seem fun.

The game started. The boys were supposed to tell loudly, in this little mic as to what move did the other team do. Everyone enjoyed being the pieces of the Board. This younger ones became the pawns, while the older ones became the major pieces with Ihith being an elephant. It seems, he loves that piece! Mr. and Mrs. Mudalier seemed happier than ever leaders. 

Move number 31 done. 

The floor of KRI was already scattered with humans and now was the turn of the team Black after the white moved it's pawn. There was no way anyone could do a checkmate in the next move. The horse was what they chose to move. This was it's second move after the left L. Smart indeed. There was no way, the White could move another piece for checkmate! But, they have to save their King, that bishop is going to eat him now that the horse is out of it's way! I've never been this excited for a Chess match. Tension was visible in the room. The plan was already way out of every team! The White team moved their pawn, the one no one noticed and Bam! F*ck, they literally caught the Team Black! No one even noticed this little pawn that kept moving! Rami had his drone in the air to get a better view of the game and he too was shocked with this move. So freaking carefully planned. Way to go, Team Meera! The other team now either have to give up on their queen who will remove the pawn, or lose their queen for Ihith standing right behind the pawn. They chose to lose the queen. And done! 32 moves.

Clearly The white team was the winner! Yayy!

Team Meera     Team Mihir

1                          0

"Want 2 more games?" Rami asked and the screams were way more this time. 

"I need Rihi again!" And this time the number was 15 and this game was fine, as it finished in a click. Mihir Uncle's team won.!

Team Meera        Team Mihir

1                             1

 So, it is a tie! Imagine how short will be the 7 move game be. It was called The Legal's Trap and it involved sacrificing the queen. So, hopefully, both teams get the same game with the same moves. Oh yeah! They will. It was already planned!

So, finally, it was time.

This time the bowl of chits had only chits with number 7 on them. So, "7" Rihi said. 

"The number is decreasing every minute. Who knows this game now?" A team member of Meera Aunty asked. She knew. Mihir Uncle knew. So, both teams knew! Rami indeed is awesome!

And it began.

First was white's turn, obviously. They did play The Legal's Trap in the best way possible. We had a copy of the 7 move game, so we could tell if any move went wrong. Nirvana was in Mihir Uncle's team, the right corner-most pawn. Her face had a constant expression throughout. Good for her. If she smiled, I'm pretty sure, Avi would make her stop!

Anyways, we all mastered this game yesterday night and all possible wrong moves it might take you to do. It was weird for me to play chess, as I never was a fan, neither was a good player. Avi and Nick were excellent at it!

The game began with the movement of pawns by both the teams. Then were their two horses. The white moved it's bishop which was right next to the horse it last moved. The people walking to the corners were literally the funniest, as Rami also put a condition for the pieces to not touch any other squares other than where they are supposed to move. Bishop had the toughest job, the squares were really big and one step moves was impossible. The corner movement was resumed with the bishop moving to his left for 3 steps. Every step, the team screamed a  'Woah' when he crossed the corners. It was so much exciting to watch. Now, the Team Black moved the pawn that was to the right of the previously moved one. Being a pawn was everyone's last choice now, as it's only one move. It was no longer the way it was in the beginning, the kids in the front and the elders at the back, rather, it was a shuffled ages this time!

White moved it's another horse too. Now it was the black's turn to move it's bishop 4 steps left. Gosh the screams! Now, the white carefully moves it's rightmost pawn. And bishop had to back out in one step towards the right edge. Now for the smartest move, the horse killing the pawn. This is also the saddest moment for the white, as it is The Queen's Sacrifice. Oh My God, the way everyone did a drama of crying and some 'We'll miss you's too came up when the black bishop killed the Queen! This moment was Gold. And black lost another Pawn killed by our earlier Bishop. And boom! Check! 

The only move for the black is to save the King, and hence Moves the King by one move and meanwhile, we are here preparing for the vehicles to leave as soon as the game finishes. We don't want any of them to see anything happening here! The last move was played by the horse and there!

CHECKMATE!

My laughs stopped and my heart starting dancing in it's place. I'm sure, everyone 's did. We just stood and stared at each other from across rooms. We were expecting something to happen. Nothing!

Rami gave a speech as to how late it is and how they all have to go back to the hall for dinner and then Leave for the night. He also gave a wonderful 'Thank You' speech. They were taken in like 20 minutes out of the hall, again blind folded. They thanked all of us as they left and kept admiring how the night ended! We didn't even bother to look at Nirvana who seemed like she wanted to talk!

But this time, they were taken back to the hall by other people Swaroop Uncle had bought with him as we had to stay here to see what would happen. But I guess, it is a waste of time to stay. 

1 hour passed, 12:08 a.m..

Disappointment.

Niha started crying. Actually, everyone held back their tears and frustration until now. So many things were circling in our head. I saw everyone's eyes filled. Tears were already dripping down mine!

"All these work and nothing happens. Why!?" It even started raining and Rami, finally after being super quit for an hour spoke up.

"It's okay. We tried how much we could. We played the game perfectly, thrice, even with all those moves we suspected might be the answer. I guess, we could never do anything in this way. Now, I need you kids to eat and go to sleep. We'll not give up as we said earlier and do something, okay? Don't worry." How can he be that calm? He still had hopes? Wow. No wonder he kept doing this for years. He never gives up.

No one was in the state of mind to speak against that. 

We all walked out. There were 7 of us. Me, Niha, Jake, Avi, Nick, Rami, Swaroop Uncle. We sent Meera Aunty and Mihir Uncle along with the others saying they have to handle the party! 

Heads were all down as we dragged ourselves out of the door one-by-one and Swaroop Uncle, along with the boys helping from the inside, closed the Main Entrance and stepped out of the building. The lights were put off by Jake.

We took tiny steps towards the car, all wet and hoping a thunder bolt would hit KRI right now and f*cking kill all that Infinity and that building and the decoration and the lights! 

And then, between the Fireworks and the Thundering and the Wind along with drops of harsh water telling us to go the f*ck inside our houses and sleep, we heard a sound, louder than the thunder and that kind of wait, is it an earthquake? The floor was moving!

Holy Shit!  Something was happening in KRI!

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So, the last but one chapter of EXISTING it was. The last chapter will be out before this Month end.

Hope you liked this chapter. Do vote and Share! Would mean the world to me.❤

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