"The Elevator to Realms" Act 2 Post/Pre Farewell :
Pooja
Completely abashed by the situation, we both got terrorized by the blinding white light entering the elevator as soon as the door opened. Overwhelmed and confused, we stepped out. I couldn't think about anything but gasp. After walking for a bit, I looked into Vaibhav's eyes. He was alert and was looking everywhere. We noticed the wall clock right above where one of our nighttime guard sat. It said 2:37AM. I grabbed Vaibhav's left wrist and read the watch. 6:40 PM.
"Something is is seriously wrong! So wrong!" I said.
The world around us seemed a bit heavy and off. Nothing felt right. There was literally no-one around us. It was exactly the same floor as the ground floor of our school. Everything was exactly the same! I couldn't process what was happening. A moment ago, we were enjoying our farewell! The last goddamn day in our School! I began feeling light headed. I wanted to go back. I wanted to spend my last moments at school with my dear friends. Why the hell am I even here in the first place? I thought to myself.
I tried pressing the elevator buttons. Nothing happened.
"Why are the buttons not working?", I said. "Ohgod! What should I do" as usual, I started panicking again.
"Stay focused. The power to elevators are cut-off after school-hours. Let's find out where we are, and how to get out of here. Don't worry, I am here." claimed Vaibhav to which I nodded at him. We took the stairs to the 6th floor where our Auditorium was. We were extremely bewildered by what was happening with us. Both of us started walking towards the entrance gate of our school.
"Should we call someone? Maybe Mom Dad? But they might be sleeping at this time. Hell everyone sleeps at this time.", he said.
"Oh Come on! We seem to be somewhere else and you think of NOT calling your parents?! Wow Vaibhav." I mocked Vaibhav.
I knew him inside-out. Instead of panicking, he was calm and focused guy right from the start. He has such a pure soul. Even in a situation like this, he is still too caring for his parents. I thought looking at him. He had his worst ever heartbreak EVER. Infact, he's still trying to move on. Not too long, just an year ago. There was this girl whom he loved more than his own life. She left, stating stupid reasons. How can anyone leave this guy. I just.. don't understand. I wanted to hug him so tight.
"Shush! Don't. Utter a word." He said, pointing towards a guard who was guarding the School entrance. We both mutually agreed to not involve anyone else in what we were going through. Hence, Vaibhav thought of an idea.
"From the time difference here from my watch, we might either be in the future, or in the past. That's all I can guess for now. Come on. We need to do something." he stated, as he grabbed my wrist and started walking towards the library. "We need to look for today's date. What date we are in. That's the only way we're gonna know if we are in the future or in the past."
Vaibhav switched on the Library lights, went to a cubicle and switched on a computer. Tensed, he said, "If this is true, we might probably just be the only ones to travel through time, Pooja." as the Desktop booted up...
..
..
"Today is.. is.... Monday. The day of our... Farewell. In just a few hours, we are going to have our farewell right here in our School..!" he said, his voice trembling..
"Oh.. My god. What in the literal hell?! How do we go back??" I said, anxiously.
"I just.. don't know! What about all those paradoxes? Were they all wrong? How is possible. It can't be. We don't even know the power source to the elevator", he said. "If, what I think is right, and if I have watched enough movies, we must not contact anyone in this world to avoid paradoxes or to disturb the space-time continuum."
"Speak. English!!" I exclaimed.
"Okay fine. Just.. don't encounter yourself, or the past version of yourself or me or anyone. That would be catastrophic.", he said looking at me intently.
"I think we should wait till morning, stay alert and try not get spotted, and let's see if anyone turns the elevator back on. Okay?", I said.
We agreed. Vaibhav found me a blanket. I just don't know how he got a blanket in the library. How can he even know about the things here. Oh yeah, I know I guess. He is such a nerd. He reads way too many books. He must be familiar with the library.
"Here. I found you this. Should keep you warm, Pooja.", he said, as he covered me up completely with the blanket. I just couldn't help, but smile at him to which he said, "What..?". I said Nothing.. Nodding my head with a no. I set the timer to go off after a couple of hours, as our cellphone clocks were out of sync. (or you can say, it was synced with our 'real' world instead of past, hence we agreed on not to change our clocks in our phones).
"Pooja? Get up.. Hey!"
In no time, it was dawn. I collected all my senses and saw outside through the window. People started coming to the school. Vaibhav didn't sleep the whole night and kept overwatch.
"Listen. You stay here, and I would go keep a watch over the elevator. Don't let anyone notice you."
After waiting for sometime, I received a call from Vaibhav.
"Hey! Its back on come down here, and be quiet." He said, I hung up the call and began plummeting to the ground floor where he was waiting for me. It was already school - time and our Farewell was about to begin soon. More and more people started gathering around. Many even started noticing me. Some even gave me strange looks, as I was already too early before the farewell. I couldn't help, but lowered down my gaze and continued walking. I reached the elevator. The guard now was already sitting there in his place. Vaibhav pressed the button and we waited for the elevator, while the guard outside was getting more and more suspicious of us.
The stress of the prevailing situation was intense. I thought he was just about to call us but the elevator door opened. We jumped into the elevator, and then closed the door. What a sigh of relief it was!
"Okay so we are here. What should we do now?", I asked.
"Hit and try.", he said.
Vaibhav pressed the topmost floor button, '6' and waited. Nothing happened. We reached at the 6th floor. Confused, I was getting worried. He pressed the 'G' button hard this time, hoping this would work. A strange whirring and grinding noise filled the already strained condition. What could possibly go bad now? Fuck it. Nothing more than this. So let it be. I completely accepted my fate and closed my eyes.
"Look! The numbers..", he said, as the numbers started to change rapidly.
The door opened.
It was this time, when Vaibhav grabbed my hand without uttering a word, and we both ran towards the guard sitting near the elevator.
"What's today?.." he asked, while looking at the wall-clock hanging right above the guard's head. It read.. 6:40 PM.
"Beta, You had your farewell today. And everybody went home. You should go too, beta. Also, you both came too early today! I was already about to ask you then.", said the old man, while giving us a bewildered look.
"Nothing! It was nothing Uncle, we are going now. Take care!", he said, changing the topic. This took a minute for me to process why he did that. He did it because, we saw uncle in the past so he might be knowing that we both reached earlier today.
Amazing. Isn't it? A lot harder to understand but whatever this was, Vaibhav seemed to understand a lot of it. He is such a geek. Meanwhile, I was totally clueless of what just happened with us. Right up until he explained everything to me.
So, the time, had frozen. It was exactly the same time when we used the elevator after watching the sunset and then we were trapped for extra 20 minutes inside the elevator. We were back to our present. To what was ours. The world was ours! I felt extremely relieved. I wanted to see my family. My parents. We turned around, and started walking towards our entrance gate. Vaibhav started his bike and dropped me home, and he went. I was literally in tears when I saw my parents again, and hugged them tight.
I was already starving so I had a hefty meal after a tedious day. All thanks to Mom, she had prepared me my favorite Litti-Chokha. I went to take a shower then I came back and burrowed myself into my bed. I started thinking about today. I grabbed my cellphone and saw the time. 12:44 AM. I texted Vaibhav :
Pooja : Hey? You still up?
Vaibhav : Yeap! Why haven't you slept yet?
Pooja : Well, I can ask you the same question then. LOL
Vaibhav : Um.. I felt a little disconnected by what happened today. Just like you do right now. Now stop thinking, and sleep well, let's meet up tomorrow. :)
Pooja : How are you supposed to know all this! Goodnight. -_-
I kept the phone aside and started thinking about how similar can a person be! I giggled, and then closed my eyes.
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