"What?!"
He felt her hand slip away from his. He didn't have to see her face directly to know she was judging his sanity.
"I'm being serious. It wasn't voluntary of course."
He stood straight to turn around and lean against the wall, before meeting Piya's befuddled gaze.
She finally let her mouth close and gulped, "I won't say I believe you but I'm listening."
Sanit sighed and thought for a moment. "I vaguely remember talking to you at some lecture, right after that I contacted Akhil for some advice regarding fees. He hooked me up with some shady gang and things went sideways."
"And from what you told me today, I guess after they couldn't reach me they must have targeted him, in hopes of baiting me out and then threw me into a realm."
Piya raised a palm. "Pause. How did they do that?"
"Do what?" He asked a little annoyed at the sudden interruption.
"Throw you into a realm. How did they?"
That's more important than the rest?
Still he decided to humor her, "they had a contraption of some sort."
"You mean they artificially generated a portal?"
Sanit enjoyed the way her eyes widened as he nodded as an answer.
"That's freaking insane. But go on."
"Right after I was thrown in they came. Rakshasas. From all directions..Swarming me and attacking...it was just pure terror as I kept scrambling for cover and healing."
He could finally feel her listening to him as a pause developed.
"I spent years upon years in there...unwilling to come back. I think now I know why."
He saw her thinking to herself and let a brief silence pass between them.
"What made you unwilling to return?" She prodded.
"To put it mildly, I was a bit of a coward. I didn't like to fight, avoiding conflicts wherever I could. Hoping things just get better as you wait them out. I sound pathetic don't I?" Sanit grinned sheepishly.
But Piya wasn't laughing. She was staring at him intensely.
"You sound unbelievable. Firstly no mortal can survive in another realm. And then there's the issue of traveling even, how did you come back?"
He didn't want to talk about the Gandharva so he said, "lets just skip over that for the moment."
"Oh...okay," she was a bit taken aback by the quick shutdown of her question but didn't take it to heart.
He knew that holding back was not helping his confession but he decided it for the best. After all even he knew bits and pieces about the being he had spent so much time with.
"I think I have realized something though," he began, bringing back her attention, "all that time in there i know now it's a fool's dream to live on without applying myself and the last thing I want is to languish my later years in regret all over."
"Regret for what?"
"Things I didn't do. Like fight for my friend. Things I didn't become or dare try. Things I wanted to but didn't pursue. Never again Piya," he saw her right in the eyes before looking down and shaking his head, "never again," as if driving his point.
"Is that why you didn't have much of a reaction to seeing your friend there?"
Sanit nodded, a little ashamed, "I don't even remember much of him as a friend honestly. My memories of him, of you, of my life here...so far it's all a bit fleeting."
He saw her walk around, pacing slowly with her arms crossed. Like she was deciding whether to believe him or not.
"Another thing," she came up to him again as if she had finally stumbled upon something important, "you said hundreds of years. How are you still looking the same since a week ago?"
"That's another aspect I dont want to dive into but," he held her hands and pulled her close all of a sudden with a jerk that made her gasp.
"Look into me and tell me I'm the same guy you met days ago," he directed her gaze right into his eyes and for a moment he thought he saw a sudden fear.
What was inside was hundreds of years worth of an experience of surviving, combating and transformation of a young boy into something unrecognizable.
In that fleeting moment Piya felt herself in the presence of an unnatural stranger.
She gently tapped his chest and he let go. Seeing their flustered state both of them turned away with their backs to each other.
"Sanit," she began as she fumbled with her hair.
"Yeah?"
"Being an Inborn myself; which I'm sure you don't remember me telling you a week earlier, I did sense something different in your structure since earlier today."
"How so?" His neck jerked at her words.
"I can see through matter." Her eyes darted to the sides as if questioning her own statement.
"Well most of them." She added with a cute shrug, "but I now think that only extends upto this physical realm. For some reason I can't see through you anymore."
"Is that bad?"
"I don't know," she cocked her head to the side, "but it does mean there's some truth to whatever you just said to me."
That made him turn to her and she slowly did too, making eye contact with him as the night wind flew by them.
"So you believe me then?" he asked her, a little breathless as he anticipated her response.
She nodded slowly, "to an extent yes."
"I still can't think of you as an older dude. Though your memory lapse is explainable, it's still tough to swallow," she added with a wink.
"Also you should be careful to whom you reveal such stuff, Sanit." She had this cautious tone to her words that made him nod.
"Agreed, I'll keep that in mind."
She smiled at him, "I'm assuming time ran very differently over there? It's the obvious conclusion to why you didn't age the way you should."
Sanit nodded to her question, "something like that."
He further added, "I keep recollecting stuff now and then about Earth. How everything functions. I'm not a complete idiot."
Piya felt she had touched a nerve regarding her comment about his memory and changed the subject a little.
"Anyway you said you were up there with creatures...how did you fight them all off?"
"Bare hands." He studied her expression and was surprised by the lack of reaction, "What? No surprise tone there?"
She tucked her fingers under her arms. Rocking back and forth on her toes.
"For an Inborn you were pretty strong Sanit. I mean you pummeled a Rakshasa head on when you defended the both of us back then, so it's not entirely implausible to hear you say you fought the same way elsewhere."
When she noted him staying silent in thought she pounced on the opportunity to ask more.
"How did your body and mind cope though? Must've been so lonely and tiresome there right?"
Yeah partly true. Sometimes I did wish I was. That Gandharva was a menace at times.
"I actually haven't tested out what I can do in this body. I wanna find out."
He gauged her reaction and was pleasantly surprised when she seemed excited too.
"Go ahead then. I'm a bit curious too."
He had this huge smile on his face as he reminisced about his past exploits and looked down at himself.
"Mmm I think I can fly here, the conditions back there were punishing. Physical movements were so rough to pull off initially I broke myself. Maybe I'm lighter here."
Sanit climbed over and stood on top of the roof wall looking down at the street.
"People are gonna have the wrong idea if they see you like this." Piya said with a playful chuckle.
"At least I won't die from falling, right?"
"Good thing we're in a hospital already so go for it." Her remark was followed by a smirk.
Cheeky.
He dipped his right foot before following it with his left and felt the ground leave beneath him.
Whoa.
He had let himself off the ledge but not having pivoted himself forward he slipped and ended up standing sideways on the lower wall, with Piya looking on in amusement.
"You're not flying. You're floating. Barely."
"That's a start at least," he felt thoroughly embarrassed but also relieved that he had only made half a fool of himself.
"Push against the wall with your legs, like this," she said as she looked up and kept her arms sideways while standing on her toes.
He looked down at himself, imagining himself like that and shuddered a little.
What if I really fall?
He felt both nervous and excited at the same time, his mind preventing his body from taking the leap.
Oh, fuck it.
He followed her advice and sure enough he had drifted in midair albeit a bit too fast and narrowly missed the edge of the opposite building before somersaulting in midair and catching his trajectory.
There he stood, in midair, floating silently with a huge grin.
Across the wall, Piya leapt in midair and clapped excitedly. She seemed to say something but he didn't hear her.
"What?"
"I said you look awesome up there." She used her palms to make a funnel to carry her voice over to him.
"Well watch this," Sanit followed it up by tilting his chin up to the sky and pushed his body upwards.
PHWOOSH
Piya watched with her jaw dropping as he soared up in a straight line towards the sky.
Sanit closed his eyes to feel the night wind beating his cheeks, his hair flying wildly as he kept going.
This is what it felt like back there too, only it was more intense.
The pressure here was lesser than the other realm allowing him to do a lot more.
He dived and weaved, flying sideways and diagonally to test himself then fell down as he let go of control and let gravity take him before rushing again in a parabolic arc.
Yeah baby.
He laughed at himself and his feat, slowly getting into a comfortable pace before slowly descending to the hospital rooftop where Piya was.
He drifted towards her and extended a hand, to which she looked up confused.
"I'm confident enough now, come with me."
She backed away a little, her big eyes getting bigger, "you're serious? You just learnt this right? I won't survive a fall if you falter."
"Look just trust me, I won't falter or let you fall."
"I weigh a lot, I'm warning you," she said this even as she grabbed his hand and stood on the ledge.
"You're just making excuses." He taunted her.
She pouted but kept herself calm, "well how are you gonna do it?"
"I can carry you on my arms or my back whichever you prefer."
"Your back should be the most appropriate," she paused before adding, "but I feel it to be too childish to be doing that so your arms it is."
Sanit came down and extended his arms. Piya came between them, one arm going behind his neck as Sanit bent down to lift her up with one hand behind her neck and the other under her knees.
"Wow, you weren't kidding about your weight," he grunted with mild effort at holding her up with his arms.
Piya squeezed his neck in annoyance, "shut up, this was your idea-aahhhhh!"
Sanit winced at her sudden shout but didn't waver from his stance as he looked up and flew straight into the air without giving her any warning.
"Holy crap! You're really flying!" She clutched his neck tighter with both of her arms, looking down at the retreating ground beneath them with awe and fear.
"We are flying now."