I always wondered what would it be like in those woods and how it would feel to walk between the trees. The trees were so dense that even sunlight couldn't get in properly. From outside, it looked like it would be very dark in there. Too dark to spot things.
I sat near my window and watched the never ending patch of green dense forest. I had sketched down a similar pattern on the drawing pad that was lying in my lap. I looked out at the woods more keenly. I scratched my head with the back of the brush and looked out more keenly. The darkness in those woods was so intense that I couldn't draw it down on the paper.
"Aha. I just finished cleaning your dirty clothes and you are busy creating a mess again. What is with you?", Mama came into my room. I got off the chair and looked down at my shirt. "Oh. I don't know how it got there. I was just...", I pointed towards the painting I made. My shirt looked so dirty. It was painted all over. There was a small patch of green colour and then there was a bigger black coloured spot. "Do not touch it. You will only make it worse.", Mama removed my hands from the shirt. "Take it off. Put on a new one and go look after your sister.", she said angrily. She took out a blue shirt from my almirah and threw it at me. I changed and left the room.
"Good morning, Dad.", I went to the dining and sat down in a chair besides Dad. I passed a biscuit to Marie. "Hey, son.", he whispered and came closer to me as if to say something very important. "Where is your mom? Is she angry? Can you do me a favor?", he said in a low voice. "Wow. Chill, Dad. One question at a time.", I replied. "Alright. I will buy you a new watch. Done?", he said. "No.", I replied. "Then?", he asked. "This weekend, let me go out with my friends.", I offered him a deal. I had been planning to ask mama and dad about going out with friends but I never thought I would get the chance so soon. "Done. Only if you help me. Let me first tell you that it was a mistake. Ok. I was working on a new article for the magzine. When I, by mistake, dropped ink on your mother's scarf. I want you to get it cleaned. Do it yourself or get it done. Please.", he whispered.
I had a chance and I couldn't let it go. I helped him. We got the scarf dyed back to its original colour. Dad knew that Mom would have murdered few if she had come to know about it. He knew that I had saved few lives. It was time for him to return the favor.
That night on the dining table, I waited for Dad to raise the topic. And finally when everyone had finished eating, he cleared his throat and said, "I was thinking that we should send Joe out with his friends. He doesn't go out much."
Marie looked at me. We knew how such conversations ended usually. We were now waiting to listen Mama's reply. "Oh really. U think? And where do you think we should send him?", she rested her arm on the table and her face on her hand. "Umm. Well. Why don't you ask him? Joe, tell your mama where do you want to go? I need water.", he picked up his empty glass and went to the kitchen. It was my turn to face mama's rage now. "So you put your father up to this?", she asked. "Water.", said I and left.
I was very disappointed with Dad. After all I did for him this is how he leaves me to suffer. "Close escape, eh?", Dad asked as I got into the kitchen. "Huh?", I replied, put the empty glass on the shelf forcefully and left.
Next morning, awkwardness prevailed at the table. Nobody was talking to anybody. Everyone just ate their food. As I finished my breakfast and pushed my chair back to make space for myself to get up Mama said, "Joe. I was thinking your dad is right. You spend most of your time at home. You should go out." I was shocked for a while but then I realised that it were Dad's efforts that were showing. He had been trying hard to convince Mama and I loved him for that. He just smiled at me and I made a gesture to say thanks.
Now that my parents have agreed I must talk to my friends I thought. I never left home without my bag which usually carried only my drawing pad and a pencil. I met my friends at a coffee shop.
"Cheers to Joe's victory.", Asif said as we all raised our hot chocolate mugs. "Finally, Joe. We need to think of a spot now.", said Red. "I have a place in mind. But..", I said. "But what? Is the place nice? We won't say no as long as we know it is going to be fun.", Asif said. I told them that I had been thinking about going to that dense forest. "Are you mad? Your mom won't allow. None of our parents will.", Red said.
I knew my parents won't permit me to go and get lost in that darkness. But I didn't plan to tell them. "It will be fun guys. We will be on our own.", I tried to get a yes out of their no. It took a lot of hard work but I won yet again.
That night I started packing stuff for the trip to the jungle. "I must not take too much baggage as we may have to carry thoss ourselves. We need no money, good shoes, not many clothes, lots of food and water.", said I to myself when Mom entered the room with a big bag. "Here. I have put all your clothes and few light footwears in there. And yes, money is in the back pocket. Enough money to buy your own food. Ok?", she said.
I had to take most of the things out and pack again. I used the money to buy snacks and other edibles though.
Next day Dad dropped us at the bus stand and we had to walk 4 kms back to get into the woods.
"Joe, are we sure we want to do this? I mean we can still go back.", Red said. "Let us do it, Chicken. Let us get in there.", Asif said before I could reply.
The moment we entered the place it felt strange. A mixed feeling- excitement plus fear. That feeling you get on your first day in a new school. I knew I wanted to do this but I was not really sure about doing it. Mixed feelings, like I said.
As we started getting inside the woods it got darker and darker. At one point we had to use our torches. We had no idea about what time of the day it was. It certainly was not night because we had just started and it was morning out there, in the city. After walking for few hours or so we saw little light getting into the trees. We started to walk towards it and there we found the most beautiful lake in the place. "Wow. Water. And.... too much water.", Red said. "I love this place.", Asif shouted as he pulled off his shirt and jumped into the water. We followed. "It is indeed a beautiful place.", I whispered to myself as I looked around.
The sun was bright right over our heads. I believe this was the only part of the jungle where the light managed to reach. We bathed till the sun was down. Then we put on new clothes and left the wet one to dry near the fire we made. My baggage was not useless after all. I had matchboxes with me. We did not have to use early man's techniques of striking the stones together.
We spent the night near the lake only to find our clothes missing. "Must've been some stupid monkey.", I said disappointed. Those were my favorite tees which I lost. Now we were left with only the clothes we had on us. Bags and everything were gone except the little purse I used to hang around my neck. It carried my important things like tootbrush, a toothpaste, torch and my undies.
"Damn those monkeys or whatever stole our stuff. What are we gonna do without that?", Red said. Asif was a brave heart and lively person. "Look at the bright side guys. We don't have to carry our heavy bags now. Fun, innit?", he said. And Red added, " Yes, as far as our brushes are concerned we can use same brush. All three of us. Yay?". "I would choose to not brush this whole week.", Asif made an ugly face.
We started further into the woods. We had to use our torches again. Soon the lights went off in the middle of nowhere. "Great. The batteries drained off.", we could easily sense fear in Red's voice. "Who named you Red? They should have named you pink, Loser.", Asif sounded disgusted by the fear Red always carried around. "I tell you we shouldn't have brought him along. I regret it now. Chicken.", he continued. "Relax, guys. I have got few extra sets of batteries. Chill.", I felt the things in my purse with my hand. I got hold of the batteries. "Here. We use one torch at a time. Ok?", I said as I put batteries in my torch and switched it on.
We walked again. The light from one torch wasn't enough to show the way to all three of us. But we managed. We had to.
"We must get back to the lake by the evening.", I said. I realised that being in dark for so long could be dangerous. We, however, had completely lost the track of time. There was no sign of any water body or light anywhere.
"Huh. We have been moving around looking for the lake for a long time now. Can we sit down and rest now, please?", red seemed exhausted. We had really been wallking for many long hours now. I believe it was night already and it was almost impossible to find the lake in such darkness. We sat down and switched off the torch.
"Oh thee children, you seek light in the world so dark. Here is the light. Here is the light", Asif started to mess around with Red. He knew that Red would be scared. He switched on and off his torch again and again. "What the hell is that? Behind you, Asif?", I shouted. In the fluctuating light of his torch I thought I saw some figure moving. Asif turned around with his torch. "Fair enough, dawg. I mess around with you and you scare me.", he laughed.
I did not argue because I was not really sure what I had seen. But yes I was scared. We sat quiet for a while when Red said, "Isn't it weird? We are in the middle of a jungle, our stuff gets stolen by some animal but we haven't spotted any animal or any living creature in last 48 hrs." I had seen something I think. I didn't tell them because I didn't want to scare them.
In a while we all dosed off quietly. We tied all the stuff we were left with to our bodies. We must have slept for only two to three hours when I heard Red shouting, "The Lake. The lake. Oh my God. It has been here all this while and we didn't notice." He was so excited as if he had managed to date the hottest girl in the school. I rubbed my eyes and followed his voice. I picked up Asif's torch and other things he had left.
Red was already in the water. He was enjoying the bath but Asif? Where was Asif? "Red, where is Asif?", I asked. "A sudden redness and fear flushed onto Red's face. "Yes, Asif. Where is he?" We looked around for him.
"You look on this side I will look there.", I said. But Red didn't want to be alone. "Can't we stay together?", he said. We searched the bushes and called out his nane several times. No reply came.
"I thought it was a dream. Probably, it wasn't.", Red murmered. "Dream? What dream? Talk to me Red? What did you see?", I asked.
"It was not a dream, Joe. That thing took him away. It was a big shadow. Huge shadow. I saw it dragging him away. Asif has been taken by something.", he started to cry. "Are you sure that was not a dream?", I said worried. "Ok. We can't just sit down here and cry. We need to be careful. We must look out for animals and be safe.", I gathered some courage and got up. "And we won't stop looking for Asif until we are sure about what happened to him.", I continued.
Red did not stop weeping. Only Asif could handle him. I missed Asif more because of that. Red had started to give me a scare. "It was all your idea. You wanted to be here. You convinced Asif and that brave heart didn't think twice.", Red said. It sounded like he was blaming me for what happened to Asif and what was happening to us. He held me responsible for everything. "I didn't force you. And let us not fight about it right now. We need to get out of here first.", I said.
We started walking back. I was not sure if we were going in the right direction but we couldn't stop. This place was not safe. Through the thorny bushes we walked and walked. "This is not the route we came through. Do you even know where are we going?", Red protested. "No, I don't. Do you? Fine, you lead then.", I said irritated.
We soon ran out of batteries again. "This is the last set of batteries. We must use them carefully.", I said as I removed the old batteries and started looking for new ones in my bag. "You want us all dead. You knew this place was dangerous. There was a reason our parents didn't let us here.", Red started shouting like crazy. "Oh shut up, Red. You are not the only one stuck in here. I am here too. You need to be quiet if you want both of us to get out of this place.", I threatened him. I hoped it will work this time. I found the batteries. Before I could put batteries into the torch I heard Red call out my name loudly. I called back. His voice disappeared soon as if someone had blocked his mouth. I heard something drag him away and before I could turn on the torch he was gone. I ran around and called his name but all I could hear was my own voice echoing back to me. My forehead was wet. I had tears in my eyes. It was just me in that big dark jungle. Just me and that thing which took away my friends. What was it? A lion? A bear? Some animal? Or a monster? I had to find a way out. I couldn't let myself die like that.
I went back to the lake and decided the direction I would be going to. I took a stick along and walked. All this while there was a fear in my mind that the thing was still following me and it will pull me into the bushes anytime, drag me to its den and eat me up.
After walking miles in the same direction I spotted light. I was the happiest. I was sure this was the road to life. I ran towards the light and as I removed the last bush that was coming in my way aside, I saw the lake. What the hell? Wasn't I going in the opposite direction? How did I end up on the lake again? This is rubbish. The fear inside me amplified.
The sun was coming down. What should I do now? Wait for the thing to come and take me or keep walking, no matter what? Walking was a good idea. That way I could deviate my mind from the fear of that monster to the fear that I was lost.
The light of the torch dimmed. "Please don't die. Don't die. Don't die.", I begged.
I was still talking to my torch when I felt the first blow which made the torch fall from my hands. "Who is it?", I moved my hand around to feel the thing. Then came another blow and I was down on the ground. In the dim light I could see the shadowy figure walk towards me. It had a rod or something in its hand. Did he want to hit me again? Did he want to kill me? Had he killed my friends?
I thought about many things. What had happened to my friends? I got flashbacks like they get in movies. How I lied to Mama and Dad and never told them where I was going, how I convinced Asif and Red and how I lost them. Mama and Dad didn't even know where I was.
I expected a third blow coming my way soon and I was sure I won't survive the last one.
As I breathed my last I wished that I visit Mama and Dad in their dreams and tell them the truth. I wished our parents came looking for us. I wished they found my body before the last shred of meat on my body disappeared and I turned into a skelton.
