One month later, August 2018

I'll take it straight to the point. All the six of us were back in my bedroom, surrounding a single page of my open notebook. It was only two weeks before I moved out and we had to get this done.

"Reverse"

The algorithm to open the AMNESIA papyrus and this is all we were left to do with.

'Well, by now I'm sure this isn't the answer. Direct answers are against the law' said Dhruv.

'Uh-huh, the combination has eight letters anyway. So this is so not working' I told him.

'What could "Reverse" mean anyway?' Devika asked.

'A lot of things maybe, like say...' Samarth trailed off.

'Like what?' asked Akash.

'I don't know, like say two mirror images or may be two people who are the complete opposites of one another'

'Could be, though. Should we write that down?' Akash asked.

'This one is probably hinting at some person we don't know' Devika suggested.

'Maybe, but-' Anu started off and stopped cold.

'Anu, what happened?' it was scary for me now if she ever froze like that. Reminded me of her monster avatar.

'Samarth?'

'Yeah?'

'Did you just say opposites?'

'So?'

'So, what is the opposite of AMNESIA?'

Devika's eyes grew wide.

'AN-AMNESIA!'

'Exactly!'

There was a silence as this sank in.

'Oh my gosh, Anu you're no match!' Samarth yelled and lifted her in the air as we laughed at the sight.

'Put me down babe, let me go!' she yelled, making him put her down.

'So come on, let's give it a try!' Akash shouted.

Anu placed all the letters one by one. A-N-A-M-N-E-S-I-A.

Click.

She carefully twisted the compartments and a white parchment fell on to her hand.

'Eureka!'

'What does it say?' I asked as we all came up for a look.

"Drink the Magnolia potion again and say the key, ANAMNESIA"

'Goodness, so the potion is the spell and the antidote at the same time' I spoke up.

'Yeah, and we'll have to keep it safe. We can't let it fall in the wrong hands anymore' Anu replied. This stays strictly between the six of us, no sharing anywhere. It's amazing how a wild rollercoaster adventure won us a tight squad of six.

'Tell you what, I'll change the combination of the safe and the next time we go up there, I'll make sure we lock it back again' he suddenly looked very guilty. 'This would've never happened if I hadn't left the safe unlocked that day in a hurry and forget all about it later'

Anu put her arm in his. 'It's not your fault dear. Nobody asked that rotten Sylvia to go up and snoop around in places where she wasn't supposed to. Nobody asked her to do any harm. She's stupid and she's got her desserts alright! Don't blame yourself for everything that goes wrong in your life'

He finally smiled. 'Thanks'

We were quiet for a while. Then suddenly Anu piped up. 'You know I was thinking we could all watch a movie here, since it's just a week before Maitreyi moves out. What say, chalein?'

'Chalo!' we all agreed in unison.

I stayed back for a while though. In the next few minutes, I went over everything we experienced last year. The adventures, the adrenaline, the tears of sadness and joy. Tears pricked at the corners of my own eyes.

I came to the realisation, that friendships can be fairytales too! As my heart skipped a beat, I realized I had touched the fingertips of a surreal world of magic, a world none had known of, neither me. Until destiny brought me there.

THE END