They stepped down the canoe. Nathan went off to tie the boat to one of the wooden rods half submerged into the sea with a rope. This place was more of a relinquished island with wilderness spreading across the isle bending in the undergrowth. The degree of tranquility was awakening.

All Sarah could see in front of her was a teeny-tiny abandoned bakery shop. Bakery shops were supposed to give off the aura of warmth and cream and sprinkles, but this was completely contradicting all the principles. It looked so dead that even a necromancer would feel morbid.

"So he was just kidding about the place being something I'll like. Am I so bad at humour as to not get the joke?" thought Sarah.

"Look carefully. It's splendid," Nathan instructed her as if he knew what it was that she was thinking.

She closed her eyes hard and opened again and saw what Nathan told her was the reality. Gradually a couple of pieces of the not-so-happy-bakery began falling apart, revealing something golden. This oblivion, whose spire she could see, was indeed magnificent and had a sense of freshness and exclusive beauty.

It was a colossal palace that was combined of three to four mansions. Almost a billion balls of coloured fire emitted light as they decorated the pathway and the rest of the mansion. In the centre of the castle was what seemed like a shimmering pavilion. It had a glowing and burning pillar, emitting flames of different heavenly colours—red for salvation; silver for redemption; orange for endurance; blue for heavenly bodies, green for hope; and rose for care.

The flames rose high in the sky as they became round balls and suspended themselves in the air. Many waltzed all round the campus guiding others to the façade or simply clinging on to the air. Every couple was accompanied by one ball of dazzling and hot fire that changed its colour momentarily. 

Sarah felt as though she might get blinded by the shimmers of colours and prints the crowd wore. The colours were subtle yet gorgeous. Women wore ankle-length gowns that didn't exactly look like those shown in Cinderella. They were slim and gave a baggy appearance at the bicep region. It was the blouse above the gown that caught her eye for its vibrant colour combination. Sarah couldn't contemplate as to how many layers they'd worn underneath this gown. She realised that almost every woman except her was wearing a bonnet albeit there was no daylight.

Men wore ruffled shirts and full-length trousers. Buttoned waist coats almost hid under coats that touched knees. The cravats they wore completely covered their neck. Nathan didn't wear many of these but nobody seemed to be in the mood of caring.

Sarah and Nathan crossed the garden that was ineffably decorated. Confetti of lights with no wires carefully hung on each tree, enlightening the entire garden. Round glittering balls of fire danced and floated in the air surrounding each tree.

It appeared as if the garden itself was glowing. 

All that must have been the witches' task.

At once all those arrangements and light turned into nothingness and the clumsy bakery returned.

Sarah looked at Nathan who was looking around with a sense of enchantment. His thin pink lips were moving as if they were saying something but she couldn't hear what because of the clamour of voices that came from a crowd that she could no longer see.

No sooner she started to lean towards him than Nathan whispered in her ears, "You're resisting it. All of this is a phantom; Let yourself absorb every shred of it." All of his words were making Sarah shake maybe because he was standing too close to her. "Feel the presence of magic around. Allow it to go through you; invite it, Sarah."

She closed her eyes not acknowledging the fact that Nathan had called her by her actual name. And she saw the castle again.

As they neared the grand entrance, Nathan made her stop and said, "Listen. What I said earlier today evening about how you looked, I wasn't lying. I genuinely meant it."

Sarah's face flushed. She looked sideways at him, peeped into his light blue eyes which were not looking at her. They were always glowing as if had traces of water. She felt mortified because of the made up story she'd loaded over him back at the duplex. She knew it was, in a way, the correct thing to do but it wasn't the best timing in the world.

He knew that she was looking at him but didn't say anything though he did feel weird. He offered her his arm.

"Jesus, no. I can't replace you with Adrian."

He raised his left eyebrow. 

"Adrian was some guy I saw every evening at half past four. Black from top to bottom. Only things not white were his headphones wrapped around the neck, and unusually clean white sneakers. Hand gripping his dog's leash, head always down, he moved past Elliot's house. In my imagination, ideas and stories swirled like a tornado. But one story was fixed: for my freshmen year I had been, for the prom I was supposed to attend, had I been to an actual school, escorted by that guy. I sat at the windowsill every day at quarter past  four, waited for him, and saw him for a sixty seconds. He covered his ears with the headphones whenever he saw someone recognisable. Other times, he'd just look down an walk. The house wasn't visible to the human eye. I saw him every day, yet he didn't know I existed. Sixty seconds. Half past four. Every day," Sarah thought. When it came to replying to Nathan, she said, "No one."

Now when she thought about it, it seemed hilarious. He'd still be walking his usual walk, but this time only the sky and clouds, and, if lucky enough, sunlight, saw him, and not Sarah. Everyone but her.

After a moment Nathan cleared his throat (repenting it a second later) and said, "Shall we?"

She nodded her head and said, "It should have taken at least more five minutes for me to approve for this but somehow I feel this is—like, I can do this."

"I understand. You can take your time; I won't mind."

"I hope you don't think your sweet comments can change the fact that I loathe you already," she said cheekily.

"So, you do find them sweet."

He looked at her and gestured a request to accept to hang her arms around his again, and said, "You know, we'd make a really good friendship," Every thread of attempt at making it sound polite was nakedly visible.

"I was impressed to see I hadn't barfed till yet and now you're almost compelling me to do so that too on your," she waited for him to complete the sentence, not knowing that he had no idea what she wanted him to say.

"You've got to complete the sentence," she added after a while.

"Shoes perhaps?" He raised his eyebrow.

"If anything less vague?"

He waited for some time and squealed, "My thousand dollar shoes."

"Quick learner. Good. But not enough to be qualified as my friend. Any type of friend for that matter." she said.

"I-What? You have various types of friends?" 

"Yeah. No shit, Sherlock. To some of the friends you greet hello before saying what you want and to some you just start demanding. I followed this rule in middle school, which was the time I actually went to school, and it helped. Well, you're kind of old, so you won't really get it". She rued the way it came out. It was true anyway.

"I'd ignore the aspect of it being an insult. And no, I'm just socially a bit inept. That's it," he explained. He felt awkward to even think of him being old and sitting on a rocking chair while his hair turned white--No. This wasn't going to happen. Ageing was definitely his worst nightmare.

He was finding minds of the twenty-first century's teenagers shockingly confusing. For Terminals, the world was a very happening place whose tiny little corner they could call home. They often lost tracks of the trends and fashion, and bureaucracy and time, and lived the life freely like a gentle breeze.

"Right. A bit," she said, laughing.

He produced a snicker and a moment later said, "After you."

She rolled her eyes and surprisingly gave a short laugh as she took his arm.

***

Thank you so much for reading till here. It really means a lot to me. 

Question: Nathan's greatest fear is to grow older. What is yours? I'm pretty pumped up to know your answers on this one in the comment section!

Date for next upload (for me today is 14/05/21): 16/05/21 

Have a gorgeous day!

***

Please DO NOT promote plagiarism AT ALL. It is a punishable offence. If you do, serious action may be taken against you.