Aarav takes me to 'Amaze Park', which I thought against going for my well being and peace of mind. All the clamour at the fair adds up to my headache. Maybe I should've simply escaped to Himalayas and accepted Buddhism. Me with a shaved head and beating a pot with a stick would have been highly hilarious though.

Aarav brings me out of my thoughts by pushing me forward by my shoulders, and says, "We are separately going, not with our classmates. I guess you didn't pay the fees for this one at school, right? Even if you paid, don't worry, I'll cover all your expenses today. By the way I didn't, so let's enjoy what we want together..."

I cut him off, "Dude, lemme talk, okay? Yeah, I didn't pay the fees and I don't have any friends right now I will share these rides with. So how about we just watch a movie and go home?"

He pleads me, "No Amaira, you've promised me, you'd listen to whatever I say today. We can watch a movie some other time. And now, which ride shall we head to first?"

And he starts scanning his surroundings."Yep, let's go there", he points to the Scrambler.

(A/N: FOR YOU TO GET AN IDEA WHAT A SCRAMBLER IS)

https://youtu.be/i6RyiZityxA

Before I give a response, he holds my hand and starts going towards it. I look down at our intertwined hands with my mouth open, and breaths getting shorter.

Aarav looks back at me, mouthing, "Come on". 

I smile and say, "Let's go."

While we are running, all the surroundings seem to become a blur, and I look down at our hands time to time. Aarav's hair is fluttering around his face, making him look more handsome. This scene is so surreal that I am still unable to believe it. 

My hair keeps hitting my face, due to wind (Aarav didn't allow me to tie it up), and I move my left hand to remove them away from my face, my right hand secure in his hand. 

In this moment, I like Aarav more. Like the like where you really like a person, so much that you'd do anything to see his handsome smile again.

Finally, Aarav pays for the tickets, and we get on to it.

We sit holding the bar in front of us, and smiling at each other goofily. How I wish time would freeze in this instant! 

The ride starts slowly and then we swing like crazy. For a moment, I wonder if I would fall down, my head hitting the floor and blood spurting out. 

I shake my head from those thoughts and look at Aarav. He is enjoying the ride the most, and screaming at top of his lungs. He motions me to shout too, which I decline and turn to other side. The sun is currently going to his highest point, and I'm sweating a lot, with sick sensations all over my body.

After the ride finishes, I finally huff and try to take a full breath. But Aarav tugs me to carousel and says, "I heard that girls like these rides. Go on in, I'll wait for you outside."

"Why don't you join me?", I ask, panting.

"These are for kids, not for me", he proudly answers.

"Your loss. I'm heading inside", I walk away, laughing at how childish he is right now.

I always wanted to ride this one, but never got to. Maybe it was because I feared to go out into public after that incident or because my parents got too busy to care about me. 

As the horse goes up and down, I remember how my previous life used to be. Only ups. And just one down had to occur, which dragged me really down. 

But this ride was pitch perfect, showcasing that after every up there's a down and after every down there's a up.

I suddenly remember a post Rahul sent me by accident on Instagram.

 It says, 'Why do you have to let your past drag you down? Throw it down with all your mightiness and start anew'

I was shocked at first that Rahul knew about me. Then I began panicking. What would I do if he tells all at school? What if no one wants to stay with me again? I recently made new friends, Aarav, Tacy, maybe Sadhvi too. Will they all avoid me?

In the middle of my confusion, he texted saying it was accidentally sent to me.

The ride finishes, and I come out and search for Aarav after the ride finishes. He is no where in sight. I begin looking frantically around me, shouting out his name. 

Suddenly from my back side, an ice-cream comes into my view. I snatch it immediately and look behind while licking it. It is a chocolate flavored one after all.

"You shouldn't eat things from anonymous people, you know?", Aarav skedges.

"I knew it was from you Aarav, my sixth sense works that way", I tease.

"Shall we head to the roller coaster then?", Aarav asks after we finish eating.

"Hell, yeah", I shout in excitement from all that sweet rush.

It's already mid noon by the time we're done with that roller coaster and I am hungry, like super hungry. So I head to a nearby hotel and sit down fanning myself.

Aarav follows me and orders a burger, a veg sandwich, a tiramisu and a pepsi.

"No, I want rice", I say as soon as I see him carrying those.

"Who ordered for you. These are for me, go get them yourself", he shoos me away and starts eating.

"You sure eat like a pig", I hiss and go.

"Take light food, otherwise it may be vomited due to all those rides", Aarav shouts from our table ignoring my previous comment.

He takes all the food in the restaurant and dares to lecture me. I get myself a veg biryani and start eating.

"Don't regret when you ruin a perfect moment due to your vomiting", Aarav mumbles.

"What?", I ask, putting aside my favorite dish for a second.

"Nothing", he mutters and goes back to drinking his pepsi.

We complete some other fun rides and by now the sun is setting.

Aarav asks, "How many rides do we still have? Let me see this place map once. Umm...we have completed this, this, and these all." 

He turns the page, "This, this, YEAH, we still have two rides left, 'The Haunted House' one and 'The Ferris Wheel' one. Which do you want to attack first, Amaira?"

When I hear the name 'Ferris Wheel', I get taken back to my idol dramas, where the male lead takes the female lead there and proposes to her. How lovely would it be to get proposed to by Aarav at the highest point on Ferris Wheel?!

"Earth to Amaira", Aarav shakes his palm in front of me.

"Yeah, wh-what did you ask?", I say composing myself.

"Which ride next?", he emphasizes.

"The haunted house of course", I reply with the image of Aarav kissing me at the top of the Ferris Wheel still reeling in my mind.

"What are you waiting for, let's hurry", he drags me again for the infinite-th time.

"Yeah, of course", I mumble.

We reach there. The outside setting of this place is very classy. Not like the typical haunted houses, which put ghost things all around and tries to scare you, but actually a failure beneath.

 Here, it looks like just any house, a bungalow to be precise, with a clean garden out, and dust free doors and windows.

I say, "I bet this place ain't gonna scare us much."

Aarav replies, "I bet you'll be scared shitless after the first ten minutes."

I hear another guy saying, to his girlfriend I guess, "This place's nothing baby, let's go somewhere else. I'll be out of here in ten minutes max."

His girlfriend whines, "No baby, let's go. This website says that the relation between couples can be improved by doing horror things together."

"Whatever you want baby", he kisses her forehead and puts his hand around her shoulder.

She giggles. 

Aish! How nice would it be to be in a relationship. I turn around and see Aarav watching me intently. His gaze gradually heats me up in this warm evening, and goosebumps start forming all over my body. I rub my hands to keep myself warm and look downwards. 

Just then, an announcement sounds, "Those of batch five, go on in fast!" 

When I look up, Aarav is watching elsewhere. 

Aarav enters into the house, and I follow him silently, feeling a mixture of emotions, making me downcast and giddy at the same time. 

The couple at the entrance enter giggling and holding hands. 

Inside is nothing like outside. Outside is all normal and cheery, just like any normal house. Inside it's all dark tales, with depression seeping through the walls of the house. This house ironically reminds me of myself, I smile to myself.

Suddenly someone from before gives out a cry, "AAAAAHHHHH!" and runs around without seeing where he is going. 

He is about to knock in to me, when Aarav comes in between us and both guys fall down due to the impact of hitting their heads.

That guy gets up first, muttering, "Ouch! Sorry dude, I was scared."

Aarav tries to get up but hisses and sits down when he's halfway through.

"Oh My God Aarav, are you okay?", I ask him with my voice shivering.

"Sorry, really sorry", that guy says again.

"It's okay, my ankle might have sprained though. Would you mind helping me up?", he says with pain evident in his face.

I kneel down, and put his right arm around my shoulder, while that guy who knocked Aarav down, puts Aarav's left arm around his shoulder. We both lift him up.

After standing, Aarav says, "I can manage with her", and removes his hand off that guy's shoulder.

"But...", that guy starts.

Aarav cuts him in middle, "We can manage, thank you", in a just-get-the-hell-away-from-me tone.

I'm amazed right now, 'Aarav trying to be polite', the world will surely show you wonders if you are willing to see.

After all this commotion, everything becomes quiet for a while, and all I can focus is on Aarav's breath hitting my face and my heartbeat increasing by second.

The girlfriend shouts from behind, "Why are you all stuck? Move up! Those who'll complete first will have a special prize from this ride's management."

And everyone suddenly starts moving around in disarray. 

Standing still like a statue, Aarav and me, both look anywhere except each other's faces. 

Finally, I prep myself and say, "Let's go, there seem to be prizes."

"Okay", Aarav grunts in response.

Walking with bearing almost half of his weight is very difficult. Within a minute, I am panting as a dog on a hot summer day.

"Is it difficult for you to keep going? Let's head back, we can come here another day", Aarav sounds disappointed.

What a fool I am? Aarav would have done the same for me had my ankle been sprained. And here I am, showing out all my frustration towards him in an underlying manner.

I reply, "No, we should go and complete this and the remaining rides."

"If that's okay with you....", Aarav mutters loud enough for me to hear.

"Since there are prizes, we should form a plan and try to get out of here first", I say thinking hard.

"Let's do that, since we lack speed", Aarav comments. 

"Am I making you feel bad?", I ask Aarav. 

 "No, nothing's bad. I can now put my arm around you without any excuse", he flirts.

Maybe he winks too, I can't see clearly in this dancing disco lights. 

I smack him on his head, and everything's back to normal between us again.

"From what I observed, this building has two floors. Usually in other haunted houses, there'll only be one floor. But why are there two floors? Unless....", Aarav starts.

"The exit is in the above floor", we both shout at the same time and laugh.

"So now, let's check for those stairs", I say.

"Don't shout too loud, others may here you", Aarav says as we start going around.

"Who's left here anyway? And who'd be dumb enough to not know it?", I reply.

"Which direction should we go?", Aarav changes the topic.

I look around. Strangely till now, there's no scene of a ghost coming out of nowhere and trying to scare us. Then why did that fellow cry out? There is no horror music or sounds coming out of the speakers. 

There are three ways in front of us: One leads to a bright way, filled with lot of fluorescence lights; second leads to a medium brightness way, it is filled with night lamps and bulbs; and the third is all dark, making you shake in your knees kinda dark.

"How about we go into the first one? It's bright and we can see our way in there", Aarav suggests.

"Don't you think they'd expect us to go through this passage? I think we should go through the darkest one", I contemplate.

"Atleast let's go through the middle one", Aarav starts bargaining.

"Okay, I'll go through the darkest one, and you go through the middle or first one, your choice, let's meet outside", I tease.

"No, take me with you", Aarav almost shouts.

"Everything okay with you?", I ask in concern.

"Yeah, yeah, why'd it be not okay? I just have a fear for darkness", Aarav trembles.

"Ooh, someone here's afraid of darkness....BOO!", I try to fear him.

"AHHHHH!", Aarav jumps up and down like he's stuck in a pigsty.

"Okay, okay, let's not waste any time here, come on", I say and start going through the third way.

I almost enter through it when I notice Aarav's not with me. I turn back and see him trembling near a corner. Oh my, did I really scare him off? I go near him and try to console him.

"Shhhh, it's okay Aarav, I'm here with you", I say, patting his back.

His trembles decrease after a few minutes.

"I'm so sorry Aarav, I didn't know it'd really scare you", I aplogise.

Aarav doesn't speak up. What do I do now? Me and my idiot brain.

'Good thing you know it', my conscience wakes up.

'Now's not the time', I and my brain shoo it off.

"Shall we head outside?", I ask Aarav.

Instead Aarav locks his hand with mine and says, "No, let's go and get those damn prizes, Amy."

Though 'Amy' stirs up hate in me, my hand in his is still sending those waves of current and helps me cool down and heat up in just a few seconds.

We walk slowly through that third door. As soon as we enter the room, the door closes away with a THUD. Aarav gasps loudly and I end up pacifying him again. What's up with Aarav and darkness anyway? Is he really afraid of dark?

Aarav ends up stumbling through the entire time we try to walk anywhere. When he bumps into a table and I almost fall again, I burst out.

"You just don't move anywhere except where I take you", I order.

He mumbles something."Huh?", I probe.

"Nothing, let's go fast, time's running", he replies.

We finally reach the stairs and it's all creepy, stinky and gross.

"It looks exactly like the kind of saliva in 'Ghost Busters'", Aarav comments, holding his nose.

"Why don't we simply go back?", I say to Aarav.

It's getting difficult for me too to continue to hold him and not be able to breath in that air.

And then, some white thing swooshes past us and Aarav moves back and falls on me. Due to our weight falling on the wooden floor, the floor gives away and we both fall down. 

There's nothing here except pitch darkness, and I can't even feel Aarav around me.

HOW'S THE CLIFF-HANGER FELLAS? DO YOU LIKE IT? SO SORRY FOR NOT GIVING YOU A CHAPTER SOON. I GUESS I'LL UPDATE ANOTHER ONE REALLY SOON. AND THANKS TO ALL THOSE WHO HAVE STUCK WITH ME AND KEPT ON PROBING ME TO UPDATE. FINALLY, DON'T FORGET TO VOTE, COMMENT, AND FOLLOW!

BTW...WHO'S YOUR FAVO CHARACTER SO FAR IN THIS BOOK? AND YOU'LL START GETTING MORE INSIGHT INTO ARAAV'S FRIENDS AND AMAIRA'S SCHOOLMATES FROM NEXT CHAPTER. LEMME KNOW WHO YOU SHIP ;)