Chapter 2

Chapter 1: Legends being born

- R.A. Salvatore

She hummed a mindless tune as she drove down the almost empty road, feeling a light tranquillity settling upon her. Sharon liked empty roads. Almost as much as she liked stepping on empty soda cans. They were delightfully squishable, after all.

Her radio had guttered to a stop two nights ago and her procrastinating nature had still kept it in an unrepaired state. Still, she duly commiserated it by constantly humming a tune, never mind the fact that she sounded like a frog regurgitating a poisonous insect.

But that was the thing about Sharon Raiprakash - she didn't care. If it made her happy, balls to what other people thought of it. Some would call that selfish, she called it living.

As it were, there were only a handful of people in this world that she cared about. And right now, she could see two of them through the brightly lit window of the diner.

Diana's diner was an out of the way restaurant, neatly tucked between a car showroom on one side and a gas station on the other. It was a slim, rectangular structure with huge glass windows covering almost the entire front side of the diner. The lights inside, reflected and refracted by the windows, imparted a cheery, uplifting atmosphere to the entire street.

They had been coming here for as long as she could remember. Earlier, they had frequented this place on an almost daily basis. Yet now, they came here only once in a fortnight.

Being twenty-six was exhausting she thought.

She pulled into the parking lot and got out of her car. She had worn a pair of cutoff shorts and a simple T-shirt that sported the words 'Maturity isoverrated' on it. Her black pair of sneakers hid the fact that, underneath, shehad put on a pair of mismatched socks in a hurry. She pushed through the glassdoors and was cheerily greeted by Erin. Erin was currently studying Law andshe worked as a waitress there to pay for her student loan. She came over andencompassed Sharon in a rather girly hug.

"Been too long, Share!" she chirped.

"Are you ever not merry?" inquired Sharon, smiling a bit.

"Never!" she winked, ducking under the counter and disappearing into the kitchen.

"Why do you guys look like you're starring in an '80's sitcom?" she said, slipping in beside Rey.

"Because we prefer them over those of the 21^st Century." Replied Swayam, rather seriously. He was wearing a polo neck T-shirt and a pair of jeans and looked rather tired. Rey, as usual, sported his favorite leather jacket and a pair of ripped jeans.

"What are we having today?" asked Rey. He looked a bit fidgety and when she looked at Swayam, she saw his eyes flash with something. But it lasted for only a second. Rey stiffened suddenly and Swayam wiped all expression from his face.

Sharon had never approved of Swayam's habit of looking like an emotionlesspiece of wood. But what irked her more was the fact that even afterbefriending him for sixteen years she had never figured out how to read him.

"I think I'll have the usual," said Swayam quickly, before she had the chance to butt in.

"Me too." Said Rey, leaning back and rubbing his eyes with the back of his hands.

"Sharon?" asked Swayam.

"Yeah. Me too." She said distractedly.

There had been a time when Sharon would just force the information out of them. She had been ten then and she was, as Swayam would fondly like to remind her, a big fat bully. Sharon always frowned at that analogy, as she had been neither fat nor strictly a bully. She liked to think of herself as having been headstrong and determined. But Swayam would just scoff at her and refer to her as Sharon 'bully babe' Raiprakash. She, in turn, would criticize his inability of coming up with a more creative nickname.

But, in the end, it was her wilful nature that had rendered the three of them friends. Sharon and Rey had been friends since they first learnt that it was rude to poop in your pants. It was only in the 5^th grade that they met Swayam. He had transferred to their school and on the first day during recess, she had seen him sitting all by himself. She had marched over, with Rey in tow and demanded him to hand over his lunch.

"Sure," he had said, with a cool smile on his face, "but only if you say Please."

Sharon had snorted at that and had instead, threatened to sit on him. Not that she had ever sat on anyone or had any inclination to do so in the future, but at that time, it had seemed like a good enough threat. Swayam, however, had called her bluff and in the end, she had to swallow her pride and ask for his lunch politely. True to his word, Swayam had shared his lunch with them and the three of them had been inseparable since.

Agreed to have a battle;

For Tweedledum said Tweedledee

Had spoiled his nice new rattle."

"What the bloody hell is she singing?" asked Swayam exasperatedly, as he and Rey stumbled across the parking lot, dragging a very drunk Sharon along with them. She had her arms slung around both of them as she sang in a slurry voice,occasionally pausing to giggle.

"And who the hell gets drunk on beer?" he continued, just as Sharon tried to hop on his back.

"Sharon, apparently." Replied Rey, looking relieved as he felt Sharon let go of him. He looked at his watch and saw that it was nearing midnight.

"Gimme a ride, Tweedledee!" Sharon roared gleefully as she clung to Swayam's back. Swayam gave in reluctantly and hauled her on his back.

"Come to think of it, I haven't heard her sing that since we were eight years old," said Rey, looking bemused. When Swayam looked on uncomprehendingly, he continued, "Her father had taught us this rhyme and for some reason she was absolutely fascinated with it. She would sing it over and over, all the time. It drove me f**king mad. Finally her father forbade her to ever sing it again. And she didn't. Until now."

"Why do you think she would sing it now?" asked Swayam, quite seriously.

"I don't know. Do I look like a f**king psychiatrist?" asked Rey, mildly.

Swayam knew better than to take offense at that. Admittedly, Rey abused a lot. But that was who he was. Despite that, Rey was probably the sweetest guy on this planet. People often wondered if that sweetness was just a surface trait. But Swayam knew that underneath, Rey was sweeter still. He had never seen anyone more laidback than Rey. That guy just didn't know how to take offense.

"Where are we going?" asked Rey, as Swayam tried to stuff Sharon in thebackseat. "We can't take her home. Her father will freak."

"Yeah." Agreed Swayam, shuddering slightly as he remembered the first and only time Sharon's father had seen her drunk. "Well, there is only one other place, then."

Rey nodded in understanding and threw the car keys at Swayam.

"You drive."

*******

Rey couldn't help leaning out of the window as they drove up the muddy track. He looked at Swayam and saw a shadow of emotion on his face. Like all emotions that streamed their way across Swayam's face, this one too lasted for only a second. And then it was gone, to be replaced by its characteristic blankness.

He turned back around, looking at the looming structure in the distance.

The Manor.

That's what they called it. They had named it that to compliment its grandness. But its ruinous state had rendered the name ironical. It may have been magnificent in some long lost era. But now, only the ghost of that magnificence lingered. It was a huge, colonial structure with tall, engraved pillars at every turn. But every part of it had either been eaten or blackened or chipped off. It had a rusted set of gates marking its entrance. Years ago they had opened the gates and had never shut them again. The entire property was marked with a low, stone wall which had all but crumbled to dust.

There must have been a garden once, trimmed and maintained. But now the entire expanse of land was interspersed with wild trees and stubborn weeds that gave the place a feral look.

Inside, the place was comparatively less dilapidated. Rey had been the first to discover this place and the first thing he had done was count the number of rooms. It had fourteen, divided into floors of three, excluding the attic. The roof was in absolute shambles. In fact in some parts it was almost non-existent. Sunlight, rain, hail or snow, all were allowed to pass with minimal resistance.

But it was mainly the Wind that dominated this place. It howled through it, unobstructed and never-ending. It was always chilly in The Manor.

They drove past the rusted gates and parked the car beneath a cluster of trees. Rey got out of the car, leaving Swayam to deal with Sharon.

Rey had only ever depended on one person in his entire life ' Swayam. He had come to acknowledge it as an incontrovertible fact. Swayam would always be there for him and Sharon. They both trusted him explicitly, almost blindly. And that trust had, over time, given him the confidence to presume that as long as he had Swayam watching his back, he would never fall.

Sharon had fallen asleep over the course of the journey and Swayam now carried her sleeping figure as nonchalantly as though he was carrying a feathered pillow.

Rey kicked open the termite-ridden oak doors and walked inside. For a minute he just looked about, inspecting and reminiscing. It had been months since they had last come here, but for all intents and purposes, the place looked as it always had. He stood in the living room and admired the grand marble staircase with its chipped stairs and half-broken balustrade. There was an elaborate fireplace, towards the west of the room. The mantelpiece boasted only a single ornament ' a broken time piece. The living room itself opened into five other quarters, including the one hidden under the staircase. The thing that had appealed the most to Rey when he had first discovered this place was the possibility of finding secret passageways and hidden chambers. And he hadn't been disappointed.

"Let's go to the Sun Room, yeah?" said Swayam, walking in behind him, with Sharon snuggled cartoonishly in his arms.

The Sun Room was a room adjacent to the living room. They called it that simply because it was east facing. During the day, the sun would seep in through the long, wide windows and soak the entire room with a splash of gold. It was ethereal.

But even in the middle of the night, The Manor was never really dark. Often the moonlight would pierce through every crack in the wall and bathe the place in warm, silver light. On moonless nights, the stars would suffice, twinkling mischievously in the night sky.

"Take out the futon," said Swayam, coming to a stop in the middle of the room. Apart from a rickety old wardrobe, the room was essentially empty. After the first time they had used this place as a haven for hangovers, they had stashed a portable futon along with a sufficient number of blankets in here. Rey took the futon from where it was leaning against the wardrobe and opened it. Swayamgently placed Sharon on the futon and the mattress compressed under her weight. He took some blankets from the wardrobe, threw a couple of them at Rey and used one to cover Sharon. He then placed some blankets on the floor beside the futon making a makeshift bed. Almost as an afterthought, he turned around and took off Sharon's shoes.

"You owe me ten bucks." Said Swayam, chuckling. There was something akin to fondness in his eyes as he looked at Sharon. Rey looked at what was amusing him so much and saw Sharon's mismatched pair of socks.

"f**k!" he swore, pulling out a ten-dollar bill from his pocket and handing it to Swayam. "I was so sure she wasn't going to screw up this time."

Still chuckling, Swayam turned back around to work on his makeshift bed.

"We always forget the pillows," said Swayam, looking comically crestfallen. "We tell ourselves we'll get them the next time but we never do. It's tragic, since I really like pillows."

"You sound disconcertingly similar to Sharon," said Rey simply.

Swayam caught the inflection in his tone and sighed.

"If you're going to go for another round of how much I'm in love with Sharon, you can go ahead and shut up." He said, lying down on the blankets and propping an arm under his head to serve as a pillow.

"Aren't you?" asked Rey, almost rhetorically.

"I'm not." Replied Swayam, firmly, a tinge of annoyance audible in his voice.

"Maybe," said Rey, gathering his blankets, "Or maybe, you just don't know yet."

He turned abruptly towards the window, putting an end to the conversation.

Not feeling especially sleepy, Rey placed the blankets on the window ledge and sat atop it. Almost immediately he began a search of his pockets.

"Must you?" came Swayam's voice. Rey turned in his direction, half-surprised. He couldn't really see Swayam's face in the dark but he was almost sure he had a disapproving look in his eyes.

"You know I must." Replied Rey, smiling sadly. He found the pack of cigarettes he had been looking for and pulled out a lighter from his jacket. He lit one and took a long drag before puffing out the smoke. The calm came almost instantly, satiating his addiction.

*******

She was swimming. At least her head was. She tried to lift it up, but it was too heavy. Not to mention the fact that it hurt like hell to do that. Her eyes felt bleary and her stomach, violated.

There was something vibrating in her pocket. Her phone. The thought came much too late, as by then it had stopped vibrating.

She tried to open her eyes and almost did manage to, but the light was too much to take in. She shut them again and it was only after the fourth try could she manage to keep it open albeit in a squint.

"Turn off that bloody light!" she moaned at no one in particular. She searched blindly for a blanket but couldn't find one. It was at that point that she realized she wasn't in her bed. Or her room. Or for that matter, in her house. The memories of last night came slowly enough through the thick fog in her head.

"Morning sunshine." Someone shouted.

Rey. It was his voice. She frowned at the volume and the cheeriness of his tone.

What was he so happy about? She thought, disdainfully.

At this point though, her phone began to vibrate again and this time she managed to pull it out of her pocket. She accepted the call and placed the phone next to her ear, her eyes still only half-open.

"WHERE ARE YOU?" someone bellowed from the other end, making her jump in shock and consequently dropping the phone on the floor. Wide awake now, she sat on the bed looking horrified.

"Oh shit!" she said, as she realized where she was supposed to be today.

*******

Rey looked over at where Sharon had suddenly sat up on the bed, looking slightly demented. He had been sitting next to the window for the entire night, unable to sleep. In his hand, he held his second cigarette of the day.

"Oh shit!" she said, looking sick and the next thing he knew, she had tumbled off the futon-

-right on top of Swayam, who, up until this point, had been sleeping peacefully on his pile of blankets. A small 'oof' escaped his lips as he had his breath knocked out of him. He opened his eyes and looked at Sharon sitting on top of him. Sharon, on her part, looked too preoccupied to notice that she was almost suffocating Swayam.

"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!" she chanted, searching for her phone.

"Why?" asked Swayam with infinite patience and resignation. "Just why?"

When Sharon continued to look disoriented, he got up suddenly. At this point, Rey debated over whether or not he should acquaint them to the fact that Sharon was now sitting in Swayam's lap, practically straddling him. But he didn't think it prudent to interrupt them and so he kept his mouth shut.

Swayam gripped her firmly by the shoulder making her look at him.

"What happened, Sharon?" he asked, looking her straight in the eyes.

Sharon hesitated a moment before suddenly she got out of Swayam's lap and grabbed at her phone. Next, she attacked her shoes pushing her feet roughly into them.

"I'm late!" she said, as though that explained everything.

"For what?" asked Swayam, and for one second Rey marveled at his level of patience. But then again, anyone who dealt with Sharon on a regular basis, had to learn to be patient. "What is happening today?"

Sharon straightened up and walked towards the door. For a minute, Rey thought she wasn't going to answer. But then she turned around, unexpectedly grinning and said-

"Today is the day I become a legend."

And with that, she dashed out the door.

*******