At The Threshold of Time

7.

Ajay Pratap squinted his eyes at Shivali for a minute before he recognised her, still frozen to the ground.

'You,' he said slowly. Confused, he looked around and back at her, squinting again.

Shivali considered turning away and leaving. Then realised she was lost.

'What are you doing here?' he asked slowly and loudly, as though he was trying to speak to someone far away.

'I came out for a walk,' she replied curtly.

Ajay Pratap sniggered. He actually sniggered. With his hand on his mouth and all. Shivali frowned in concern for her own safety. He looked drunk alright, with his bloodshot eyes and that languid way of standing, but she now also registered the strong stench of alcohol spreading through the trees.

'You're lying aren't you?' he asked once he managed to stop his sniggering.

Shivali would've rolled her eyes if she was not terrified.

'Sir,' she started, hoping the respect would make things better for her. 'I just couldn't sleep. I was just about to return to the hospital.'

'Oh!' he exclaimed, pleasantly surprised. 'Me neither! I couldn't sleep either! This Sengupta has too much alcohol at his home I say.'

Shivali wondered how he might have ended up here, so drunk. What were those guards that always tailed him doing?

'You know where you should go if you can't sleep?' he asked. 

'Where?' she asked absent-mindedly glancing around her trying to remember her way back.

'Come, let me show you,' he said and walked straight into a tree.

Shivali grimaced as he pressed a hand against his forehead, wincing. Hopefully, that would sober him up. But it didn't. He moved a bit to the side and began walking confidently into another tree.

Shivali lurched forward and pulled him back. He shook his arm free of her and glared.

'Don't touch me.'

'Ew,' she cringed involuntarily, then composed herself. 'Stop walking into trees then.'

He looked ahead of him and seemed to notice the obstacle he just avoided.

'Fine. Come,' he said, and extending his arms before him, began making his way through the trees.

'Where?' Shivali asked, standing where she was. Wherever he was going, it most likely would bring them out of the thicket. Waiting for him to walk for a while, maintaining a safe enough distance, Shivali followed him looking around for signs of any roofs or buildings.

Soon enough, she found herself on a cobblestone path, opposite a huge well. 

'Aha,' she heard Ajay Pratap say to himself from ahead. 'Just a bit farther.'

He was going to the right of the well. Shivali looked to the left, but only saw more trees in the distance. So once again, she followed him.

Ajay Pratap stopped before a well-lit palace. It loomed three stories high and was isolated. There were no other buildings in the distance. Ajay Pratap was stumbling along the front yard. The guards at the gate who had greeted the king, were eyeing Shivali.

Chills running down her spine, she hurried through the gates up to Ajay Pratap, who now stood in the front veranda. When she reached him, he looked at her, confused. Squinting his eyes again, he took a moment to recognise her.

'See? I knew it!' his loud voice reverberated through the sleeping building.

'Knew what?' she asked, but he seemed to have forgotten about it because he was circling the edges of the building. Glancing behind her at the gates, she tip-toed behind him till he stopped at a corner of the building stacked with old rolled-up carpets and began rummaging. She wondered if he was going to find himself something to sleep on. But he was now pushing them azide haphazardly, digging through them. Suddenly he stopped, stood back up straight, stretching his back, and looked back at her proudly.

Shivali could see a gaping hole in the ground behind him, the size of a pregnancy ball. She was about to raise some concerns regarding being buried alive, but Ajay Pratap turned to look back down the hole.

'This passage leads to the Panjvati,' he informed in a whisper that echoed through the tunnel.