Chapter 22

I couldn't sleep that night. So, I packed and double checked if anything was left. Vidhi was also up with me even though I pestered her to go to sleep. She said it was my last day so she wanted to stay up. I even offered her to come with me. But she declined saying she had her family here which she can't leave.

Later I clicked some pictures of the room and some with her to keep as memories. At four in the morning help came to take the luggage. I went with them so that I could place everything.

The arrangement Subhadra did was too much. There was a palki. I saw Subhadra arranging her things. There were at least 25 people other than her. Is she going to take everyone with her?

"Subhadra," I called out.

"Yes Jiji," she said and came running towards me.

"Are all of them coming with us?" I asked.

"I am sorry Jiji. But in one day I could only bring these many people." She actually looked sad.

"Hey it's fine. These are actually a lot of people" I told her.

Then I turned towards Alexa and asked, "How much time will it take for us to reach Dwarka."

She replied, "It is one thousand five hundred and forty-nine point seven kilometers away. It will take us twenty-eight hours 35 minutes and 20 seconds if we leave right now and go nonstop."

"That thing talks!" yelled Subhadra.

"Hey, her name is Alexa and she's a car. You have seen it in Vampire Diaries." I said defending her.

"Ohh okay. But there they don't talk." She said still looking a bit skeptical. "Umm about what she said, it will at least take us at least five days to reach there. That also at top speed."

"Don't worry about that, she's fast and she doesn't need to take many stops. We can reach quickly." I assured her. "The biggest problem will be luggage." I said looking at the trunks that Subhadra had bought with her. Last time my 10 bags had barely fit in the car.

"I can enlarge my trunk to fit it." Alexa said. How can a car enlarge its boot. The more I lived with Alexa, the more I felt that she was more magical than I initially gave her credit for.

"Well then, it's decided. We both will leave in Alexa. You can ask all of them to leave." I told her.

She looked like she wanted to argue. But before she could say anything another voice interrupted our conversation. "You cannot do that."

I turned and saw Arjun coming towards us. "And why is that?"

"Don't you know any other expression other than frown?" He asked.

"Don't you know how to reply a question?" I asked back.

"I could say the same to you. But for your information there is a rakshasa named Kalyawan on the way and there might be some bandits. Thus, I am coming and so are they." Arjun said and went off to see the preparations for leaving.

I thought about it for a moment. I do remember the rakshasa he is talking about. Do I really have to take him with me? Seeing as there was no other option I decided to take the drastic step. By now Subhadra was again in her merry mood.

I went towards Arjun and tapped on his shoulder. He turned back saying what now. "Are you a good enough warrior to kill that rakshasa all by yourself? Or do you need their help?"

"I am one of the best warriors in Aryavrat. I don't need anyone's help." He said proudly.

I smiled at his statement. Just what I needed, "So it's decided. Three of us will leave in Alexa."

I turned and started walking towards Alexa. He asked walking behind me, "And who will build the tent or make the food."

"We will reach in one day and I've already asked Vidhi to pack us a day's food." I replied as we reached our car.

He continued, "I will love to see the expressions on your face when you have to eat rabbits on our way."

I turned towards him, "And I will love to see your face when we reach there tomorrow."

"How are you planning to keep your luggage?"

"Just wait and watch." And we literally watched as Alexa swallowed everything.

I woke up from my nap due to the chatter. I looked up to see Subhadra facing the back. I had made her sit in the front with me and Arjun sat behind. After a few minutes I went to sleep. Right now, Subhadra's entire chair was turned 180 degrees.

I asked Alexa softly, "Hey Alexa, can you turn my seat 180 degrees?"

"Sure, place your legs on the seat and turn." I did that and slowly the backrest slowly disappeared and then it came up from front. I had already turned, so now I was facing Arjun.

They both were silent so I just said, "Guys continue don't mind me."

Arjun's eyes went on Subhadra and so did mine, "So, Elina went to Stephen's house and then told him that she doesn't want to go and just write her diary, she wanted to make it reality and he said that this is reality. Then they look in each other's eyes and and.." it seemed like she didn't know how to continue.

"And," Arjun prompted. He actually looked invested in the story.

But Subhadra was in her own little world filled with misery of what to say next. She turned and looked at me expectantly.

"And they kissed," I deadpanned.

"What?" He asked shocked.

I looked him in the eye and said, "They kissed." And then turned towards Subhadra who was looking like a ripe tomato. "Continue Subhadre."

Then looked again towards Arjun, as if challenging him to say something. Even though I expected him to question, he didn't. Maybe he was actually invested in the story.

I looked at the watch. It was almost 3 in the afternoon. I had slept for quite some time. In the next hour, Subhadra narrated the entire one and half season in detail. It was actually a wonder seeing her just talk and talk for the entire hour. I passed her bottle of water in intervals or else she would have forgotten to drink as well.

When she completed her story, she asked me if there was any way we could continue watching it knowing it would be pretty uncomfortable if I open the laptop right now.

I asked Alexa, "Alexa, can you turn the interior into a limo and have bean bags instead of seats."

Alexa replied, "I can certainly do it. You all will have to leave the car for 10 minutes while I make the necessary change."

Subhadra asked, "What is a bean bag?"

"You will be pleasantly surprised." I smiled.

We stopped at the nearest good spot. I stretched my body. It felt nice. We were in the middle of the forest. Standing outside the car doing nothing felt a bit awkward. If we were at home, all of us would have our phones out. But here we stood like that waiting for the long 10 minutes, listening to the sounds made by Alexa.

"You can now come in," said Alexa.

The door was now shifted to a corner. I was the first one to look inside. Damn it looked good. There were three bean bags placed near each other and in front there was a small table and a screen above it.

"I took the liberty of keeping the snacks on the table." Alexa said.

I replied, "You did great. Everything is just perfect."

"Thank you, Aarohi." She replied.

The inside actually looked bigger than the space it consumed outside, like the tents in Harry Potter and the Goblet of fire.

I came out and said, "Subhadre, come in first." We ended up like Subhadra in one corner Arjun in another and I sitting in the middle. I didn't like to be the third wheel as Subhadra had crush on Arjun. But she was underage and for her I will. If that made me cringe than I don't care.

I got up to set up the laptop. With the instructions given by Alexa, I connected it to the screen and then asked her, "Can you convert English audio to Sanskrit?"

"Sure." She replied. What the fuck? How many features does she have that I don't know about? I have to take a notebook and note everything down.

I sat on my bean bag and continued where we stopped. Before that I had shared my last stock of snacks with both of them. (See I am very generous)

We binged the entire second half of season 2 of Vampire diaries. It was great especially the entry of Klaus, also Katrine killed the season. Around midnight Subhadra fell asleep. I paused the episode and took out the blanket which was near my seat. It was the same one which I had found on the balcony. I gently placed it over her and then she snuggled into it. She looked so cute that I smiled.

"You care a lot about her." Arjun said.

"I do, she is my little sister." I said still looking at her.

"Why did you act so different initially?" He asked.

I turned to look at him, "I didn't act differently then. That was still me."

He smiled, "Now that's like you. Not agreeing to anything I say."

"You should sleep it's late." I suggested.

"Has a doubleganger swapped with you? I didn't think you were capable of sympathy."

I threw the nearest thing at him which in this case was a bottle. There was quite for some moments and then he continued, "I can stay up for 2 days without a problem. I will stay up to guard. You can sleep."

"You don't have to stay up. There won't be any problem." I told him.

"But you can't be sure about that, can you? A problem doesn't knock your door before entering." He said as if speaking from an experience.

I kept quite for a few moments and then continued, "I won't be able to sleep, I usually sleep so late that's early."

"If I don't want to sleep, I have a few questions." He spoke. I gestured him to continue and then started a long list of questions. Where are you exactly from? Do you people usually dress up like they did in series? Is there no war happening there? Do people really turn into vampires? Is doing that before marriage really that common? (Here he was really embarrassed but he couldn't stop himself from asking) He also asked how do many things work including phones, cars, guns, washing machines and western toilets.

In my entire life, I've never met a person who's as curious as him. He literally asked me each and every thing about culture, mechanics, society and religion.

And then we started talking about many things. I had shown him my phone and also took a few pictures with him. He wasn't that bad, I guess.

We also talked about some serious things and among them, one was Subhadra. And in that conversation without thinking I just said, "Take care of her. She is too innocent. Sometimes I think I will kill her innocence just a little so that she is able to survive the monsters she'll later meet. But I just can't do it. I can't hurt her."

He didn't question me and just replied with, "I will." And for some reason I trusted him. Maybe they were actually just meant to be.

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