Be careful my darlings,
There are people out there that taste like fireworks and bliss,
But leave ashes and warnings in the aftertaste of their kiss.
-Nikita Gill
_________________________________________________________________

'Smile's visitor timings are from four?' Maaz questions from across the hall.

'Yeah, that's what Aylin said the last time.'

'Then let's go meet the children today. It has been a while.' I am surprised at his request. The children have been important to me but him accepting them as a part of his life too, shifts something within me. Though I once knew him I realize there are parts of him that are still new to me.

'Sure.'

We are at the door at exactly four p.m. I hold my head high and walk into Smile, Maaz is close behind me. Though I have plastered a smile on my face my spine is rigid. Warmth seeps in when he places his hand on my back and I relax.

'We are here to meet the kids.' States Maaz.

'Sure.' Aylin has the courtesy to look embarrassed. I glare at her.

She takes us inside. Lisa comes running to me from the throng of kids, I laugh at the intensity of her hug. Maaz weaves across the hall with his bag of goodies dropping biscuits, chocolates and high fives to waiting hands.

'It's story time now!' Declares Maaz once he is finished. All the kids chatter excitedly. Ashar rushes to him and sits beside him, his hands fisted under his face, waiting to listen. Tom takes his other side. A circle forms around him, Kate sits hand in hand with a younger girl, Rose.

'I am going to read and you all have to enact what I read, okay?' Maaz instructs.

'If I say drinking all of you should raise your hands and drink like this.' He curls his hands and lifts them to his mouth and emits slurping noises, the kids giggle and nod excitedly.

'Once upon a time there were two little children, Hansel and Gretal. One morning Hansel and Gretal decided to take a walk in the woods...'

I stare at Maaz in awe, with such simplicity he had avoided hurting the crowd of happy, smiling faces around us. Instead of reading as the book says, that the children had been left in the woods by their parents he had modified the story in a subtle way.

He catches me gaping at him and winks at me. The kids around us are picking imaginary pebbles from their hand and throwing them.

'The next day they go for a walk again, but this time Hansel forgets the pebbles at home. So Gretal says let us leave these bits of bread...' Continues Maaz.

'But that's not how the story goes.' Lisa whispers to me, she is curled into my side and I drape my hand around her smiling.

'Maybe this is the correct story?' I tell her though I know it wouldn't be long before she figured out our lies. But until then if lying would keep her safe from the harsh truths of the world then let all that we speak be lies.

I catch Tom looking suspiciously at the candy in his hand when Maaz narrates the witch's house being made of gingerbread and candies and I hide a smile.

Maaz is at the end of the story when Aylin announces it is snack time. The kids disperse soon leaving only Lisa who still clutches onto me.

'Are you leaving?' Green eyes framed by thick black lashes look expectantly at me.

The clock in the hall reads a mere ten minutes left for visitor timings. 'Only after I feed you your snack.'

She smiles up at me revealing her tiny white pearls, making me lean down and kiss her. We head hand in hand to the mess. She fidgets with a silver bracelet on her hand which I happen to notice only now. It is a bracelet of silver with a lone charm hanging in the middle.

'I always keep it on.' Lisa tells me, 'I found it under my pillow one morning, I know uncle Nemo put it there. Otherwise why would the charm be a fish?' She questions reasonably.

I lift her hand to see it is indeed a miniature fish, a mini replica of Nemo. I attempt to hide the surprise that must have crossed my face.

'I think Nemo is my guardian angel and now he's watching over me.'  She lowers her voice and whispers to me as if she's confiding the world's biggest secret.

I am rendered speechless, I hold back the moisture that wants to seep out from my eyes. Me too, Lisa. Me too. I want to tell her. I kneel in front of her, take her hand with the charm on it and place it on my chest, on the left. I place my hand on her chest and feel it rise and fall.

'He lives here Lisa, right inside us. In our hearts forever because we are never going to stop loving him.' I confide my biggest secret to her.

***

Sunday morning I'm still in bed when the doorbell resounds in the house. I groan, who visits this early? I pull the covers over my head waiting for Maaz to get it.

There's a knock on my door and Maaz comes in. I pat down my hair hoping they don't look like a birds nest.

'Arhaan is here and he says he is taking us out for breakfast.' He informs me.

'Now?'

He shrugs indifferently as if it's nothing new. This must be a typical Arhaan thing to do.

'It's five in the morning! I don't even see the sun.' I exclaim.

Maaz yawns in answer.

'Hey, Arhaan.' I greet him once dressed. He gets up from the couch leaving the newspaper he was reading, 'Journalist killed in scuffle.', yesterday's headline reads in big bold letters.

'Why so early?' I ask him.

'The early bird catches the worm.' He responds.

'You are going to feed us worms?' I say with fake shock.

'Actually, we are going to watch the sunrise.'

'I do it every day, from a more convenient place. My bed.'

'I got us a special reservation on a Ferris wheel. We are going to watch the sunrise from high up in the city. It is going to be a view you will never forget.' He states proudly.

'How is that going to happen? The park will be closed at this time.' Maaz comes from behind me. He pulls a black sweater over his plain white shirt. His hair has been arranged from their sleep ridden state and he seems more awake than he was fifteen minutes ago.

'That's why it's special.' Arhaan says.

'You aren't going to make us break-in, are you?' Maaz asks with a serious expression.

Arhaan smacks him on the head, 'I'm not stupid. I have connections.' He says in a conspiratorial tone.

'All the wrong kind, I'm sure.' Maaz responds with a smirk.

Another bell makes me look at Maaz in question. He gets the door and in comes Eliza.

'Why are you here?' I question out loud.

'Be a little nicer, sis. It's the first time I'm visiting your house.' Her mock offended tone fools nobody, she comes in for a hug and I return it with one hand.

'You've been here plenty.' I respond.

'Yes, with Ira. But not your house. And your husband invited me.' She answers.

'You did?' I ask Maaz.

'Let's get going, we will miss it!' Arhaan jumps in.

With no traffic to stop us, we reach soon. A giant wheel looms up ahead of us. Eliza taps her foot impatiently and throws open the door as soon as the car stops. I wonder where she gets this energy at a time when I can barely open my eyes to see the right tube to put on my brush.

She jogs ahead and Arhaan catches up with her. His hair as before is spiked up, like a perpetual porcupine perched on his head, he is more casually dressed today, in jeans. Eliza has her hair up in a ponytail, she wears pants with a button-down grey shirt and a scarf.

They jog together, their feet beating in rhythm against the hard concrete, glancing at each other until Arhaan says, 'Race you.'

'Prepare to lose.' Eliza quips and begins to run.

Her energy is infectious, Maaz slips his little finger into mine and we jog behind them.

Arhaan overtakes her and jogs backward facing Eliza, a smirk on his face.

When we reach the wheel, we find a man waiting for us. He nods at Arhaan.

Eliza automatically gets into a cabin with Arhaan. The wheel rises up into the sky. I keep my nose glued to the glass watching us rise above the buildings. I see Eliza do the same a few cabins down.

The wheel stops once we are high up, I look at Maaz in question.

'Probably for the sunrise.' He says. He sets his camera on a small stand and I see him set it to time lapse.

He shifts to the seat beside me.

We sit in silence, a slight red light emerges at the tip of the horizon. The sky turns a shade lighter, a ball of gold peeks from the ocean, which is visible in the distance. Miniature cars carrying early commuters race down the network of roads.

Orange-red light filters onto the sky, rays shoot across the pale blue sky as nature paints it with golden strips. The golden ball emerges from the ocean after a night of rest, ready to shine and brighten the world.

The water begins to glimmer and shine, frothy white waves crash onto the shore. We are above it all. It is a strange feeling, watching the world wake up.

A gull skims the surface of the water, its white wings flapping. The rays of the sun outline the clouds with a golden hue. They say every cloud has a silver lining but the clouds around me are bathed in the golden yellow light of the rising sun.

We wait for the cabin to start rotating again but it doesn't. After thirty minutes of waiting, Maaz begins to get antsy. Eliza and Arhaan seem to be wrapped up in some sort of time bubble and haven't noticed the time or simply don't care.

'Why are we not moving?' Maaz says into the phone. I believe it is Arhaan on the other end.

'Do you know what time is it? We have been up here for two hours, are we supposed to be here that long?' Maaz questions.

Arhaan curses loud enough for me to hear through the handset, perhaps looking at his watch.

He calls back after five minutes and Maaz's expression changes. 'That ferris wheel guy is not picking up the phone.' he informs me.

Sunlight glints off the metal and pours into the glass cabin. Maaz paces in the minuscule space, the sun is behind him. My memory flashes back to another day, at the library, the feeling of being watched only to notice a man with a halo around him. What had Maaz said about visiting the library to see me?

'Ziyan is on his way.' Maaz announces.

Thirty minutes later the cabin becomes stifling, I begin to lose patience. Maaz sits on the opposite seat tapping his foot on the metallic floor.

Just as I'm about to vent my frustration, the wheel begins to move. Maaz looks at me and exhales a relieved sigh.

As soon as our gondola reaches the ground, he flips open the door, jumps out and already has Arhaan gripped his in hands by the time I get down.

'Who was he?' I hear him ask.

'Why did he leave us stranded in the air? What if we had suffocated up there?' His voice is low but there's no hiding the withheld wrath. Arhaan stands motionless not even fighting against his grasp.

'Dude, chill. The security is here. Let's handle them first.' Ziyan attempts to loosen the grip Maaz has on Arhaan's hand. Sure enough two, tall men in uniform loom over us. Maaz too notices them, he shifts his stance lightly so that he stands before Arhaan. It seems slightly protective to me. Wasn't he the one attacking Arhaan a minute ago?

'How did you break in?' One of them asks. Eliza stands cluelessly at a side, Ziyan looks at me expecting an answer.

'No point of talking. We will have to call the cops.' Says the other. I cast an alarmed glance at Maaz, who is glaring at Arhaan.

'Sir, we didn't break in.' Maaz starts.

'A night in prison and the truth will come tumbling out. No need to convince us.' The second man says.

'Joseph, let us hear them out.' Counters the first one. Eliza looks at him gratefully.

Arhaan steps out boldly from behind Maaz, I notice Maaz touch his arm to make him stop, but Arhaan ignores him, 'There was a man here, he let us in. He said special reservations have been introduced at the park and agreed to bring us here.'

'Pfft... A likely story, there is no such thing as special reservations.' Joseph spits out.

'What was the man like?' Asks the kinder guard.

Arhaan gives them a description of the man to which they listen intently, 'There is no one here who fits that.' Joseph states flatly. 'Enough of this nonsense.' He reaches into his pocket and flips out a phone to which six voices protest.

'Sir, do you think we would know how to operate the Ferris wheel?' Ziyan speaks for the first time. At this doubt flickers across Joseph's face for the first time.

'Exactly, it was an employee of the park. We apologize for the intrusion, we never knew we were breaking in.' Maaz uses the opportunity.

'We are really sorry. Please believe us. Please let us go.' Eliza's voice is filled with fear and I feel angry at Arhaan for involving my siblings in a situation like this.

After another fifteen minutes of convincing, the guards let us go with a warning.

'Eliza get in the car with Ziyan.' I say before she could get in the car with Arhaan. 'Ziyan drop her home.' I tell him and he nods at me.

With Maaz and Arhaan in the front seat, glaring at each other constantly, to say the ride back home was uncomfortable would be an understatement.

***

A/N : Hello !
Intense? Much more stuff coming your way. Hold on tight, the roller coaster has only begun :D
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See you soon !