This is it. The weight of the universe is now on my shoulders.

My breath quickens as I hide behind the wall, holding the gun tight to my chest. I peek around the corner and find him nowhere in sight. Where is he? I turn my head back straight and he has jumped right in front of me.

"Ha Ha!" he says, with his arms spread wide in a villainous way. "I've got you now, hero!" he says. I try so hard to stay in character, but his impersonation makes it so hard for me to control my laughter.

"You'll pay for laughing," he says and charges at me. I bring up my water gun, fully loaded, and start to attack him, while making attack sounds. Now both of us are laughing, squirting each other with our water cannons. "Shyam!" I laugh as I tilt my face away from him. "Stop! You're getting water into my eyes!" I giggle uncontrollably. "Oh no, no, no, Janani. I'm getting tit for tat for the water balloon incident. You drenched me with water when you were the villain! Now it's my turn!" Shyam says as he runs behind me, without missing a beat.

I stop with exhaustion and he slams into me. We both tumble and fall on the terrace floor, stacked one over the other like dominos, and we were still laughing our heads off.

Shyam. My best friend since kindergarten. Everyone says that we are lucky that our friendship has lasted for 9 long years, but for us, it went in a blink of an eye. He has always been my partner in crime, even now, when we are 12 years old. Whenever I'm with him, I tend to forget this world and enjoy every part of my existence. He definitely has a magic of such sort.

"I'm turning 13 next week," he says, now lying beside me, looking at the drifting white clouds above us.

"Want anything special for your birthday?" I ask, tilting my head sideways to look at him. He laughs.

"That's not why I'm telling you this!" he says. "I'm just saying, I'm going to be a teenager, and you'll soon be one too. Do you think we are too old to play superheroes?"

I sit up straight and practically scream, "Absolutely not!"

He sits up too and laughs. "I was hoping you would say that, 'cause I'm not done," he says and picks up the water cannon again. I get up and face him. "You won't get away this time, Supernova!" he says and points the cannon at me. "Not a chance, Galexious! I will not let you destroy the town!"

We start hitting each other with water and run around the terrace, round and round. No matter how much we run, we don't end up tired. That's the power of friendship, I guess.

"I won!" I exclaim as I push him down. He is still laughing, and I start laughing too.

Suddenly, the surrounding becomes dark, filled with black clouds all around. A heavy wind blows my hair onto my face. Shyam sits up and says, "this is weird." Yes, it definitely is weird. There is no way that blue skies with pure white clouds have become a wild storm in a matter of minutes.

I look around to find an explanation, and without realizing, my legs have started to buckle. "Shyam," I'm calling him in a desperate voice. I'm breathing really hard and I have no idea what's going on. I feel a thousand, no, a million times heavier than I was before. So heavy that the gravity is pulling me down to the ground and making me stick to it. Shyam is trying to lift me up, but fails terribly. "Janani, what's wrong? Why are you not able to move?" he muses desperately. I wish I knew. I wish I knew what's wrong with me, but I don't. I feel so heavy that it is a surprise I haven't crumbled under the pressure.

What happens next is something completely unfathomable to me. Never in a million years would I have believed that something like this could be real. Something so mysterious. So... fictional.

A portal has opened. Walking through it was a man draped with a dark cape and his face covered with a mask. He looks as if he had walked right out of a comic book, but for an instance, I know it's not true, for no one can imagine such a hideous, grim looking character in this entire universe.

Shyam is pulling at me desperately, trying to move me. He had no luck. I always knew I was heavy, but I never imagined myself to be this heavy. The man walks near us and both our breaths become heavy. I was scared and so was Shyam, no doubt about that. I know it wasn't possible, but the more the man walks towards us, the heavier I feel.

"Looks like I'm a little early," the man says with a strange amusement in his voice that sends shivers down my spine. "No worries," he says again and now I'm crying. Sobbing. Tears keep falling down my eyes without restraint, and I try to stop myself, but I can't. Fear has gotten the best of me.

"W-who are you?" Shyam's asking, shivering so much that I could hear his teeth clatter. He is scared, yet so brave. Wish I could be more like him. The man doesn't reply. He is taking tauntingly slow steps towards me like he has all the time in the world, and with the hold he has on me now, I wouldn't doubt him even if he said he did. "Stay away from her!" Shyam's screaming as he puts himself between me and the man. "Shyam, no," I hear myself saying. I try to lift my arms to push him away but couldn't. I've never felt so helpless in my entire life.

"Shyam, please go. Get out of here," I'm telling him. He doesn't listen. He is not listening to me. I want him to listen to me. Why isn't he listening to me?!

"In every universe," the man is shaking his head. "Why is it always you?"

With a swing of his arms, Shyam goes flying into the air and lands 10 feet away. There was no physical contact of any sort. I scream his name but still can't move. "Trust me, boy," the man addresses Shyam yet still maintains his eye contact with me. Hideous, hideous eyes that are nothing but a dark void. "You deserve better than her," he says and my heart drops. Why? I don't know. Probably because a part of me always had a crush on him, and now this man is telling me that I don't deserve him. There couldn't be anything more of a slap straight to my face.

"Janani, RUN!" Shyam is screaming and I'm trying. I'm really, really trying, but I can't. I feel so tired. My limbs hurt like hell. It feels as though I've never felt peace in this world. I completely forgot what it feels like to be carefree in this world.

"Let's take this torture somewhere else, shall we?" he says. Before I could comprehend his words, a portal opens below me and I'm falling in, just clinging to the edge by my very weak fingers. "JANANI!" I hear Shyam shout. "SHYAM!" I cry back. "You boys are like pests," the man grumbles and moves his arms again. I hear a loud thud. Oh no! I think. He threw Shyam again! I hope he is okay.

My fingers start to slip, and before I know it, my hands have completely detached itself from the edge and now I'm falling.

And I've never felt so peaceful.

As I fall, I'm vaguely aware of the fact that the man has jumped in too and is following me. The tunnel I'm falling through is woven with light and dark. A beautiful masterpiece that has been well crafted to perfection. I'm free falling and for the first time ever, I feel weightless. I feel like I'm finally free from all the burdens in this world, and I have no idea what kind of burden I'm talking about. As far as I remember, my life has been nothing but joy.

I'm falling, falling and falling. An endless journey down the rabbit hole. I've always wondered how Alice felt, now I get to experience it. I really wish there was some kind of wonderland down below, but there just seems to be no end. 'Oh great!' I think as I start to flip a 360 degree in mid-air. Just as I am completely upside down, I catch the look on the man's face and it is full of shock. A shock so big that I could feel it even as his lower half of his face was covered. I turn back around and now, I'm being pulled sideways. All the air in my lungs is forced out by the action. I see no physical restraints around me but it feels so real. In a matter of seconds, I'm yanked out and land face first onto a pavement. I wish to get up, but I don't. I feel so tired. I hear the man land and I start to panic, my fear taking a hold of me again. I push myself to the feet and immediately wobble. I have sea legs. How wonderful.

I look around to find that I'm in an abandoned alley and the man was on the main road. He was searching for me, no doubt. Determined to get out of here as soon as I can, I turn around, only to be hit by a strong, hard chest. I immediately melt and let go of all my control and relax against the chest. Stupid. I know. I have no idea why I'm doing it either.

Soon, I'm being dragged, my wobbly legs making a desperate attempt to follow. We are walking through a steel door, and I realize we weren't alone. The door closes and the surroundings become pitch dark. I fist the fabric of the one holding me and bury my face. My breathing has become uneven. "Gauri," I hear the boy, no, man, who is holding me say. His chest vibrates with the word and suddenly, I feel safe. "We need light," he says again.

"Fire coming right up," a girl, probably Gauri, says. The tunnel is lit with an orange light. I'm slowly losing consciousness. I still feel heavy and it is now taking a toll on me.

"Wow dude! It really is her," I hear another male voice, completely astonished by his discovery. "Yes," my savior is saying. "But she is not the one we know." He pauses. "Knew," he corrects himself. A brief moment of silence follows. "She needs help," I hear the guy say again. He tries to drag me as before, but my legs have already given out. I would've slammed right against the ground if it wasn't for the guy catching me.

"Carry her," I hear a different girl's voice. "It will be much easier."

"No," my savior says sharply. "I can't lift her."

"Just try it dude! How different is it going to be?!" I hear the other guy whine. There is silence again. My savior is probably weighing his options. Just when I give up the hope to listen, my feet are being suspended in the air. I feel an arm around my shoulder and another around my knees. My face fits perfectly on my savior's chest. I open my eyes and try to get a view of the face that took me into safety. The sight baffled me. He is wearing a mask covering his lower face, but still, I could recognize it anywhere.

"Shyam?" I hear myself say before I completely lose consciousness.