Do I belong here?

The mystery of the disappearing people was solved. Every person slid down a soft fluffy ramp when they got off the train. For Tejas, it was the first thing that was totally illogical but nonetheless fun to try out.

His 'tokri' was beside him too. Since it knew the direction of the place, Tejas followed its lead.

His destination wasn't much far away from the station. It was a wide two storey building set amidst palm and mango trees. Thanks to the many street lights, he could see the yellowish colour of the building. Many potted plants and shrubs also surrounded it. Even though the building looked old and out of place, it reminded him of his asylum in so many ways.

When he entered the building, a small potted hibiscus glided towards him. It stopped infront of his tokri and the pot rose to his height on an extendible pole. It's two fully blossomed red flowers dangled as if they were the blood shot eyes of the plant and a small opening near the bottom of the pot looked like the mouth. He heard from the opening, "Hello! We'd like to confirm if you are Mr. Tejas Raman."

Next from the same opening, a slit opened upwards and a rectangular black card extended from there. He guessed that it was meant for him so he took it.

His device detected it as soon as it was on his palm. Very soon he heard from his tokri, "Reaching destination in two minutes."

Once again, he followed the tokri through a long dingy hallway where there were wooden doors on both sides and it smelled like fresh paint and old trees.

His tokri stopped at one of those doors where his name was etched on with silver but without the title 'Dr'. There was another name right above his, 'Mr Laksh Shah'. That must be his roommate, he thought.

The door opened with a loud creak, revealing the ancient and rusty hinges. The room was a lot smaller than his last room. There were two beds at two corners of the room with a table in the middle which was littered with a many shiny black packets. Two tall brass bottles where placed at two holders that hung from the table.

As he sat on his bed, his tokri slid underneath it as well. He tried to lay flat but the bed squeaked with his every moment. It wasn't as comfortable as his last one. The pillow too seemed to squish at the corners and he had to fluff it again and again.

But once he settled, he discovered two large circular windows on the top corners of the room. They weren't fenced but he knew from his experience so far that there always was an invisible barrier. But thanks to it being invisible, he got a good glimpse of the starry cloudless evening, slowly easing into its deepest shade of blue. It relaxed him and suddenly he remembered how much he loved to gaze at the sky.

The image of that hot day from his nightmares, still felt very real. He remembered details like the evenings were his favorite part of those days. He remembered how his father tried using hay and other things to lower the heat. How his mother enthusiastically carried on with their experiments!

"Can babies remember things?" he asked himself, a little surprised to be able to recall such memories. "Maybe I mushed a few things here and there. Maybe its a combination of my dreams."

His eyelids began to grow heavy and he drowsily sunk into his pillow. All the travelling had made him tired. His stomach growled a little but he didn't want to move. He wanted to...

BAMM - the door opened. A person dressed in a hazmat suit with black gloves holding a spade and a rake was standing at the entrance. Water dripped from their gloves as if they had just returned after cleaning up.

Tejas fell on the floor. "Don't kill me," his hands joined together in prayer. He was facing the floor with his body crouched.

"Please...please," he couldn't beg harder.

The person started laughing manically. They shut the door behind them and walked slowly towards Tejas. Then they threw their tools, removed the gloves and extended their hand, "Ok, I'll spare you, Tej. But," they pulled their mask, "why would you think I came to kill you?"

Tejas looked up to see a square jawed man, extremely tanned in the sun, laughing uncontrollably and running out of breath. His beard was closely trimmed, like his hair. His cat like eyes added mischief to his already mischievous smile.

"I don't know, I panicked," he looked down guiltily.

"I'm your roommate by the way," he gestured Tejas to extend his hand and pulled him to his feet keeping that smile on his face.

"You are Laksh!"

"Yeah," he nodded his head and looked searchingly in Tejas' eyes. "I would've been really upset had I not known your circumstances."

Laksh sat down, pulling his boots.

"What circumstances? What are--?"

"--Your memories, Tej."

"Yes, how do you know that?" he looked away and walked to his bed.

"Dheera aunty informed me." He stripped himself out of the hazmat and laid down in white vest and dhoti pants. "We used to be best friends." He looked a little sad while saying that. "The three of us were very close."

"You, Krish's sister and me?"

"No! I was talking about Purvi." He wasn't very pleased to hear him mention about Trish. "You know what! Let's not talk about it."

Tejas didn't know what to do next but his stomach did. It announced that it needed food.

Laksh headed to the door and said, "Come with me."