LOVE, LIVE, DIE | A TREASURE HUNT STORY

two boys play

“Hope you slept well.” Parth said as he crouched out of the cave and streched himself. It was late morning time. He saw Brian looking at the waterfalls, avoiding looking at Parth.

“Any problem?” Parth asked.
Brian looked at him and said, “Oh! The deaf has woken up? Tell me, CAN YOU HEAR ME?”

Parth stood there, hands at his hip, looking at Brian and then went inside the cave laughing.

“What are you laughing for?” Brian shouted back.

Parth came back after a while, holding his backpack in his shoulders and then walked towards Brian. “Now, listen,
we can’t stay here forever, so we move past the waterfall, through those woods,” he pointed forward, and sure enough past the flow of water that the falls brought were trees, “and then after we cross the trees, we find them.” He said as he went behind Brian, cutting his ropes.

“Find who? And why the hell are we going there? Just... please leave me. I have a job to do. And...” he hesitated, he didn’t want to tell him about his sister. Parth, he thought, will just ignore it fact and see his as a killing machine.

‘I have to escape before it is too late. Have to find a way to leave today.’ He thought as the grip binding him to the tree loosened. ‘This is the time!’ he thought and waited as the grip kept getting loose and loose and finally he made a run for it.

Running a few feets away from the tree was all he could accomplish before falling head first on the ground. He heard Parth laughing behind him and strangely found himself laughing too, in frustration and irritation.

“Hey, are you okay?” Parth said, holding the rope which was tied to Brian’s leg.

“Brian.” He said as he bend down.

Brian got up and held Parth’s head and rolled him down towards him amd pushed him into the ground. Brian, looking at the opportunity got up and started racing back towards the cave when Parth crawled up and reached out for the rope and pulled it. Brian's reflexes weren't back and he fell head first again.

Parth, now the rope in a knot around his palm jumped towards him. Parth thinking Brain can't escape me. Well, he soon found himself rolling down the ground with him. Brain had pulled the rope and held on to him. The world spinned around them as they held on to each other; Brian holding Parth’s clothes and Parth holding Brian’s wrists.
Before the idea to actually let go of each other and stop rolling came to them, they felt their whole body splashed into the water.

Parth removed his hands but Brian still clinched on to Parth’s shirt.
“Calm down!” Parth shouted as he took heavy breaths, in and out. Their feet found their way above the pebbles. But they had bigger problems.

One look at the edge and they realised they were being pulled down a waterfall.

“Get out! Let’s get out!” Brian shouted trying to pull Parth towards him.
“Argghhhh!” Shouted Parth and then, “Noooo!” shouted Brian as they felt their eyes closing, pebbles vanishing, water leaving, air rushing, body doing mid-air stunts, the grip on each other’s clothes tightening, and then SPLASH!, felt exactly like falling on a solid ground but with chances of drowning too.

Somehow, they just floated.

It was half past two in afternoon when Parth’s eyes opened. He tried to sit straight and get a hang of the surrounding and the miracle. His head still spinned and he still felt like sliding on the water. He forced his eyes shut. After taking several deep breaths and calling in the origin of his headache he opened his eyes.