Burnt Bodies

Chapter 1 - A New Adventure

Lorna slung her purple and black backpack over her right shoulder and picked up a plastic bag stuffed with food with her other hand. Varanasi was waiting.

She had finally decided to get it done and over with. She'd been waiting until she had fully acclimatised to the surreality of India before venturing to the cultural capital. The weeks quickly tumbled past and before long, her last weekend had arrived. Varanasi wouldn't wait forever.

Lorna took a deep breath, her lungs filling with the humid air as she turned to look at the House one last time. It seemed smaller now than when she had first arrived. She quickly clambered into the back of the tuk-tuk waiting outside and turned to watch as the House became even smaller still.

Eventually, she reached the Metro station and entered clutching her metro card which she hoped had enough money stored on it to last her for the journey there and back. Chucking her bags onto the conveyer belt, she walked forward into the woman's security booth. She raised her arms and did a little twisting dance while one police officer patted her down and another scanned her from head to toe. Finally, she was allowed through and, after picking up her bags, she headed for the Violet Line.

The train journey into Delhi took an hour and a half. It was a rather comfortable ride and Lorna much preferred it to the Underground system back in London, although the creepy stares and uncanny desire of the other passengers to constantly make eye contact still phased her. After passing through security once more, she exited the station into the sweltering heat of the midday sun.

It was only that morning that she had decided today would be the day she went to Varanasi. India was disorganised like that. One didn't need much planning to do things. One simply decided to do them and then did. Her friend John had suggested heading to the station after lunch and booking a train ticket, for that night, in the foreign tourist office. It seemed like a reasonable idea at the time.

Upon reaching the station, Lorna began the hunt for the mysterious office. She went up two flights of stairs, across a passageway, past the trains, down an escalator, across the street into another building, up some more stairs and back down again before finally reaching two wide cauliflower-green doors. A small sign, hiding in the corner, labelled "Tourist Office" was hanging on a single screw. Lorna couldn't help but think that it was almost as if this was a place that wasn't supposed to be found. Indeed, even the touts had tried to steer her in the wrong direction but luckily John had already warned her about them.

Upon entering through the doors, she found herself in a large air-conditioned room with leather black recliner lounge chairs and other western amenities. In perfect English, an Indian man sitting at the counter offered Lorna a train ticket for that afternoon in the 2AC coach. While a private air-conditioned room would have been lovely, Lorna's cash supplies had rapidly disappeared in India and she only had £30 worth of rupees left for the weekend.

"Um, do you have anything cheaper?" she inquired, raising her eyebrows.

The man then proceeded to mumble something about 3AC and Sleeper coaches but Lorna was too tired to care. It had already been a long day with her having spent the morning at the disabled school.

"I'll take the sleeper one please." A bed for the evening sounded quite nice.

A few minutes later, she was holding tickets to and from Varanasi. Her train was due to depart at 8:30 pm that evening though it was only 3 pm by the time she had left the office. Bored and hungry, Lorna decided to set out in search of some proper food before all she had to eat for the next few days would be the tortilla chips, ramen and orange sweets she had bought a week earlier. She whipped out her mobile phone; its map had already proved itself to be a beneficial ally and Lorna was soon dodging the crazy traffic into the shopping district.