nr2 chp1

CHAPTER 1

It had almost been a year since I’d known who I actually was. My skin was still marred from the bruises of the experiments. At least it didn’t hurt or sting like before. Yen and Abhi also knew our secret now. But the best part about them was that they treated us the same way like they used to, before all this drama started. Honestly, I wouldn’t have liked it if they treated us special only because we were aliens. The connection was strong enough now that even a crescent moon was enough. The entire night riser thing was cool. Marsella- my sister, Arya- the hot and handsome Robin Hood and my grandparents, we usually connected at midnight. Fiddle and Fiona, our grandparents liked telling us many legends and facts about Prisma, our planet. I wished Prisma was nearby. I would just get into a train and see this beautiful place. But alas, that was next to impossible.

 It still felt creepy to consider myself as an alien, but I was. “Tomorrow is going to be a special day Lune. You ready?” Marsella asked through the connection at night. My birthday is tomorrow but that wasn’t the special part. What is going to make my birthday special is a proposal. Yen was finally going to propose to me. It was supposed to be a secret but Abhi had told Marsella, and she couldn’t hide it due to the connection. Yen didn’t know this yet and I wish he never would. I had never been so excited. I imagined a hundred different ways in which he would propose- on his knees in his usual flirty style, or maybe he’d come on a horse just to be more dramatic, or he’d have a beautiful rose and he’d say some filmy lines. Ah! The wait was killing me.

I could feel the connection but I was in no mood to chat with the others. The hands of the clock slowly struck twelve and that is when I was forced into the connection. “Happy birthday!” they all cheered at once. The voice was so loud I could burst! I wanted Yen to wish me first but…. “Happy birthday Angel” he said. I turned around but I couldn’t see him. Where was his voice coming from? I looked through the window, behind the curtains, under my bed, but didn’t find him. The others started laughing in my head.

“What’s so funny?” I asked them. “Yen’s not in your house Lune, I’m on the line with him!” Marsella said while giggling like crazy. Since she was on the phone with Yen, Yen was in her mind, and thus also in mine. Wow! The sound of him was incredible the way I heard it within my head! I loved my family! I was about to imagine Yen here with me right now but I had to control myself. The connection could get too awkward at times. Bob entered the room with a huge cake. My parents accompanied him. I loved both my families! They sang the birthday song and I could feel the connection slowly fading.

Often, I pondered on grandma’s advice. She believed that doing something you love to do, can help you even in the most difficult situation. But I still had to figure out what I loved doing most. I checked my Facebook account which was full of wishes already. I spent the entire night online and it was finally time to go to college. I wore new clothes which made me look very pretty. I tied my hair up in a very fashionable way. I wanted to look the best today. I wanted to drive Yen speechless just by looking at me. Even half an hour of travelling to meet him seemed like a lot. Just then I saw a yellow Audi in my driveway. It was the latest model. No way! He’d come to pick me up? In his Audi? I loved Yen!

I was about to hug him tightly when he got out of the car, but he kissed me on my cheeks before I could reach him and wished me. What he did next, took my breath away for a minute. He gave me the car keys and said, “For today, this car is yours. Happy journey!” He’d given me his car for today? I could see that he was hiding something but I would ask him later, right now I wanted to enjoy this ride. We reached college, but I was in no mood to attend it. Nor were the others. So the four of us decided to ditch college and roam around in our new ride. I drove it way too fast; luckily there were no cops around. Yen asked me to stop the car near a garden. We got down and our photo session started. Even Fiddle and Fiona joined us along with Arya. Now this was a surprise. But I was waiting for a bigger surprise, for Yen.

There was a fountain in that garden with absolutely nobody except the seven of us. Yen’s hair was wet from the fountain’s water droplets and it made him look even more handsome. He was looking at me like I was a real angel. He handed me a letter. My eyes fell wide open! A guy like Yen could write me a love letter? Before I could open it, we heard a voice from a distance that startled us. “Hello night risers…”

Perhaps Marsella’s suspicion was on the right track. Nana had a backup plan. Otherwise how could this man know that we were night risers? We all took a defensive position. “If you want to get them, you’ll have to go through us” Yen said while taking a protective position before me. Couldn’t he leave his drama at least in such a situation? We were waiting for them to attack but the man started laughing. His laugh was cruel enough to scare us. He whispered, “I’m not gonna hurt you. I’m not taking you for any experiments. I want something else from you guys.” If he wasn’t going to hurt us, why did he get so many other people with him? “What do you want Tony?” Fiddle asked. “You know him?” Arya questioned. “Yeah. He worked with me at NASA.” Grandpa informed us.

“Hm. Good old days.” Tony said with a smirk. “We’ll have enough of time to talk about that, but right now, we’re going to Prisma.” We were taken aback! With that line, he sprayed something on us, obviously, it was something like chloroform.

Night Riser

chapter 1         
chapter 2     
chapter 3     
chapter 4      
chapter 5
chapter 6
chapter 7        
chapter 8        
chapter 9     
chapter 10 (last)

NightRiser chp10-last

CHAPTER 10

I didn’t understand this. Nor did Marsella. We connected. Getting connected was much easier now. It wouldn’t even drain as much energy from us as it did the first time. Arya told us the plan. “When you’ll were at the hospital, I went down to see if I could get any information. That’s when I saw Nana with Abhi and Yen on a nearby street. When he saw me, his men caught me. He was asking Abhi and Yen your location and offered them a huge price. Yen looked at me and I understood what his plan was. Abhi and Yen played along very well. They acted like the amount of money was everything to them. Our plan had a lot of risk involved, but all our lives are at stake here. We needed to know the location of the experiment house. Nana would obviously bring us here, the setup was here, and they both would tag along. Abhi and Yen will be here soon, to destroy this place.”

One more time, we had nothing to say. We all were saving each other’s lives. We felt so guilty and stupid for not trusting Abhi and Yen. Like Arya said, they entered with three other people. They were Arya’s gang members. They took down the security guards. Abhi and Yen took off our masks that Nana had put on our faces and hugged us. There wasn’t even time to ask each other if we were alright. We were free and all ready to destroy this place. There were metal rods in their hands. Each one of us took a rod and started our mission. We wrecked and smashed every machine that we could see. The brain machine had tortured us the most;breaking that one down was our greatest victory. We burnt the observation papers and took out the memory cards and hard drives. Nana entered the room when he heard the noise; he realized he’d been trapped. He used his full strength and compromising tactics but they were all in vain. We were a team, an invincible team.

Arya stopped him and all of us enjoyed a punch in his face. We hit him so hard that he fainted after a while. Arya pulled his trigger and shot him dead. This was it. There was no one else who identified us and had dangerous intentions. We were free. We wouldn’t have to face the agony now, no shocks, no tortures, no experiments. We finally felt like humans uhm I mean night risers rather than guinea pigs.

We went to the hospital and gave grandma the good news. But she didn’t even smile. Clearly there was no improvement in grandpa’s health. Two hours later, the doctor told us that grandpa was out of danger. Finally grandma started crying. We went to his room one by one. The doctor had specifically told us take precautions with doctor masks. We did that.

When I entered the room, grandpa smiled. He said with a grin, “When I was shot, you called me grandpa and not Fiddle, I liked it.” He had just recovered and he was already making me laugh. “Do you know why the connection comes so easily to you now? It must be easy now isn’t it?” I knew he would answer it no matter what. He said, “Over the years, Pikshtra’s machines and our lowering will power had made it weak. You showed great power and strength when you started the group connection. Everyone felt the same. The connection has become strong now, since it is active.”

It made sense. But grandpa needed to rest right now. I said good bye, and added ‘grandpa’ in the end. He smiled and I came out of the room. Arya stayed with grandma, the rest of us needed to go home. I remembered the day I’d left. I’d accused my mom of lying to me about my birth. But she’d loved me irrevocably like her own child. I owed her a huge apology. Before Yen dropped me home, he hugged me and the hug spoke more than his words. He still hadn’t told me about his feelings but I was sure, one day he would. I wanted him to take the first step, and he definitely would one day. I went home and my parents couldn’t be happier than they were now. Even Bob was crying continuously. I loved my family. I apologized to my mother and slept in her lap. We’d decided to tell everyone the fake ‘kidnapping’ story.

Our life was back to normal.College was more fun now. We secured the second prize for our project. Most of the nights we used the connection to keep it active. Grandpa was still in the hospital but he would be discharged soon. We visited him every day after college. We often talked with Arya.

One day we were having lunch in college as usual, when Yen said, “I wish I had the connection. I wouldn’t have to pay the telephone bill!” Yen was Yen. He would never change. But Marsella looked lost. I asked her what happened. And she said, “I hope Nana didn’t tell anyone else about us as a backup plan…”

THE END

NightRiser chp9

CHAPTER 9

The fight started again. And this time, we were ready. With our minds interconnected, we were more powerful. Any attacks from behind were easily handled. We eventually defeated them. But Nana managed to escape. We killed the rest of them. Even though the thought of feeling relieved after killing someone was absurd, it was true. At the moment, grandpa was our priority as compared to finding Nana. We took him to a nearby hospital. But they wouldn’t admit him until we paid the advance. Our credit cards and wallets were already taken. We didn’t know what to do. We had to save grandpa’s life. Going home would take at least an hour.

Arya promised to get the money. He made a phone call from the hospital. Half an hour later a man came in with a bag of cash. Of course, this shouldn’t have been difficult for him. A police case was filed. We gave them the details. Obviously we couldn’t tell the police the truth, but we managed a good kidnapping story. We were glad grandpa’s treatment finally started. The doctors told us that there was a very little chance of his survival, but we had some chance and we had to take it.

Yen told us he wanted to go for a walk for some fresh air. Abhi accompanied him. Marsella and I stayed with grandma to support her. Arya left the hospital without informing any one. Grandma didn’t even cry. We made arrangements for her in another room. She needed to be looked after too, she was hurt. After a while she fell asleep. Marsella and I started talking about tracking Nana. We needed to know where his experiment room was. Marsella realized that Abhi and Yen had not been back since a long time. She decided to go check on them. The moment she got up to leave, Abhi and Yen walked in. They asked the two of us to go down with them. We did as they said and got in the car. We drove three lanes forth.We saw something we didn’t expect at all. It was Nana, with a cruel smile.

Yen spoke, “Here, take them. The old couple is as good as dead. You already have Arya. We want our cash by tomorrow.” I was not sure this was happening for real. “What are you saying? What’s wrong with you?” Marsella said in a heartbroken voice. “Nana is giving us the amount of money you can’t even imagine. It will set our future. Even you wouldn’t have denied this deal.” So this was Nana’s plan. He kept Abhi and Yen alive as a backup plan. He knew they could convince us.

We both were taken to the basement we were before. We were blindfolded again. By the time we woke up, we were tied in the experiment room itself. So was Arya. We saw Abhi and Yen receiving a suitcase from Nana.Nana was giving them the money. We couldn’t think straight. Just now everything was alright and now my world was upside down. Abhi and Yen didn’t even look at us. They simply left. I had started falling for Yen, I trusted him with my life, and now he’d sold me. Abhi, my best friend, Marsella’s boyfriend, he’d betrayed us too. Nana tortured the three of us, this time with electric shocks. It didn’t affect Arya as much as us, but I had never seen him so defenseless before. As the night advanced,Nana left. Once there was no one is around, Arya smiled the most triumphant smile and said “The plan is working. The moon is up. Let’s connect.”

NightRiser chp8

Chapter 8

Only Peter, Nana and Blaike identified us. Peter was dead, but Nana and Blaike had reached here already. They were firing from all sides. All the night risers wore our masks which Arya had bought so that at least their men couldn’t see us. Most of Arya’s men were either dead or unconscious; some of them came with us. We formed a circle, back-to-back, and Nana and Blaike along with their men surrounded us from all sides at a distance. “It’s useless to run away or fight”, Nana yelled in his rough cruel voice. I hated him the most. “Surrender yourselves this minute. We were this close to our project but you” He pointed towards Arya, “You came in with your gang and ruined it all! And now it turns out to be that you’re one more night riser. Good! Guards, take them. Now.”

This was a deadly fight. They outnumbered us. They had guns bigger than Arya’s. We had made sharp weapons out of the stones we got in the jungle. It was time to use them.  The firing started from both sides. It was night time and we were stronger than the humans. We took down many of them but they had the benefit of numbers. No matter how many we defeated, there were more in the line. I saw Abhi and Marsella fighting together. They made a great team. Abhi was not an experienced fighter like me or Marsella, but he had his strength. Marsella would bring the people to him, and he would bang their heads to the ground with our weapons. It was a good trick. I was glad that Marsella and I decided to complete our Karate training. But at the same time, grandma and Fiddle were our weak points. Their age had weakened their strength. But they were defending themselves well with Arya’s weapons. Without Arya’s help it would have been impossible for any of us to survive.

In one moment, Blaike had grandma on his gunpoint and the game turned into their hands. We lowered our weapons and everything was silent. “One more move from your side, and this old lady will be dead” he said in his flat voice. It was over. I could see Arya planning for some move but so did Blaike. He almost pressed his trigger when Fiddle came in between “Grandpa!” I screamt. He was shot on his right shoulder. No. this shouldn’t have happened. We were in a vulnerable state and Nana and Blaiketied us with ropes. Grandpa was writhing in pain. And we couldn’t do anything. If we even spoke, Nana threatened to aim grandpa’s heart. Grandma was the most vulnerable. She’d just got her husband back. If he wasn’t taken to the hospital, he would die. Arya’s remaining men were either shot dead, or they ran away. Out of their army, only seven men along with Nana and Blaike remained. We couldn’t speak with both of them around. They were humans and their night vision was very much inferior to ours. They decided to wait until morning to take us out. We had until dawn to make a move. I wish the connection was strong. I keptrepeating this several times in my mind, stronger and stronger each time. That’s when Arya replied, “I wish so too”.

Thankfully, no one outside our group heard it. Everyone looked at him, wondering what his response was about. We only looked at each other, and we both repeated the process. We started singing the anthem in our minds, both of us. We prayed for the connection to be between all of us. We kept on repeating it unless we could feel the others in our mind. One by one, a member kept adding. It was the same tingly feeling again. There was some energy running through us. The feeling was similar to a group chat, with everyone speaking at once. Everyone except grandpa.

Now that our minds were linked, we could plan our strategy. And we did. I had a knife in my back pocket. I couldn’t reach it but Marsella could. I couldn’t tell her this aloud with the men in our earshot. But now we had the power. Marsella slowly got the knife without letting anyone notice, and cut my rope. We had to be careful. We couldn’t let them know. Abhi and Yen were tied to a distant tree. Why weren’t they killed? What was their motive? We would free them soon too. Once we all were free, we were ready for the confrontation. We had the element of surprise this time.