LEO POV
As I turned around to show my sister the prize, I was caught off guard when I saw people standing around me. I looked at the dragon plushie in my hand and at the crowd, just to realise that I am surrounded by people. I search for her through the crowd as my orbs scan right through the crowd.
There she was. In the middle of the crowd. Observing everyone's face reading their emotions. She is proud of me. Her eyes showing the pride so clearly. At this point, she must be feeling grateful for the training lessons I took. Although I don't like the idea of why she was training me, I did it anyways just to make her happy. And this is the moment I knew I made it. Sister pride is so beautiful.
She darted her grey eyes towards me and when we met each other's gaze, I smiled and walked towards her. Giving her the dragon plushie, she looked confused.
"Vivi! I got this for you"
"You like grey. But Why did you get this colour? You sincerely hate pink right?"
That's true. I hate pink. I don't know why but pink resembles the cringe stuff. Some girls who acts like they're soft and innocent made me hate pink. But this is not pink.
"This is not pink. This is lavender colour. It reminded me of your fragrance. So I got it for you. It doesn't matter if it's pink or something I hate. If it's for you, I would do it gladly" I smiled cheekily.
She looked a bit perplexed. I know why she is looking at me like that. It's because she doesn't like soft things. Things like plushies, flowers, plants make her think that she is too rude. But she is the sweetest person I ever knew. She is the softest person I ever met. I doubt she accepts it. It's ok if she don't want it. I can keep it if she refuses.
The hard shell on the outside she is showing is just to protect herself. Protect me. She looked down to the plushie. But this time, with love. She grabbed the neck of the dragon and took it from my embrace. I didn't realise I was hugging the dragon all this time.
"I thought you won't take it. You don't like these kind of things "
"Ofcourse I would take it. My baby brother worked so hard for this. It would be so bad if I refuse to keep it"
'Awww'
'He is so adorable '
As the whisperings of people around reached me, I felt a wave of awkwardness hit me. Too much attention makes me sick. I pray to God to stop this at once. I can feel my face getting warm and it probably looks like a tomato. My legs refuse to move as I try to walk away from them. It was when I am cursing my body for giving up too easily I felt Vivi's hand hold mine dragging me away. She knew I was not feeling comfortable.
She dragged me out of that place and we walked towards the sub entrance of the park. Never in my life I saw a theme park this big. No matter how hard I try to supress my reactions, my mind is in amusement. My sister drag me towards the locker rooms to store our bag with extra clothes and the dragon plushie I won at the game earlier. She entered the office and booked one locker for our belongings while I stare at the architecture of the entrance.
Everything is so dreamy and unreal. All the vines, flowers, the walls, fountain, the pools, children wearing funny costumes, the chattering of people passing by me, the loud music, crowd gathered at random places talking about the ride they should go on next, the smell of fresh pizza and corn everything feels like a dream.
I turn around to see my sister walking out of the cloak room with her head down fidgeting something in her bag. She took out some cash and paid to the cloak room officer as he handed out a small sized camera to her.
"What is this Vivi?"
"Oh..this is an action camera. It's waterproof. We can't lose our mobiles so I bought it. We can take pictures with this. And later, after we finish our trip, we can develop those pictures"
" Waahhh....Is there really these things outside?"
I reach her and extended my hand to take it. She was examining the camera turning it back and forth. " Let's try taking pictures Vivi!" She lifted her head looking at me when she heard me. Taking the camera from her hand I try to switch it on.
The cam does a beep sound flashing a tiny red light at the top indicating that it is on. And when the screen turns on, I adjust the settings and start to click pictures of my surroundings.
"Mm....the camera quality is good. It is fascinating that you got this camera at such a cheap price"
"Cheap price? How much do you think it is?"
" Ummm...maybe a 10 bucks?"
" Oh my god bubs! That's too low of a guess. Does 100$ sound cheap?"
" You got it for 100 bucks Why??"
" Relax...it was just for advance payment. They will return our money if we return it without a crack. So I think you understand my point?"
" Very clearly"
" Nice. Shall we go?"
" Yeaahhhhh. Let's start the adventure!!! Wooohooo"
LYRA POV
We started our journey from bumper cars. Leo had so much fun there. He even made a little girl his friend when she was crying in her father's arms. He bought her a little tiger wristband. She played with him and when it was time to leave, she started crying again telling him not to leave. She left him only when he promised he would visit her house.
We rode some other rides starting from the freefall, dragon ride, spaceman and finally came to the wonder wheels.
All this time, leo didn't stop to take pictures of people, the rides we went and he even recorded us while we were still in a ride.
He didn't even cared to think about vomiting or uneasy sensation after all the rides he rode. Some people literally fell sick after riding the most terrific rides.
AUTHOR POV
Lyra and leo were waiting in the line for freefall ride. They were talking about something about Leo's college. Leo was all smiles and laughter while Lyra maintained stoic face. They were standing in the line with almost 50 people ahead and behind them.
"It's my first time here actually. My son have been asking me to take him to a theme park. I didn't get to visit a park before. So when he asked me, I didn't see any excuses to say no. And here we are. Haha!" Some random stranger standing behind Leo told him in the middle of a conversation as he chuckled lightly glancing at his 8 years old son in his arms.
Leo smiled and said " it's my first time too. I am sure you'll have a good time with your family. By the way, I am Leo " he extended his right hand to give a handshake to the stranger.
" Oh I'm Ben. And this is my wife Zain. This is Sid, my son. Say hi sid!" He said shaking his hand with Leo and turned his head towards his son.
" Hi uncle!" The little boy in his arms said with a shy smile. " Hi sid!...And this is my sister Lyra" Leo stated looking at his sister who turned her head towards the stranger with her eyes narrowed. She looked like she is going to kill anyone who dares to get close to them. She is ready to shoot daggers with her eyes on whoever tries to hurt them. She just threw a glance at him when Ben said hi to her absolutely showing him that she has no interest in this convo with a poker face. A glance that can make mere human shudder in fear.
Ben just nodded his head and chuckled awkwardly and turned towards his wife. His whole body is covered in goosebumps for what Lyra did. It was actually terrifying for a normal sweet man afterall.
Leo noticed his uneasiness and signalled Lyra to act normal. And when she didn't cared about the signals leo poked his elbow on her shoulder to make her relax. "Vivi! You're making them nervous. Just be normal. You don't need to be this careful. We are in a public place. No one can harm us"
"This is the most favourable place for anyone to attack bubs. We need to be cautious. And .... don't talk with strangers. They are the ones that are most subjected to suspicion "Lyra spoke with a serious tone without any emotion on her face. This confused Leo as he didn't understand what his sister is depicting. After he got what she said, his eyes widened in surprise as the words got struck in his throat.
He turned to Ben and said "I... I'm sorry. She actually didn't mean that. She is just too cautious. She is not taking about you people. I'm sorry"
Ben just smiled weakly and nodded his head afraid to talk anything more. He has been talking with Leo for twenty minutes now. He didn't see any signs that she was not talking about them. So he just decided to stay silent. He turned towards Lyra and slapped his forehead with his palm as he sighed in disbelief.
" Let's just pretend you didn't say anything" Lyra peeked at him pausing the 'searching for a villian who might hurt them' and opened her mouth to speak. But before she can say anything leo cut her off.
"Yeah I know what you're going to say. You just wanted to save me that's all....right?"
"Yes" Lyra raised her eyebrows.
"Cool down Vivi! How are you going to enjoy the rides if you are too cautious? You don't have to save me everytime. For once, let me be the one to save us. Just be normal sister! " Leo said with a demanding tone to which, Lyra just nodded and went back to her mission.
He sighed as she never listens to him in this matter. And the ride came to a halt with all the people on it screaming for their lives. His excitement raised again and he started to jump in his place. " Forget it. Let's go and rock the ride!!!" He shouted to which the little boy behind him shouted " Yaaaayyyy"
LYRA POV
We got on the free fall and he started recording the people around us from top.
"THIS IS SOOOO FFUUUUUUNNNNN" he shouted on top of his lungs when our seats are suspended from the huge platform. We are suspended from the highest peak of the tower until we are halfway through the height of tower. Many people around us are screaming and begging to stop. But among them, leo is so energetic and laughing his heart out while I am just sitting in my seat so strangely quite.
"Vivi! Are you even awake? Why are you not making any noise? "
" Why should I make noise? You are shouting because you are thrilled. People are screaming because they are afraid. I don't feel any of them. So I don't find the reason to shout"
" Ok ok ..please stop your robotic speech. I got it. I will continue my shouting. WOOOOOWWWWW WOOOHOOOOOO"
After a few seconds, the suspended seats started spinning. With that, people who were suppressing their fear just to look cool for others started screaming too. Leo laughed at their silly fake courage and started mocking them screaming the same thing others are screaming.
And when the ride came to an end, all the seats were pulled back into the platform slowly. Some of the riders vomited everything they ate in the morning immediately after they got down the platform. Meanwhile me and leo walked out of there holding our heads up with pride mocking them. They looked at us with jealous gaze as we walked passing them. Leo took some pictures while we were still in the ride.
He called me to show the photos. " Vivi! See this photo. The guys infront of me looks terrified. " He laughed until his stomach hurted as his eyes filled with tears of joy.
We got to various rides like dragon ride, spaceman and wonder wheels. After getting down from the cars in the wonder wheels, Leo's energy decreased drastically due to all the shouting and laughing. He clicked pictures whenever he remembers he have a camera. He is talking about the pictures when I heard some middle aged man yelling at someone who is clearly not there.
"Scumbags! Who leaves the chips on the ground?!! I wore these shoes just this morning. Tsk tsk....What the fuck!!!?" He yelled to himself and started walking away. Leo who heard all this spoke to Lyra in a low tone mocking him. "I just wore these shoes this morning! What does that even mean? Just because they are new, we don't carry them on our head. Shoes are just shoes. Now matter how much you spent on them ha!"
We traveled towards a restaurant when our stomach grumbled with hunger. He handed the camera to me to got inside and place the order.
AT 9:45 AM
"Vivi should I get cinnamon bread for you? Is that okay?"
"Yeah that's fine. Grab some shakes too"
He went inside to the food plaza to order our food while I sit outside at the table. I started to look through the pictures he took and noticed someone familiar.
Suspicious raise inside my brain as I look through the pictures. A girl in white outfit along with a guy in red are in almost every picture. I observed the pictures in loop and something is off about her.
"They are not in the first five pictures, that means, they're not in the photos which are captured before 8.15 Am. But they are present in every picture taken after the freefallride. Are they really following us?"
I repeat the photos again in repeat from the first picture when the small cloud of suspicion got a little bigger mutating itself into a thunder cloud. A storm of suspicion.