✦ THE ECLIPSE ✦
At dusk, the forest road transformed into something both beautiful and unsettling.
Twisted branches clawed at the darkening sky like skeletal fingers, while pale mist crept along the narrow path, coiling around stones and roots as if it possessed a will of its own.
The air felt heavier here—thick with damp soil, silence, and an unease tension that refused to be named.
Arjun had fallen completely silent with the surrounding atmosphere as he was crossing through.
But the peace of that moment didn't last long. Suddenly, Gopi's sharp, agonizing scream shattered the quiet.
"AAAAH!"
Snapped out of his daydream, Arjun jolted in panic, wildly trying to steady his own wobbling bicycle. "What happened, Gopi?!
Why are you screaming like a maniac out of nowhere? You scared the hell out of me. Did your cycle seat rod snap and go right up your... you know, like the last time?"
"Shut up with your garbage, Arjun! You always jump to the absolute worst," Gopi snapped, wincing in pain as he clutched his knee. "My chain just came loose! It completely split open and started flapping around in the wind!"
Arjun burst out laughing, looking at Gopi with absolute amusement. "Wait—your zipper came undone? Don't tell me that happened inside the temple too!" He gasped, clutching his stomach as a fresh wave of realization hit him. "Bro, please tell me you remembered to wear underwear today... or did the girls inside just get an accidental front-row show? Is that why you're screaming like a hysterical child, Remembering the incident?!"
Gopi clutching his jaw in anger looking at arjun who was laughing like a maniac cracking jokes on him instead of helping and also not trying to understand what's going on.
"Are you completely brain-dead?!" Gopi barked back, gesturing wildly at the greasy frame on the pavement. "My bicycle chain! My bike chain slipped! I was talking about the metal links coming out of the slot, you idiot!"
Arjun froze, looking from Gopi's perfectly zipped pants down to the unchanned bicycle. He quickly tried to defend himself. "Oh! Well, you should've specified that from the start!
"Okay, so now you get it?" Gopi snapped. "Then shut your mouth and hit the brakes. We need to fix this right now, or we won't make it home before midnight."
Both of them squeezed their brakes, pulled over to the side of the road, and got to work. Arjun was good with bicycles so he knelt down to inspect the derailed chain.
Meanwhile, Gopi rolled up his pant leg to check his ankle. It was badly scraped and bleeding. Grimacing, he pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and tightly tied it around the wound to stop the flow.
As Arjun looked up from the gears, his eyes caught the bloody handkerchief. The teasing smirk completely vanished from his face, replaced by genuine concern as he realised how much his friend must be in pain with the cut around his ankle.
"Damn, Gopi... how did you manage to do that?"
"The second the chain slipped, all the resistance went away," Gopi explained in a low, tired voice. "The pedal spun freely way too fast, my foot slipped, and the sharp teeth of the chainring caught my ankle."
"Ouch. Okay, now I get why you screamed like that," Arjun said softly. "Sorry for making fun of you."
"It's fine, it doesn't hurt that much." Gopi reassures arjun, "Just fix the chain so we can finally get the hell out of here before the sky darkness completely."
Arjun nodded and went back to work. He carefully hooked the chain back onto the teeth and gave the pedal a manual spin. Clack. It immediately popped off again. He tried a second time, then a third, but every single time he rotated the pedal, the chain slipped right off the gears.
Frustrated, Arjun leaned in closer for a thorough inspection. That's when he noticed something wrong near the rear axle.
"Uh oh. Look at this..."
"What is it?" Gopi asked, a bad feeling creeping in.
"The nut and bolt that hold your rear wheel in place are completely gone. Without them, the wheel has shifted forward, making the chain way too loose." Arjun explained the condition of his bicycle. "There's no way this chain is staying on without that bolt."
"Great. Just great," Gopi groaned, anxiety bleeding into his voice as he looked up at the rapidly darkening sky. "What do we do now? We're going to be so late getting home!" Gopi shivers in fear realising what kind of mess they got found themselves stuck in. "My mother is gonna kill me."
Suddenly, Arjun's eyes snapped wide. A brilliant grin spread across his face as if a literal lightbulb had just popped up over his head. "Hey, hold on... don't panic. I just had an idea."
The sheer confidence in Arjun's voice acted like a lifeline. Gopi's eyes lit up, A surge of desperate hope and excitement flared in his chest. "Oh, really?! What is it? Tell me!"
Arjun smiled confidently. "Well, the idea is simple. Instead of standing here wasting more time on thinking how to repair your bicycle we could just use our feet and walk. We'll get home eventually."
The silence that followed was deafening with his idea.
"FUCK YOU!" Gopi roared at the top of his lungs, his built-up frustration instantly exploding with disappointment and feeling of betrayal. "Are you actually insane?! I thought you had a real solution, you absolute clown!"
"Whoa, chill out!" Arjun said, taking a step back.
"Chill out?!" Gopi shrieked "This is entirely your fault, you know!" Gopi hissed, his voice trembling with boiling anger as he pointed a shaking finger at Arjun.
"My fault?! How is it my fault? I didn't steal your bolt, did I?"
"Oh, so we're just going to forget, what happened this morning?!" Gopi glared at him and reminds him of what had caused his bicycle to end up like this. "Because of your stupid stunt, my cycle literally flew through the air like a bird and crashed hard. That crash must have loosened the damn nut!"
"Okay, okay, fine! I understand your frustration. But what's done is done—we can't turn back time," Arjun sighed, raising his grease-stained hands in defeat.
"Look, we can't just sit here under this creepy dark sky and wait for the night to swallow us whole. We need to keep moving. Let's start walking—that's literally the only option we have right now. Or, if you're really that worried about reaching home on time, you can double-ride on my bike... but you'll have to leave yours behind or hide it in the bushes somewhere."
Gopi stood in silence for a moment, boiling with frustration but painfully aware that Arjun was right. Slowly, the anger drained out of him, replaced by a quiet, exhausted defeat.
"No, no, your first idea is fine. I'm not leaving my bicycle here to get stolen by tomorrow morning," Gopi muttered under his breath, shaking his head. "Besides... who knows what other kinds of trouble I'm going to run into if I stick around with you..."
He grabbed his handlebars and started walking, dragging his bicycle along his left side as they headed into the dusk.
For several minutes, they walked side-by-side in the fading light. The only sound accompanying them was the rhythmic, metallic kit-kit-kit of their rolling bicycle wheels.
Gradually, Arjun's eyes drifted away from the road. Once again, he slipped away from reality, retreating into the vast, infinite universe inside his own mind. Remembering all the incidents happening to him today. His gaze wandered past the silhouette of the trees and the distant hills, fixing onto an unreachable point in the twilight sky where no paths existed.
It felt as though something far beyond this world was softly whispering his name, gently pulling his thoughts away into the deep, quiet unknown.
Gopi had also been noticing Arjun's unusually quiet demeanor for a while now, unable to figure out why he was suddenly acting so detached.
He slowed his pace, furrowing his brows as he nudged Arjun with a sharp elbow to break the silence. "Hey, what is wrong with you? I've been watching you ever since we left the temple compound. You've been acting so strange and quiet—just constantly zoning out into your own little world. It's like your brain is parked miles away.
Arjun blinked, but he didn't react or offer an answer, continuing to walk alongside him in heavy silence.
"What's bugging you?" Gopi pressed, studying his face, desperate to hear him. "Speak up before you completely lose your mind in there."
Arjun blinked again, the vacant look in his eyes finally clearing like mist. He shook his head slightly, a faint, apologetic smile touching his lips. "It's nothing, Gopi," he said softly. "It's just… those stories the priest was telling back at the temple. They've just stayed with me longer than I expected."
Gopi let out a loud scoff, kicking a loose stone off the path. "You're still stuck on those? I can't believe you. Arjun, they're just ancient tales—wildly exaggerated myths meant to keep the villagers terrified and the kids obedient. Nothing more."
Arjun didn't take the bait. He remained calm, "I'm not saying they're true," he replied, his voice steady. "But I can't exactly call them false, either. Until something is proven, choosing a side feels… meaningless. To me, truth and myth are the same thing—at least until reality decides to separate them."
It was an odd answer for a twelve-year-old, especially coming from someone like Arjun.
On the surface, he seems like your typical, carefree teenage boy—playful, goofy, and always finding a way for his mischievous activities and fun no matter where he is. Slender and olive-skinned, he fits right in with kids his age, effortlessly wearing the mask of an ordinary, chaotic teenager.
But behind that lighthearted mask lies a hidden mystery.
Deep down, there is a completely different side to him that no one ever sees. Behind hazel eyes that reflect far more than they reveal, Arjun is quiet, observant, and carrying a depth that feels much older than his years. The true source of this hidden nature stems from the strange, vivid nightmares that have haunted him since childhood—horrors that forced him to confront fear, death, and existential questions far too early in life. Coupled with the unexplained serpent mark on his hand, these chilling dreams shattered his innocent view of the world, instilling in him a quiet, relentless need to seek answers about his true identity.
It is precisely because of these nightmares that he carries such a stark dual personality.
While he plays the fool on the outside to keep life light and normal, the terrifying truths shown to him in his sleep have forced him to mature ahead of his time. He secretly understands the real hardships of life and the cruel indifference of the world, holding a deep, intense interest in mysteries most kids his age could never grasp—keeping his true, battle-hardened awareness carefully hidden in the shadows.
...