Festive Of Rain

No one warned Maya that the town housed the Rain. How it wasn't a season but an occasion. It was heavy, continuous; exactly what irked her. However, the locals seemed used to the rain. Rather, they celebrated it with neighbors by visiting each other's houses and enjoying meals. For them, it was a routine every year, a part of their life. 

But Maya wasn't a local, nor did she like the rain. It wasn't particularly anything hateful or even traumatic. Just a feeling she always had since childhood. The rain irked her in the worst way possible. Every time it showered, she couldn't bear the sound of it. As if countless screams echoed in her ears, which always made her head ache. 

So Maya remained rooted to the bed on rainy days, whenever and wherever she was. And so was supposed to happen here, in this town. She had three days remaining before returning to the city. She wanted to enjoy these days with some of her friends she had made in the past month. But the rain seemed to refute her plans. And hence, she decided to spend the entire day cuddling the cushion on the sofa while staring out the window. That was the plan.

Until her friends popped up at her place and dragged her outside. Neither of her reasons nor pleas worked. Now Maya and three other ladies were marching towards the hill, wrapped in raincoats. The streets were almost empty, and the only people visible were those returning home.

Maya wouldn't have enjoyed it all if not for her friends. She had known them for only a month, but they were very sweet. In all her time in the town, they always made her feel at home. Occasionally invited her to their house for dinner or just to gossip.

And since Maya was going to leave the town in a few days, they decided to give her a memento of a memory. Something she will always keep with her, in her headspace.

"The hill is really beautiful. Though it's not managed by anyone, it never seems dirty, like a hindrance." A girl with them, only a couple of years younger than Maya, chimed in when another one was talking about the Hills' beauty. 

Rhea was a 23-year-old girl, still attending university. She had come back for her break and was going to return after another month. Rhea was very lively, just what you would expect of a university student.

"Only if it wasn't raining, I could have taken so many pictures of you after some touch-up" Maya chuckled. However, she was relieved that it was raining for that sole reason. 

Rhea liked to dress up. And it included others. On the other hand, Maya was the last person to match that passion. Wearing simple clothes and having no makeup wasn't her inexperience. It was her comfort.

"Then the rain's no more trouble. It's god helping us, maybe..." the woman who was telling Maya about the hill's beauty before Rhea took charge muttered to Maya. Rhea, hearing this, pinched the woman slightly. 

"Haha. But jokes aside, it is still a treat to the eyes, you see. The hill is even better in the rain. Not many dare to climb it since the slope is dangerous when it's raining. But whoever has climbed it during a rain has been mesmerized by it." 

The woman, Sophia, explained again. She was the oldest of the group. And the only one married. She had a 10-year-old child and yet out-younged them. Maybe she was blessed with youth. Sophia was also the one who decided to drag Maya out to travel up the hill.

Maya had gotten closest to her. It might have been because Sophia was very much like her in terms of maturity, but their bond had been the quickest to form.

"Have you ever gone to the hill in the rain? You seem to know a lot about it" Maya asked, her hand still in Rhea's hand. It was a habit Rhea had from university, where she would walk hand in hand with her friends. 

"I have a few times. That was also the place where my husband proposed to me." Sophia spoke with a warm smile, affection, and fondness evident on her face. Maya looked up at the top of the hill. The ominosity from far away was a facade. Below its grace, the view was sacred; something you only witness once in a lifetime.

The rain shimmered on its rough edges and streamed like its tears. A memory flashed to her mind from a month ago, and a shiver spread through her body. 

"Does someone live at the top of the hill?" Maya asked, trying to find an answer to her curiosity. Since that silhouette had been a view for seconds, it never lingered back in her mind. But being so close to the hill now raised many questions.

But maybe she had asked the wrong question or a dumb one. Because, giving her a shocked look, all three ladies started laughing. 

"Why would anyone live on the hill?" the girls walking in front of them, talking to each other, looked at Maya and joked. They were both sisters, a few years apart. And had a very friendly nature. Since Maya arrived in the town, they had always been helping her in many ways.

"It's indeed a picnic spot, but living on a hill isn't very beneficial, is it? After all, it is very far away from the town and its facilities." Sophia was still chuckling. 

"But I saw a silhouette of a person on the day I arrived in the town." Maya looked at Sophia, her eyes not lying at all. Rhea tensed a bit. 

"That's not weird. Since the hill has many herbs and fruits, people often climb up it. Also, when you arrived in the town, it wasn't raining. So someone may have stayed for longer on the hill." Sophia answered genuinely. 

"Are you scared of ghosts or something?" The girls asked Maya, turning back again. But it was Rhea who shrieked and responded. 

"Stop it! I am scared just imagining it." She tugged on Maya, whimpering like a kitten. The girls started laughing. Maya patted Rhea's head, but even she was a bit shaken. Until the words were spoken, she had been able to put back the thought. But once out and audible, her mind could not help but imagine the unnecessary.

'No, ghosts aren't real.' She did her best to reason with fear, and yet ghosts always rose victorious.

Climbing the hill wasn't very difficult. But it was dangerous. Even a slight slip on the wet rocks and murky mud could spiral a person down the slope. The hill had an erased road to the top, and it wasn't clean. Thorny trees and vines coiled across the remnants of the route.

They held hands and walked very cautiously. But when breathtaking scenery greets human eyes, the heart roams till it's satisfied. So soon, the two sisters wandered off to look at various trees, adorned by beautiful flowers. 

"Don't go wandering off, you two." Sophia did her best to restrain the girls from rushing through the lush hill. But with her lacking strictness, it would be a surprise if they obeyed. The girls went exploring the greenery they hadn't seen for many months. It had become even thicker and taller. 

While Maya and the other two waited, a scream followed. That separated Sophia and Rhea from Maya. She had tried to follow as fast as possible, but her modernized city walk could not keep up on the rocks. Maya was now lost. 

The sky was very bright since it was just close to noon, so at least the day was on her side. But the hill wished to show no mercy because she was losing direction the more she walked. And damned be luck, she was on a formation created through settled rocks and mud which made it really difficult to determine a slope.

'Hah,... It's raining even harder now' Maya grunted as she sat down on a large rock. She had decided to wait there and think of something. Maybe, while waiting, the others would find her? But the rain was rancorous when she was its target. It kept getting heavier, and Maya couldn't help but shift to the shade of the larger trees. 

"Aargh!!" A haunting scream echoed through the hill, reaching halfway up it. Maya cared for no thorns and rocks, as her feet rampaged through any space in whatever direction she could run to.

Maya was always brave and composed. So, she was never phased by many things. Even when Leo was so blatant about avoiding her, she didn't think much of it. But only two things could ever make her mind go haywire. Ghosts and Reptiles.

And when a huge reptile that she dared not turn to look at fell on her shoulder, Maya's legs did not stay still. Even while running, she brushed her shoulder furiously. Her heart was racing uncontrollably, and tears rolled up her face from the sheer fear of the incident. 

"Stupid! Stupid!!!" Maya roared into the showering weather to particularly no one, while it rained heavier as if mocking her back.

Maya did not stop until she reached the top of the hill.

'Sophia wanted to show me the scenery at the top of this hill. So if I stay here, the others might come to find me. Maya was now too scared to go back and find a route to climb down. And while running, the stiffer the hill got, she could see fewer trees and more cleared land.

She wondered if it was done by people since many visit the hill for picnics, but the thought brushed past as quickly as it arrived. Because reaching the peak was her foremost concern. 

Maya finally heaved a sigh, relaxing as she reached the top. A few more steps and she would probably be in a clearing, as it seemed from the gaps of the trees. 

Maya scrounged out of the bushes and mingled trees as a fresh wave of air tumbled the hood of her raincoat back. The raindrops clashed with her face and hair, but it did not feel annoying, since the rough run to the top had already drowned her in sweat.

But the rain was strangely sweet. As if she were being drowned in melody and patted by the stumbling gusts. 

And what amazed her most was the face that remained unchanged in the face of the vast, hazy sky. Had rain been a lover, he was its first heartbreak. Had it been a mother, he was its partial child. But since it was just rain, Leo bathed in its shower, being cleansed from impurity; he had none.

But amazed would be a degradation of her awe. What she felt was a trance. She was seeing a boy she had assumed to be in depression for the past month,...just lying on a smooth rock over the edge of a hill. 

And the amusing part was his face. He was striking even when he wasn't molding with others. But now that he was embracing the rain, his face had a charm she had never witnessed before. And yet, she felt a longing, as if that face had been the very light her soul was subconsciously chasing.

Maya's feet trudged on their own because her eyes could not look any deeper. The closer she got, the braver she felt. The irk that rain brought was washing away, replaced by joy. Leo slept with his hands tucked under his head and his face resting. He wasn't smiling, but she could work out the rapture by the flutter of his nostrils with every breath. His eyes were closed, but their stillness was enigmatically joyous because they did not move even under the lid. 

And with every few seconds, his heaving chest matched the rhythm of her heartbeat, which gave the rain a very twistingly sour taste. Whenever the tears from the sky trickled over his lips and slid down his face, tracing a line to only get washed by another drop; Maya released a breath. 

'Has he always been so...' Maya could not finish her thought, because she feared whatever her mind dared to mutter.

Her hands stretched towards his hands, a motion to try and wake him up. She tried to justify her touch, 'He will catch a cold'

But nothing tricked the rain, especially turmoil.