The Walawwa

𝗖𝗮𝗻 𝗮 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗵𝗼𝘁𝗼𝘀, 𝗤𝗥 𝗰𝗼𝗱𝗲𝘀 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝘃𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝘁𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗹𝗲𝗳𝘁 𝗯𝘆 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝗮𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳? 𝗜𝗳 𝘀𝗼, 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗺𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝗮 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹!

Aspiring author Siddhan Witharana visits an old local mansion (a walawwa) in Sri Lanka to get inspiration for his second novel. He notes stuff down, takes photos and videos, and ends up with quite a dense research document, though not fully complete.

Mid-twenties bookworm, Paali, who’s a supportive fan of Siddhan’s first book, has been waiting for book two for a long time. She keeps asking for a release date from Siddhan, and when she does again, Siddhan decides to print out the research doc and mail it to her. He asks her to consider it a teaser of what’s to come, and buys himself more time.

Paali starts reading the research, and finds a few too many reasons to try and find the place for real, and visit herself. She somehow does too, and annotates her whole experience on the research doc itself. And this is that same doc, after she was through, front to back.

So what’s the story to tell here? See, Siddhan has actually left the place in a hurry, abandoning his research and swearing to never return. But when Paali visits later, she unknowingly gets caught in the very mess Siddhan proactively escaped. And there’s no backing out of that tunnel. The only way out is through the other end.