Aru Shah and the End of Time

by Roshani Chokshi

  “Psst!” hissed Mini.

  Madame Bee was still cackling and spinning around in circles, or whatever it was asuras did whenever they were gloating. There, shoved up against one wall, was a giant table covered with postcards, hairbrushes, and bottles upon bottles of hair spray. Mini peered out from under it, and Aru scrambled after her. The asura just laughed, strolling toward them as if she had all the time in the world.

  “Boo, help!” shouted Aru.

  But if the pigeon could hear her, he didn’t come.

  “Don’t think I don’t know exactly who you are,” crooned the asura, “little Pandavalings! It was very considerate of you to come all this way just so I can take your beauty. There’s no use calling for your little feathered friend. He cannot enter my world. Just like you cannot leave it.”

  “Oh gods, what do we do?” whispered Mini, drawing her knees to her chest. “How are my parents going to identify my body if I’m only ashes? All I have are dental records and—”

  “Mini! The compact!” hissed Aru.

  Maybe there’s a reason Madame Bee surrounds herself with false mirrors, thought Aru. All that talk of beauty had given Aru an idea. She fumbled for the bright Ping-Pong ball in her pant leg.

  Suddenly, Madame Bee crouched down. Her face appeared upside down. “Peekaboo!” she sang, her ghastly smile stretching wide.

  Aru faced the demon, ignoring the goose bumps crawling down her spine. “I lied,” she said. “You’re not that pretty. See?”

  Mini turned the compact mirror toward the asura. The demon’s face turned even paler. Her hair crackled and snapped like she’d been electrified by the sight of her own ugliness.

  “Nooooo!” the asura screamed. “That’s not me! That’s not me!” She writhed on the floor.

  Aru and Mini scuttled backward. The golden Ping-Pong ball warmed Aru’s pocket. She drew it out and squinted. It glowed like a mini-sun.

  “I’ll get you!” screeched the asura.

  Aru threw the ball straight at her face—

  “Not if you can’t see us!” shouted Aru.

  The ball’s light blinded Madame Bee, and she fell back. “My eyes!” she howled.

  A rosy golden glow filled the salon, and Aru had a strange vision of someone gathering up the first light of dawn in hundreds of buckets.

  “Cursed heavenly light,” growled the asura.

  Huh, thought Aru. So that’s what’s in the ball….

  Maybe it wasn’t so useless after all.

  Aru raised her hand and the ball zoomed into her palm. Mini was still holding up her compact and when she saw the ball, she gasped. In Mini’s other hand, an identical golden orb appeared.

  “What the—?” started Aru.

  Mini closed her fingers around the ball. It vanished.

  It was an illusion.

  “How did you do that?” asked Aru.

  “I…I don’t know,” said Mini, confused. “I just looked at the golden ball and thought about it, and then one appeared? But it wasn’t real!”

  “Where aaaaare you, Pandavas?” sang the asura.

  Both girls backed away slowly.

  The asura was crawling, turning her head from side to side, scanning the room. Aru’s heart rate kicked up a notch. The demon’s eyesight was returning!

  “Now what?” asked Mini breathlessly. “How are we going to steal the you-know-what?”

  Something was nagging at Aru. Where was that persistent smell of smoke coming from? Where was the asura burning things?

  “Show me the room again in your compact,” said Aru.

  Mini turned the mirror toward them.

  There was one detail Aru hadn’t noticed before.

  The unenchanted view of the room hadn’t changed, but Aru’s eyes snagged on a detail: handprints here and there. Handprints of ash. Maybe that smoky smell was coming from Madame Bee herself? Something clicked inside Aru. Everything started to make sense. Even the name of the salon: Bee Asura. B. Asura.

  Aru lowered her voice to a whisper: “I know who she is. She’s Brahmasura! The asura who could touch anyone and turn them to ash!”

  “How is that comforting?” hissed Mini.

  “Because we know how to defeat her.”

  “We do?”

  “We do,” said Aru, this time more firmly. “Keep the mirror in your hand. I think it doesn’t just show what’s an illusion; it can also make them.”

  “Like it made the ball,” said Mini, catching on.

  Just then, Brahmasura scuttled closer. “That was not very nice, children,” she crooned. “Don’t you know demons find it extraordinarily rude to be smacked in the face with heavenly light? It…reveals things.”

  Right before their eyes, Brahmasura’s skin began to wrinkle and sag. Teeth fell out between her shrinking lips. Her nose lengthened to a snout and a tusk grew on either side.

  Aru almost gagged.

  The asura’s head whipped in their direction. She licked her lips. “There you are,” she said in her soft, lilting voice. She crawled forward. “So you see the truth about me, don’t you? Well, that’s all right. I’ve always thought that women can see through illusions best.”

  Mini’s fingers closed tighter over the compact mirror. She was shaking. Aru grabbed her free hand.

  “Poor little Pandavalings.” Brahmasura laughed. “And you thought you could be heroes!”

  At this, Mini’s eyes narrowed. “It’s actually heroines,” she said. “We’re girls.”

  Madame Bee laughed. She crawled faster now, like some horrible scuttling mutant spider.

  “Wait!” Aru shouted. “I wouldn’t hurt us if I were you,” she went on breathlessly. “After all, you’ve lost something, don’t you want it back?”

  She nodded to Mini. Sweat shone on Mini’s forehead. She reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a twig with bright blue flowers. She leaned out as far as she could. The asura’s teeth showed. Mini didn’t flinch as she waved it in Brahmasura’s face.

  Madame Bee saw it and let out a shriek. “Where did you get that?”

  “We stole it,” said Aru. “You dropped it when you hit your head on the table.”

  Mini stepped back slowly. On one of the salon tables there was a blow-dryer. Mini snatched it quietly, gesturing wildly with one hand. “Can’t hold on much longer,” she mouthed. Her fingertips were turning white from the effort of keeping up the illusion of the sprig of youth.

  Just one more second, thought Aru.

  Lightly, the asura felt around her own head, careful to avoid touching it with her deadly hand. When the backs of her fingers brushed the true sprig of youth, she sneered.

  “You foolish little liars,” said Madame Bee. “The Sleeper has been torn from his shackles. The rest of us may feast without fear. Did you really think you could—”

  “Now, Mini!” shouted Aru.

  Mini turned on the blow-dryer. Brahmasura screamed as hot air gusted into her face. Her long, greasy hair whipped around, and the demon swatted at it, trying to brush it back without touching it. Mini squeezed her eyes shut, ran forward, and hammered the blow-dryer on top of the asura’s hand.

  The demon’s palm landed with a loud thunk on her own scalp. A horrible shriek ripped through the air. Flames burst around Brahmasura’s hand.

  Aru yanked Mini out of the way.

  Immediately, the smell of something burning filled the place. Brightness flooded the room, and Aru covered her face. Her ears rang with the sound of Madame Bee’s screams.

  When Aru could finally look, her eyes flew to Mini, who was on her hands and knees, searching the floor. Finally she sat up, beaming triumphantly.

  “It blew off.” She proudly displayed something in her hand: the shining blue sprig of youth. The real one.

  Next to her, still pluming with smoke, was a pile of the demon’s ashes.

  Bring On the Next Demon! Wait, Maybe Not…

  Mini held the sprig of youth at arm’s length.

  “Mini, why are you holding it
like that?”

  “It’s clearly a biohazard! What if it’s contaminated?” asked Mini. “It’s been in a demon’s hair for who knows how long. How’d she even get it there if everything she touches turns to ash?”

  Aru thought of the hair products and jars in the salon. “I think she could only burn living things with her touch.”

  “You don’t think the sprig is a living thing?”

  “It’s a key to the Kingdom of Death,” said Aru. “You can’t kill death.”

  “Hmm.” Now Mini looked even more suspicious of the sprig. “What if holding it does something to me? Like make me young forever?”

  “How’s that a bad thing?” Aru wouldn’t mind never getting wrinkles. As a forever-kid, she’d get to go to the front of the line all the time. And she could always get the kid discount at the ice cream place.

  “Look at me!” said Mini. “I’d be stuck forever at four feet! That’s…that’s scary.”

  Aru pulled a crumpled tissue from her pocket. “If you’re worried about that, then use this so you don’t have to touch the sprig of youth for too long.”

  Mini eyed the tissue warily. “Is that used?”

  Yep.

  “Of course not.”

  “Then why are you carrying it in your pocket?”

  Aru lifted her chin. “British royalty always carry crumpled tissues with them. They call them handkerchiefs.”

  “I’m pretty sure—”

  “Four feet forever?” asked Aru, dangling the tissue.

  Sighing, Mini took the tissue and wrapped it around the branch. They cast one more glance at the ashes of Brahmasura as they walked to the door.

  “First demon slaying!” said Aru, holding up her hand for a high five.

  Mini recoiled.

  “You really don’t want to touch other people’s hands. That’s the fastest way to get a cold. Or the flu. And if you’re not vaccinated, you’ll die.”

  “Yeah, but you might not stay dead. I thought Brahmasura was killed a long time ago.”

  “Maybe the souls of demons get to be reincarnated? Like us.”

  That was not a comforting thought. Aru lowered her hand. (Nothing is more awkward than an unreciprocated high five…especially when too much time has gone by and you can’t pretend that you were just stretching.)

  Seeing Aru’s disappointment, Mini offered another suggestion. “How about an elbow bump instead? It’s hygienic and fun!”

  Aru frowned. “You sound like one of those posters in the doctor’s office.”

  “I like those posters….They’re informative. And colorful.”

  Aru laughed. “All right, fine.”

  The girls bumped elbows.

  As soon as they stepped out the door, Aru was slammed with a sense of wrongness. Before they had entered Madame Bee’s salon, the weather outside had been a little breezy and chilly. Now there was no wind at all, and the temperature felt downright icy. It had been afternoon when they arrived, but now it was nearing nighttime. The sky was the color of a bruise. Aru glanced across the parking lot to where a stunted tree had lost almost all of its leaves. One leaf was slowly spiraling to the ground. A little too slowly.

  From above, the flap of wings made Aru rear back and shout, “Stay back, Sleeper, I’m armed and dangerous!”

  But then the winged thing turned out to be Boo. “Reckless!” he scolded. “Don’t go about shouting his name!”

  He descended on them, muttering, pecking their hair, and peering into their ears. “What took you so long?” he demanded.

  “Excuse you, but we are thinking warriors,” said Aru, smoothing her mangled pajamas with as much dignity as she could muster. “We had to plan. We had to analyze the situation. We had to—”

  “Scream, almost die, beat back a demon with a blow-dryer,” finished Mini.

  “Here is where you stop regaling me with tales of your ineptitude and surprise me?” asked Boo hopefully.

  Mini waved the sprig of youth. “One key down, two to go!” she said. “Next up: bite of adulthood.”

  Aru wanted to grin, but her eyes kept going back to the tree in the parking lot. Her thin pajamas weren’t doing much good keeping out the cold.

  “I’m sure it was sheer luck that saved you,” huffed Boo, ruffling his feathers.

  Aru would’ve argued back, but she realized something. Boo cared.

  “You like us!” Aru teased. “You were concerned!”

  “Hmpf,” snorted Boo. “If you’d died, that would’ve been a black mark on my reputation, so yes, at some base level, I was…worried.”

  Aru’s flash of triumph disappeared with his next words.

  “And I have even more reason to worry. Did the asura recognize you?”

  Aru shuddered, remembering how Brahmasura had crooned Pandavalings….

  Mini nodded.

  “That’s not good. Not good at all,” said Boo, anxiously pecking at the ground. “The Sleeper is trying to find allies. Show me the map of the second key.”

  Mini held up her hand so that the book with flapping pages showed on the side.

  “It’s in the Night Bazaar,” said Boo thoughtfully. “We just might be able to convince those arrogant Seasons to give you some armor.”

  “The Seasons?” repeated Mini.

  Boo ignored her question and continued talking to himself. “This was far too close. It’s even worse than I thought if the Sleeper spoke to Brahmasura.”

  “If he knew her, why didn’t the Sleeper just take the first key from Brahmasura?” asked Aru.

  “He cannot see the keys, and Brahmasura never knew what the sprig really was. She probably just thought it was a magical bauble that kept her beautiful.”

  “Let me get this straight,” said Mini. “The Sleeper can’t see the keys, but he knows that we can….Which means he could be after us right now….”

  That icy feeling Aru had wasn’t just autumn turning sneakily into winter….It was him.

  In the parking lot, she saw the same shopgirl who had been smoking before. Now she was hunched over her phone, staring, her mouth caught in a frown.

  She was frozen.

  “Um, Mini? Boo?”

  “What?” snapped Boo. “We need to come up with a plan in case he finds you!”

  “I—I think he already did.”

  Aru watched in horror as a black line broke the sky, as if someone had unzipped twilight to show nighttime lurking just beneath its skin.

  “We have to get out of here!” she screamed.

  Mini shoved the sprig of youth into her backpack and grabbed Boo out of the air.

  “Remember how to access the Otherworld!” hissed Boo. “Reach for the light, look but not look, and touch the second—”

  But the rest of his words were drowned out as a gust of wind blew them backward. Aru would’ve slammed against the salon door if Mini hadn’t caught her arm.

  Together, they touched the second key symbol on the side of their hands. The wind howled. Aru could feel that familiar strand of light just out of sight, but something else caught her attention.

  A dark shape started emerging from the concrete of the parking lot, a massive form of twisted ink and ice. And with it came laughter. The hairs on the back of Aru’s neck rose. She knew that laugh. It was the same one she’d heard when she lit the lamp. A slick of ice spread from the places the Sleeper had stepped, crusting everything in his wake.

  A powerful ache went through Aru. Every frozen thing—leaf, rock, and human—reminded her of one person: Mom. Hanuman had assured her that her mother wasn’t in any pain. But how much longer would it stay that way? On the center of Aru’s palm, the number eight was already beginning to change form….She was running out of time.

  And now the Sleeper had found them.

  “Aru!” shouted Mini. “Hurry!”

  Mini was a couple feet away from her and standing half in, half out of a cut of light. She extended her hand, and Aru raced to grab it. Her fingers brushed Mini’s, and that familiar pull
of the Otherworld tugged at Aru.

  But then it snapped.

  Something had caught her. She couldn’t step forward.

  “Come on, Aru!” screeched Boo.

  Aru heaved. Something was squeezing her. She gasped and choked. Darkness squiggled at the corners of her vision. A black snake tail encircled her waist. She was trapped.

  “I—I can’t,” she spat out.

  Mini tugged her arm, trying to pull her into the portal.

  As Aru heaved and strained, she heard a voice at her ear:

  “Just like your mother, aren’t you, Aru? Slippery and deceitful—”

  Wings flapped against her face.

  “Get off! Off! Off!” shouted Boo. He pecked violently at the Sleeper’s coils until they shuddered, loosening just enough to let Aru grab the golden ball from her pocket. It was now a dull gold, not blindingly shining like it had been against Brahmasura.

  “DO SOMETHING!” she roared at the orb, all her panic focused like a laser. She imagined it lighting up, becoming a sword, turning into a snake made of light, anything that would get her out of here….

  Light exploded, and the snake coils fell away from her.

  Aru leaped for the portal. The Sleeper’s angry screams chased her as she fell through. Finally, she landed on her butt (which hurt way more than it should have, because she didn’t have a lot of built-in cushioning) in the middle of a forest.

  Through the still-open seam, a man’s arm reached out, swiping left and right as his hand grabbed for them.

  Mini started beating the hand with the sprig of youth and shouting, “I”—smack—“do”—smack—“not”—smack—“like”—smack—“you!”

  This didn’t sound like very fierce smack talk to Aru, but considering that it was coming from Mini, it was about as violent as it would get.

  With a final smack, the arm reared back. Boo flew through the gap of the portal, pecking at the line of light as if he were zipping it back up. After a final flash, the portal—and the hand—disappeared completely. When Aru opened her palm, the ball returned.

  Boo fluttered to the ground, his wings drooping in exhaustion.

  Aru scooped him up and hugged him. “Thank you,” she said.

  “No touchie!” huffed Boo. But he didn’t move away from her.