Aru Shah and the Chamber of Lies

Rudy Can't Keep Secrets...Most of the Time

"Aru! Aru, wake up! You're dreaming!"

Aru gasped and woke up. She could feel beads of cold sweat running down her face and back.

"Aru? Are you alright?" Kara's concerned face hovered in the background of Aru's blurred vision. She couldn't seem to focus on anything. Aru started to breathe in short, tiny gasps.

"Shah! Shah, look at me!"

Another face entered her vision. Aiden. Wasn't he glaring at her before? Wait, no. That was in her dream. That's right, she had woken up for real. Her vision slightly cleared, and she could see Aiden's worried expression right in front of her.

"Aiden?" she asked weakly.

"I'm right here, Shah," he reassured her. Out of the corner of her vision, she could see her other friends and another unfamiliar old man's face hovering in the background.

"Is she gonna be okay?" the man asked.

Brynne nodded nervously. "Is it okay if we get out now? I think she's gonna be sick."

At those words, the man quickly nodded and made way for the Potatoes to get out.

Aiden carefully helped Aru up. She couldn't seem to walk properly, for some reason, and her head kept dipping in front of her chest.

"I've got you," Aiden murmured in her ear. She could only clutch his shirt tightly as a response. 

Aru staggered over to a bench, and sat down. She leaned back and let out a trembling breath. Vajra sent up gentle sparks up her arm, trying to calm her down. 

"Aru?" Sheela asked worriedly. "What's wrong?"

Maybe it was the fact that she didn't get to process everything quickly, or that her friends were staring down at her with sympathetic looks on their faces, but Aru started to cry. Her face felt hot with embarrassment, but she couldn't stop herself.

"Shah," Aiden gently said. "Come here." He enveloped her in a warm hug, and she squeezed her eyes shut and let a couple of tears drip from her eyes and down her cheeks.

She felt her friends' hands on her back as they tried to comfort her.

"I killed him," she whispered, her voice cracking. "I killed him for no reason. It wasn't his fault."

"Who?" asked Rudy softly.

Aru didn't answer him, and sobbed even harder. But eventually, Aiden's and her friends' hands on her back calmed her down. She broke away from the hug, her ears flaming.

"Sorry," she mumbled, her voice all raspy.

Her sisters hugged her.

"Don't worry about it, Shah," Brynne said, trying to sound upbeat. "We can all have a crying session together once we finish this quest."

Nikita nodded seriously. "I should make crying clothes. Perhaps with waterproof material. I could call them...Sobbing Sweaters. Or maybe Tear-Up Tank Tops?"

Rudy shook his head. "Those are terrible names."

"Like you could do any better," Nikita shot back.

Aru let out a weak laugh, and rose unsteadily. She sniffed and said, "We should get going now. How far are we from the Golden Gate Bridge?" she asked Kara.

"About a ten minute walk," Kara replied. But then, she frowned and said, "But we're not leaving until you tell us what's going on. That's not a normal response from a simple nightmare, Aru."

Aru looked away. "I don't want to talk about it."

"You should," Aiden spoke up. Aru glanced up at him. His dark eyes bore through her soul, and they held nothing but concern for her. Aiden covered her hand with his own. "Shah, I'm sorry. For, you know...everything," he said, shifting his eyes away from everyone else, not willing to reveal the details of their fight. "But I'm not willing to back away from this conversation. You owe us an explanation, Aru."

"Yeah," Mini agreed. "Plus, I bet you'll feel better once you tell us. It's not healthy to keep everything bottled up like that."

"We have the right to know too," said Brynne. 

Nikita, Sheela, Kara, and Rudy nodded as well.

Rudy grinned and puffed his chest out proudly. "I can keep a secret if it's something bad."

Aiden raised an eyebrow. "You told everyone that Aru was my girlfriend not even five minutes before I told you to keep it a secret."

Rudy crossed his arms. "Well, to be fair, you really should have done a better job of hiding it. It wasn't my fault."

"What part of going through my phone isn't your fault?!"

Nikita giggled. "Wait, that's how you found out?"

Rudy nodded, but then turned to Aru. "You know you can trust us, right? Well, at least with this kind of stuff."

Aru smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I know."

And she began to tell them everything.