Aru Shah and The Curse of Kamadeva (DISCONTINUED)

Bloody Petals- Hold on... BLOODY PETALS?!

Aru met the floor- or maybe it met her. She didn't know. Her thoughts were foggy. It seemed as though she were being dragged to another dimension. For the second time. In the past hour.

She could just barely hear her sisters' voices calling her name, but she couldn't reach them. She tried- Oh, how she tried, but it was impossible. She was stuck in this... whatever it was.

In fact, she was in the neural plane between reality and fantasy. But Aru didn't care. She just wanted to get out of here and back to the real world. 

Through the eyes of her body (which were slightly open), she could see Brynne raising the Siegfried to her forehead.

Before she knew it, Aru had been jolted back to reality. She was glad to be back, but she could feel a sharp pain in her chest. What was that? 

It was difficult to breathe, for some reason. Each breath was slightly rasping, and she always felt as though she couldn't get enough air in her lungs.

The pain worsened when she caught a glimpse of Aiden and Fiona standing together, looking at an array of spell books. Aiden's arm was around her shoulder, and Fiona's gaze kept returning to him. Aru's heart- no, her very soul, was aching.

She held up a hand to her mouth as she coughed.

When she removed it, her eyes widened in shock and horror as she stared at the single blood stained petal in her palm.

It belonged to a pink rose. Sure, it didn't seem all that important, but Aru's dread grew as she remembered a mythical disease she'd heard of as a child.

Aru bolted over to her sisters.

"Hey... guys?"

Mini turned. 

"Aru! Glad you're okay. What's up?"

Sheela seemed kind of nervous.

"Maybe she has bad news... Should I cover my ears?"

Nikita was wearing the same haughty expression she always did, and glared at Aru.

"What do you want? It better be quick, because I need to jot down a few more dress ideas."

Brynne just stared, waiting for Aru's reply.

Nobody spoke a word as she held out the one petal for them to see.

Nikita frowned. 

"It's a flower petal. So what?"

Mini met Aru's gaze. 

"Why are you showing this to us? What does it mean?"

A thought- a memory of Aiden flashed through Aru's head. 

It was at her fifteenth birthday party a month ago. Kara had just spilled out her feelings to him, and he'd rejected her. Then, he caught Aru spying on them from behind at statue and he'd... 

...Aiden Acharya kissed her. 

It was a painful memory for her, especially since it seemed to just make things more awkward between them. It was also right before Kara left with the sleeper, so that made it sting more.

Aru let out a wheeze, then choked out a flower. No, not just a petal this time. She spit out an entire pink rose, with no stem or thorns. Just the blossom.

This flower was much, much bloodier than the petal. 

She could feel all her sisters' eyes on her, just as surprised as she was.

They all stared at the rose. When Aru glanced at Mini, she could see that her sister's face had turned pale. 

"It's okay, Aru! You can survive this!"

Her voice was eerily cheerful.

"...What are you talking about?"

Mini's smile fell a little.

"Aru, you haven't figured it out yet?"

Brynne gave her a tight hug.

"I don't wanna lose you. We do fight sometimes, but you're like, the only sister that kinda gets me."

Aru's thoughts all turned into the same one: What are they talking about? Losing me?

Nikita let out a sigh, then stepped a little closer to Aru. 

"Since you don't get it, let me give it to you straight."

Sheela desperately tried to get her twin to stop, but Nikita didn't seem to notice.

"You have Hanahaki. It's a disease where you have an unrequited love for someone and a flower blooms in your lungs. It's very painful. You can either die, get the flower removed and forget the person you loved, or get them to say they love you back. It has to be a genuine confession of love, or else you will die regardless."

Everyone paused for a second. Then, Aru tried to speak. Before she could, Sheela hugged her after Brynne had let go. 

"You'll be okay. We'll make sure of it."

Aru took a moment to realise her hands were shaking. It took her another to get them to stop.

Brynne put her hand into a fist and and pumped it into the air.

"We are going to get you that surgery! And after that, I am going to brutally murder whoever it is. I swear of it. So, who is it?"

Aru's words were quiet, her voice a whisper.

"Aiden. Please, don't tell him. I don't want him to hate me..."

Just as Brynne was about to storm over to him and give him a very, very painful death... Mini pulled her back. She then looked over at Aru. 

"Look, if you get the surgery, you can rebuild you relationship with him. It'll just... be different."

Aru nodded, then paused.

"I could, but... Wait. Kamadeva's curse."

"Huh?"

"He said that I'd still be enamoured with him, but he would never love me back. Which would lead to Hanahaki, which means..."

"...You're going to die."

"That's a blunt way to put it..."

Brynne continued marching towards Aiden while Mini was distracted. The twins tried to hold her back, but to no avail. Nikita cleared her throat. 

"Mini? A little help here?"

"Oh, right!"

And then they all tried to stop her from murdering Aiden.

They barely succeeded.