The Abducted Scandal (An Aru Shah Fanfic)

I Don't Know Who You Are, So You Don't Know Me

Aiden stepped out of the house with a camera gripped on his hands. His knuckles turned white from holding it too tightly. 

He then pulled up his hoodie and walked around his yard, trying to get some shots of nature and scenery.

He almost got a perfect shot of a falcon that was perched on the tree looking curiously at a squirrel. But, life was cruel. The shot, it was ruined. By a single question.

"Are you Malini's son?" someone asked.

Aiden tried pulling his hoodie even more but that person stopped him. Then the person ripped the hood from the sweater, revealing his face.

Aiden gawped at the broken pieces. He looked up and saw a small girl with long hair gripping his hoodie fiercely.

"Mine!" she whimpered. "It's mine!"

"Look, I don't know who you are, so you don't know me," he said. "You got that right?"

"But your mom's an all time star! Of course people know you!"

Aiden scowled. "First of all, how did you get past the fence?"

"The gate."

"And second, what made you so compelled to rob my privacy and rip my hoodie?"

"Oh, well, you see, I'm a huge fan of-" she began.

Before Aiden heard any other word, he dashed.

Usually if people are a fan of you or something, you'd probably stop and sign your autograph and talk about how amazing you are. But Aiden hated it. He wasn't even the celebrity himself. His mother, Malini, was an all-star singer and dancer but somehow, information leaked that Aiden was just as good, which he was not. 

But, rumors always seem to overpower the truth so the only shots that his camera, Shadowfax, could take was off his mother and random rooms in the  house. Never selfies, though.

Aiden ran around the block and soon ended up near his house again and when he saw the door, he went for it.

He crashed onto the floor, slammed the door shut and swung Shadowfax over his shoulder.

"Ace-Cakes!" his mom replied cheerfully, her gracefulness clearly visible on the face itself. "Where have you been!"

"Uh-" Aiden began.

"Running away from one of my fans? Please, don't be scared of them. They're trying to support and love us!"

Aiden snorted. His dad loved and supported them. And how did that turn out? A divorce file.

"Please, Ace-Cakes, they're the reason why we're living in a house and having a good life right now," his mother pleaded.

"Doesn't the business pay you? And the music show you work in with Urvashi?"

Malini paused. "Well, whatever, let's drop this subject and be done with it."

"Sure," Aiden agreed. Then he went into his room and did all his homework and though about the various perils in high school. There were a lot, like every school.

*             *             *

The next day, he tried going out of the house again to try to get at least one image of a tree or something and he actually succeeded, or, at least he thought he did.

When he checked the image, there was a black blur at the bottom that looked like a human running.

No, please, not a human.

Aiden turned around, only to see a girl wearing her hoodie with a braid sticking out.

"Who are you," Aiden demanded. He then forced his hood to go down even more.

"First of all, I don't know who you are, but, if you tell me your name, I'll leave," the girl said.

"If I don't know you, why do I have to tell you my name?" he said.

" 'Cause I don't know you."

"Good point," Aiden said. He hadn't even thought of that.

"Okay, so, fine, my name is Aiden Acharya," he said. Then he pointed to the swinging gate of the fence that seemed to be broken by now. "Now go."

The girl mumbled something like, "So his name isn't Acne."

"What?"

Then it was black. Everything.