This Place Smells Funky

Aru was no stranger to curses.

It’s just that she was usually the giver and not the receiver.

In the sixth grade, Aru had cursed Carol Yang. It was during a week when Aru had been suffering from a cold. Jordan Smith had used up all the tissues giving himself pretend boobs, which was not nearly as funny as he’d thought it would be, and it was the worst for Aru, who’d really needed to blow her nose. The teacher wouldn’t excuse her to go to the bathroom. So Aru had been left with that horrible, tickly feeling of a drippy nose, and she’d had no other choice….

Carol Yang had shouted, “Gross! Aru Shah just used her sleeve to wipe her nose!”

Everyone had started laughing. For the rest of the day, Carol had thrown balled-up toilet paper at the back of her head.

After school, Aru had gone home and cut out a picture of old-looking text from one of the museum’s pamphlets. She’d burned the edges of the photo with the stove flame to make it look even more antique.

The next day, right before homeroom, Aru had gone up to Carol and held the paper in her face. “I curse you, Carol Yang! From this day forth, you’ll always have a runny nose. Every time you look in the mirror and think you don’t have a booger, one is going to appear, and everyone will see it except you.” And then Aru had hissed, “Kachori! Bajri no rotlo! Methi nu shaak! Undhiyu!”

In actuality, those words weren’t a curse at all. They were just the names of various Gujarati dishes. But Carol Yang did not know that.

Neither did their homeroom teacher, who had walked in to find Carol holding a tissue to her nose and crying. Aru had been sent home with a note from the principal: Please tell your daughter to refrain from cursing her classmates.

Ever since, Aru hadn’t had a high opinion of curses. She’d thought they would function like gifts (It’s the thought that counts!), but both of those things were lies. Thoughts weren’t powerful enough by themselves, and the curse hadn’t worked.

But this time…This time was all wrong.

Behind them, the Bridge of Forgetting looked like a crescent of ivory. Every memory that had forged it had been stolen from Shukra.

She thought she heard the Sleeper’s voice. Oh, Aru, Aru, Aru. What have you done?

But it wasn’t the Sleeper. It was Mini. She touched Aru’s wrist lightly. “What’d you do, Aru?”

“I saved us.” Her voice wobbled. “I got us across the bridge so that we could get the weapons and save the world.”

This was true.

And true things were supposed to feel…clean. Unquestionably good. But she didn’t feel good. Shukra had given up his life-form, and a curse had followed Aru over the bridge.

She was allegedly a hero. Was this how heroes felt, knotted up with doubt?

Mini’s face softened. “It’s okay. When this is over, we’ll get the curse removed. I bet they’ve got places for that in the Night Bazaar. Or we can ask Boo?”

At least Mini was optimistic. Aru forced herself to smile. She tried to push the curse from her thoughts. “Yeah! That’s it! Good idea, Mini. People do that with tattoos all the time. There’s a girl at my school whose sister got a butterfly put on her lower back during spring break, and her parents took her out of school for a week to get it zapped off.”

Mini wrinkled her nose. “Why would anyone want a butterfly permanently on their skin? Butterflies are creepy. Their tongues are weird. And did you know that if tattoo needles are contaminated and not properly sterilized you can get hepatitis?”

“And let me guess….You die?”

“Well, you can get treated,” said Mini. “But you could die.”

Aru rolled her eyes. “C’mon. We must be getting close.”

Chitrigupta had said that the celestial weapons were past the bridge, but there was nothing in sight except a giant cave.

The cave was so tall, it seemed less like a cave and more like a ravine through a mountain range. Pale stalactites dripped down from the ceiling, jagged and sharp, and crowded so tightly that they reminded her of teeth.

And then there was the smell.

Aru almost gagged.

It was worse than that time she had forgotten the groceries in the backseat of her mom’s Honda. The whole car had smelled so bad, her mom had been forced to leave the windows open all weekend. This place smelled like…rotting.

She stepped on something that crunched. Aru looked down to see a slender fish spine stuck to her shoe. She peeled it off and flung it into the cave. It landed with an echoing splat.

“This floor is weird,” said Mini.

It was firm, but springy. Like a mattress. And it wasn’t gray or brown, like the floor of most caves, but a cherry red so deep it glinted black.

“It smells awful in here,” said Aru.

She held her shirt over her nose and mouth as they walked. Almost everything she had seen that had anything to do with the gods and goddesses was lavish and beautiful. But this place looked like a prison. The walls were a wet shade of pink. Every now and again, a gust of hot wind brought the stench of rotting fish.

“Maybe the weapons are rotting?”

“They can’t rot! They’re celestial.”

“How do you know?” demanded Mini. “Are you an expert in all things celestial?”

Aru was going to answer, but she tripped and stumbled. A slender, shining silver thread stretched across the ravine, and the moment she touched it, it triggered something deep in the large cave. Neon words now dangled from the stalactite:

Astra meant weapon.

Specifically ones that had supernatural abilities.

Aru’s pulse raced. She knew she wasn’t supposed to be excited about needing a highly magical and highly powerful weapon (because that just meant your enemy was also highly magical and highly powerful), but she still wanted to see it. She would’ve wanted to take a selfie with it if her mom hadn’t refused to buy her a phone….

“Why wouldn’t the gods keep their weapons with them?” Mini asked. “What if they got stolen or something?”

Aru looked around this dark place. Above them, the stalactites cast a light so stingy that Aru couldn’t see much of what lay ahead. “Maybe they figured they were safe here?”

“But there’s no protection!” Mini said archly. “It’s just a smelly cave. That makes no sense.”

“Maybe the smell is what’s protecting it?”

“Hmm…maybe you’re right. Definitely smells like demon repellent.”

Aru frowned. For a room that was supposed to be full of celestial weapons…it was decidedly empty of weapons.

“Hey, there’s something on the floor,” said Mini. She crouched, pressing her palm to the ground. “Ugh. It’s wet. More of that weird smelly water stuff.” And then Mini was quiet for a minute. “Aru?”

Aru heard Mini, but didn’t turn. The ball turned warm in her pocket, but she didn’t take it out. She was distracted by the dangling words. Before, they had spelled out:

But now the words had elongated and changed. She stepped closer to read it.

“Did you see this sign?” demanded Aru. “It talks about men, but what about women? Rude.”

Mini ignored her. “Aru, this moisture isn’t some weird humidity.”

“So?”

“So I think that it’s—”

Another hot gust of air blew at them. Deep within the cave, she heard a bellowing sound. Like a gigantic pipe organ breaking apart.

Or…lungs drawing in air.

The ground trembled. Above them, the stalactites began to grow larger. Aru squinted. Not larger. Closer.

“Those aren’t stalactites,” said Mini.

Aru had a sneaking suspicion she already knew what Mini was going to say.

They were teeth.

And whatever beast they had stumbled into was beginning to close its mouth.