Aru Shah Oneshots (requests!)

[1] • I Want to Die

Just as Brynne was about to let go, he stopped her. "Wait." He pulled her closer.

"Baba," Hira inhaled sharply. Brynne could hear the worry in her voice. "Let her go, please."

But her father continued. "You have a mangal sutra, too," he rumbled, staring at Brynne's neck. He searched her face.

Brynne didn't know how to react. Up until that day, nothing scared her. But now she was in the hands of her father-in-law, petrified. When Hira's father let go of her hand, Brynne let out a breath she didn't know she was holding.

Hira rushed to the asura's side and hugged her arm while the man's eyes switched between the two young women.

"So what your mother said was true," he breathed, his voice barely audible. "How long have you two been married?"

Brynne stood protectively over Hira. "Almost ten months."

Hira's father shook his head. He moved forward slowly. With every step he took, Brynne's heart throbbed faster in her ears. He moved so close to Brynne that she could smell his faint cologne. The man raised his arm and smacked the asura girl. She gasped in shock.

"Baba, no!" Hira sobbed behind her. She gripped tighter at her wife's arm.

Pain sprouted in Brynne's left jaw. Her vision was spotted, and she looked up at Hira's father, confused.

His face contorted with rage. He jabbed a finger at Brynne. "Who are you to take my daughter? You poisoned her brain and manipulated her!"

Brynne shielded Hira from the man. "Oh, so now all of a sudden you care for your daughter?" she shot back. "Where were you twenty years ago?"

"Brynne, no---" Hira warned.

The man jabbed his finger in his daughter's direction and scowled. "How dare you marry a woman? This is disgusting!" He reached for Brynne, ready to strike again.

But the rakshasi was quick. Hira stepped in between her wife and father. She stretched her arms out. Brynne yanked her back. "Stay behind me. Clearly, he's not a stable man."

"You have no idea," Hira muttered. "Baba, please," she begged. "What's happened has happened. Can't we just forget it and m---?"

"Forget it? After all the shame you've brought to my name?" The man's hand came crashing down on Hira's spine. She screamed and collapsed onto the floor.

Brynne howled with rage. She quickly shapeshifted into a blue wolf and launched at Hira's father. Brynne flailed her paws and scratched him with her claws. The man thrashed under her, gasping for breath.

"Brynne, no!" Hira pleaded. "Leave him!"

Brynne kept clawing and growling until she saw fresh blood pool at the man's chest. But he regained his strength and shoved her off him. Her head crashed into the wall, transforming her back into a human.

Hira wept and screamed shrilly. "Baba, please, Baba." She pressed her palms together, begging on the floor. "Please, don't hurt her. I love her, Baba. Please."

The man showed no remorse. He bent down at his daughter and yanked the mangal sutra straight from Hira's neck. Hira cried in pain as the metal ripped against her skin. She scrambled to pick the wedding necklace up, but her father kicked it aside. "I can't believe you, Hira."

"No..." Brynne croaked as the red and black beads spilled down her wife's chest. Brynne's vision was getting hazy. Colors and sounds blended together. Hira rushed to her wife's side.

"Brynne," Hira sobbed. She crawled over to her wife and cradled her head in her arms. Sticky blood stained the rakshasi's hands. She whipped around to face her father. "Why, Baba?"

Her father stood still, his silhouette making him look more intimidating and ghastly in the light. He pressed his side where Brynne gnashed at him. "I want you to stay away from that woman, Hira. You killed your mother because of your actions."

"Since when did you actually care for my life? And I didn't kill Ma. She brought that upon herself."

"Don't speak about your mother like that, you foul whore!"

Hira covered her mouth in shock. "I'm not a---"

But before she could finish her response, a blast of green light knocked her back. Rakshasa magic.

Hira's head smacked the wall clock, which shattered to pieces. Shards of glass flecked her face as she fell down. Thick fingers grabbed her throat and raised her up into the air. Her father shoved her face into the wall and choked her. Hira's eyes bulged as she gasped for air. Sweat trickled down her forehead. Her feet flung in the air as she smacked her father's arm, begging for release.

Brynne yelled from the floor, just getting up. "Don't touch her!" she screamed. Brynne lashed out at her father-in-law, spitting curses and cuss words. She needed to fight but she couldn't figure out how. This man was a powerful rakshasa. His presence alone seemed to be sucking the confidence and strength from Brynne.

But the rakshasa squeezed tighter. He gritted his teeth furiously. "You don't deserve to live after all you've done to our family. How are you even my daughter? I can't step outside without being known as the father of a---"

The asura took a chair from the dining area and slammed it on the man's head. He staggered back, releasing Hira from his grip. He bent down in pain with his arms reaching to the crown of his head.

Hira coughed and sputtered, clutching her neck. She tugged her ponytail loose and ran her fingers through her hair.

Brynne drove the chair into his side, pinning him to the wall with a chair leg. "I can't believe you," she spat. "Abusing a poor girl for thirteen years." She pressed the chair harder into the man. He screamed. Brynne continued, "Hira didn't fail as a daughter. You failed as a father."

"Brynne, don't hurt him!" Hira tugged at Brynne's arms, but the asura didn't flinch.

Brynne's emotions took over, and people were going to get hurt. She looked back at Hira, whose face was ashen. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying and her shirt was wet with blood and dirt. Brynne's arms went slack and she released the chair. She didn't want Hira to suffer.

The rakshasa fell to the ground.

Brynne stood over him, Hira covering her mouth and sobbing at her feet. "Leave," she said sternly, pointing to the door. "You will never bother my wife or step foot in here ever again."

Hira cried for hours that night in Brynne's embrace, whispering, "I want to die. I want to die. I want to die."

No amount of words could reassure her wife, so all Brynne did was hold Hira tighter in her arms. All she could manage was, "Please don't, kanna."

The rakshasi hiccupped. "I wasn't always an only child, you know? I had an older sister. Nandini. Unable to take all the pressure from my parents, she ran away and committed suicide."

Brynne frowned. She was shocked her wife never shared this news with her. "That's horrible. I'm so sorry, Hira."

"I had a younger brother, too. His name was Eshaan."

"What... what happened to him?" Brynne was afraid to ask.

Hira sniffled. "Beaten to death by my mother." She cussed furiously. "And here I am. The only child of Manpreet and Prakash: an outcast, a whore, and a gay, according to my village. I don't blame my father for wanting to kill me earlier."

Brynne hugged Hira tightly at a loss for words. What could she say?

But the rakshasi continued. "I bet you he'll come back to me and apologize, fool me into thinking he loves me. Like he always does. He thinks I'll smooth it over, forget all the horrible thing's he's done. Him and his manipulative behavior," she scowled.

Brynne buried her face into the crook of Hira's neck, rocking her back and forth.

"I want to die. I want to die. I want to die."

There. I hope that was sad enough.