Aru swallowed. If her mom were down here, she would drag her away by the ears. But she was upstairs getting ready to go away—yet again. Honestly, if the lamp was so dangerous, then why keep leaving her alone with it? Yeah, Sherrilyn was there. But Sherrilyn spent most of the time watchingReal Housewives of Atlanta.
Maybe it wouldn’t be a big deal. She could just light a small flame, then blow it out. Or, instead, maybe she could break the glass case and act like she’d been cursed. She could start zombie-walking. Or Spider-Man–crawling. They’d all be scared enough never to talk about what had happened.
Please, oh, please, I’ll never lie again, I promise.
She repeated this in her head as she reached for the glass case and lifted it. As soon as the glass was removed, thin red beams of light hit the lamp. If a single strand of hair fell on any of those laser beams, a police car would come rushing to the museum.
Poppy, Arielle, and Burton inhaled sharply at the same time. Aru felt smug.See? I told you it was important.She wondered if she could just stop there. Maybe this would be enough. And then Poppy leaned forward.
“Get it over with,” she said. “I’m bored.”
Aru punched in the security code—her birthday—and watched as the red beams disappeared. The air mingled with the scent of the clay diya. It smelled like the inside of a temple: all burnt things and spices.
“Just tell the truth, Aru,” said Arielle. “If you do, all you have to do is pay us ten dollars each and we won’t post the video of you getting caught in your own stupid lie.”
But Aru knew that wouldn’t be the end of it. Between a demon that could end the world and a seventh-grade girl, Aru (and probably most people) would choose the demon any day.
Without the red beams on it, the lamp felt dangerous. As if it had somehow sensed there was one less barrier. Cold stitched up Aru’s spine, and her fingers felt numb. The small metal dish in the middle of the lamp looked a lot like an unblinking eye. Staring straight at her.
“I—I don’t have a match,” said Aru, taking a step back.
“I do.” Poppy held out a green lighter. “I got it from my brother’s car.”
Aru reached for the lighter. She flicked the little metal wheel, and a tiny flame erupted. Her breath caught.Just a quick light.Then she could enact Plan Melodramatic Aru and get herself out of this mess andnever ever everlie again.
As she brought the flame closer to the lamp, the Hall of the Gods grew dark, as if a switch had turned off all the natural light. Poppy and Arielle moved closer. Burton tried to get closer, too, but Poppy shoved him away.
“Aru…”
A voice seemed to call out to her frominsidethe clay lamp.
She almost dropped the lighter, but her fist clenched around it just in time. She couldn’t look away from the lamp. It seemed to pull her closer and closer.
“Aru, Aru, Aru—”
“Just get it over with, Shah!” screeched Arielle.
The red light on Burton’s phone blinked in the corner of her vision. It promised a horrific year, cafeteria coleslaw in her locker, her mother’s face crumpling in disappointment. But maybe if she did this, if by some stroke of luck she managed to trick Arielle and Poppy and Burton, maybe they’d let her sit beside them at lunch. Maybe she wouldn’t have to hide behind her stories because her own life would finally beenough.
So she did it.
She brought the flame to the lip of the diya.
When her finger brushed the clay, a strange thought burst into Aru’s head. She remembered watching a nature documentary about deep-sea creatures. How some of them used bait, like a glowing orb, to attract their prey. The moment a fish dared to swim toward the little light floating in the water, the sea creature would snatch it up with huge gaping jaws. That was how the lamp felt: a small halo of brightness held out by a monster crouching in the shadows….
A trick.
The moment the flame caught, light exploded behind Aru’s eyes. A shadow unfurled from the lamp, its spine arching and reaching. It made a horrible sound—was that laughter? She couldn’t shake the noise from her head. It clung to her thoughts like an oily residue. It was as if all the silence had been scraped off and thrown somewhere else.
Aru stumbled back as the shadow thing limped out of the lamp. Panic dug into her bones. She tried to blow out the candle, but the flame didn’t budge. Slowly, the shadow grew into a nightmare. It was tall and spidery, horned and fanged and furred.
“Oh, Aru, Aru, Aru…what have you done?”
Wake Up
Aru woke up on the floor. The lights flickered. Something about the room smelled off, like it was rusting. She heaved herself up on her elbows, eyes seeking the lamp. But it wasgone.There was no sign that it had even been there except for the glass shards on the floor. Aru craned her neck to look behind her….
All the statues were facing her.
