The Devil Needs Me - An ongoing manuscript

Unseen to the human eye, rulers of two distinct realms dictate the fate of the humans on earth.

Realm 1 (The bright realm) – Ioklaren

Realm 2 (The dark realm) – Echegarth

She tried to blink but to no avail. Her eyelids seemed physically incapable of moving.

The sky was morphing into a deeper shade of crimson with each passing second. Her ears could make out a faint yet ominous roar in the distance. It seemed to be getting louder and louder. She tried to move, but her arms felt like lead pipes. Her skin was bright red, and she could feel the tissue heat up to the point where it almost seemed like it was melting.

She craned her neck sideways. Almost immediately, bones in her shoulder made a cracking sound and waves of pain emanating from her body overwhelmed the entirety of her senses. After what seemed like a lifetime to her, she regained her vision, only to see a vast expanse of barren land extending for countless miles before her eyes. Moments later, she heard what sounded to her like a flurry of gunshots in the distance. A few seconds of equally excruciating pain later, her eyes widened as her brain tried to process the apocalyptic image unfolding before her.

Two distinct prongs of lightning crackled through the bright orange clouds in the distance. The air shimmered dangerously like a thin sheet of glass threatening to shatter into a million fragments. Through the thinly separated layers of air, she could see something flying towards her at an abnor. She squinted fruitlessly. Her dried up eyes refused to cooperate with her brain.

What could that be?

Are those…ravens? 

She hoped her vision was deceiving her. Unfortunately, there was no way to know if it was. 

A flock of black feathered birds was approaching her, and as she strained harder to see, she noticed something peculiar about their wings.

They were on fire.

She frantically started wriggling under the pressure of the invisible force holding her down. It was like she was Atlas for a moment; being unwillingly forced to hold the weight of the entire sky.

The wriggling did not help. At all. 

She tried to scream for help, again.

Nothing.

With a fury of fire and wings closing in on to her, she forced her eyes to close as a searing blast of heat made contact with her chest.

Saanvi woke up with a jolt. She blinked, and then she did it again. She kept doing so until she could blink no more.

Her body was drenched in sweat. She had enough on her body to fill up a jug. As her chest heaved, it trickled down her side and was almost instantly absorbed by the thin sheet of cloth underneath her.

She opened her mouth, only to realize that her throat was still dry and it hurt to breathe. She moved her arm. To her relief, it was mostly mobile, apart from some minor cramps. With her body begging her not to move, she pulled herself out of the makeshift bed and slumped over to the other side. All this time, she kept scouring her aching muscles for the tiniest speck of willpower in order to begin her day.

She couldn’t find any.

With fatigued eyes, Saanvi kept staring at the wall opposite her, which was covered with cracks and threatening to fall apart any second. Nonetheless, her awry gaze drifted to the corner of the room, where a house spider was twisting and turning around in its web. The tiny arachnid was trying to wrap its way around a fly stuck in the mess. 

Saanvi sighed. 

Am I a fly? Is that what I am? 

Her chain of thoughts was interrupted by the shrill scream of her brother from inside the room. 

“DI! I’M LATE FOR SCHOOL!”

Wiping the sweat off of her forehead, she straightened her stiff spine and shifted to an awkward sitting position. As she gulped down her own saliva to hydrate her throat, she barely shouted “HOLD ON RAVI! I’m coming!” 

Stifling a yawn, Saanvi made her way over to her brother’s room. It wasn’t exactly Ravi’s room, since the dilapidated hut wasn’t big enough for both of them to have their own separate rooms. Saanvi, however, liked sleeping on the hard kitchen floor. Her old saree served as a thin mattress between her and the ground. And she could always turn over and sprawl on the stone-cold surface if the heat inside the hut became too unbearable during the night. 

“Come here baccha. I’ll give you a bath. Can you put on your uniform without my help today? Di needs to pack your tiffin for you. You’re not the only one who’s late, you know?” Saanvi managed a weak smile, her chapped lips cracking as she did so. 

Ravi grinned. His eyes radiated pure innocence and love, and if it hadn’t been for him, Saanvi would have given up on life a long time ago. He was the reason she woke up every morning. Food was a bare necessity for her, for the smile on her brother’s face was a million times more fulfilling than any other emotion she could feel. He was her lifeline, and if anything happened to him, she was sure that she’d fall apart like a pillar of ash from a burnt cigarette. 

“I’ll try Di. But do I have to take a bath today? Can I not take a bath today? Please?” He scratched his scalp. “I feel like I would become sick if I take a bath. Then I won’t go to school. And then I’ll fail-”

Saanvi almost laughed. “It’s okay. I’m letting you off the hook because you bathed yesterday. Wait, you did bathe yesterday right?”

Ravi nodded furiously as if his life depended on it. 

“Okay. Give me a second.” She got off her knees and went into the confined space they called their bathroom. Turning the tap on, she picked the old sponge off the floor and cleaned it with the bar of soap. Once the bucket of water was half full, she picked it up and went back to Ravi, who was pretending to hide under the bed. 

Bending over, she gently said “Come out baccha. You’re already late for school.”

Ravi playfully shook his head. Saanvi sighed. 

“Do you want me to call the cockroaches to come for you? Is that what you want?” She knew Ravi was deathly scared of cockroaches. 

Her brother shrieked and wiggled out from under the bed. She grabbed him. Gently taking off his worn clothes, she noticed a bruise on Ravi’s upper back. She touched it gently, and Ravi winced in pain. 

“Baccha, what happened? Did you fall? Why didn’t you tell Di?” 

Ravi shrugged. “It’s nothing Di. I’m a brave boy, I don’t feel pai-”

Saanvi touched the bruise lightly. Her brother instantly winced and giggled at the same time. Saanvi's worried expression, however, did not wear off. 

“Okay, don’t lie to me. What happened? Did you get hurt while playing? I’ve told you so many times to stop pla-”

“Abhi pushed me during recess yesterday. He said, ‘You don’t even have a mother and your father is probably in jail’. Everyone started laughing.”

A lump formed in her throat. Her eyes started stinging as she managed to hold back her tears. A sob, however, escaped her mouth, loud enough for both of them to hear. She cleared her throat, and in a raspy voice, she said, “But how did you get that bruise. I don’t understand…”

Ravi continued. “Then I made fun of Abhi for not having a sister to take care of him, and he became angry and pushed me and I hit the wall, and-”

Saanvi instinctively hugged him. A plethora of mixed emotions were flowing through her, but she was no stranger to tears. She held Ravi close until she finally stopped crying. And when she did, she said a quiet prayer to Lord Ganesha. 

“Di? I’m still getting late. I can skip school today if you want.”

A sliver of a smile crossed Saanvi’s face. It disappeared almost instantly, but she ruffled Ravi’s hair. “No. I’m taking you to school. Maybe I can talk to Abhi about what he did so that he doesn’t do it again?”

Ravi shook his head. “No, I don’t think it’s a good idea. What if he becomes more angry and pushes me again?”

Saanvi smirked playfully. “What happened to my brave boy? Is he in there somewhere?”, she said, poking his belly with her fingers. 

And for those ten seconds, Saanvi and Ravi had no worries whatsoever.

After cleaning Ravi up and packing leftovers from the previous day for his lunch, the siblings stepped out of the hut. The key to the rusty lock on the door hung loosely off Saanvi’s waistband. 

The familiar stench of fish and sewage greeted their nostrils as they made their way along the streets. The two of them were a part of the million others residing in the Dharavi Slums of Mumbai. Chaos and disarray reigned around them day and night. In this ocean of people and splintered dreams, Saanvi and Ravi were struggling to keep afloat every day. 

As they approached the battered wooden gate that served as the school entrance, Ravi’s slender shoulders started dropping. Tightening the tattered straps of the school bag around his shoulders, Saanvi kneeled down to level herself with her brother. “Listen. You remember when Ma used to say that you have the spirit of a tiger? She believed in you. And you know what baccha? I believe in you too. I believe that you will always do what’s right, okay? Just look into my eyes and tell me that you will take care of yourself. And you will let me know if anything bad happens to you. Promise me.”

Ravi lurched forward and hugged Saanvi tightly. For a second, her body filled up with a warm energy that was almost instantly extinguished by the cold and desolate gusts of wind engulfing her soul. “Okay. Off you go. I don’t want you getting late for your first class again.”

As Ravi scurried away, Saanvi’s mind went back to the terrifying dream from last night. 

Why did it all feel so real?

Normally, Saanvi, like most other people had trouble recalling the entirety of her dreams. Bits and pieces were all she could usually gather. But as she stood there while her feet threatened to give way, her skin was still itching as a reminiscence to her dream. 

She held her stomach as the hunger started overtaking her thought process. On top of that, she knew that she had to spend the rest of her day working at Mrs. Agarwal’s house. Saanvi didn’t know if she had the energy left to walk anymore. 

And it was barely 10 in the morning. 

Instead of getting herself something to eat, Saanvi decided to visit the beach nearby. “Mrs. Agarwal can wait. Her daughter shouldn’t be up yet.” She started walking as the sun rays continued to gnaw away at her skin. Every once in a while, she stopped to catch her breath. As she approached the beach, the temperature was beginning to bother her, but then, it always did. Saanvi always felt that her body can withstand more heat than others, but that didn’t mean she was immune to it. She was equally sensitive to heat as others, probably more. And Mumbai heat could be harsh at times. 

The beach was desolate, with not a single soul in sight. She thought she spotted some kids playing towards the other end of the beach, but it was merely a flock of seagulls fighting for food. The dazzling sun reflecting off of the ocean was too much to take in, but she wanted to feel the wind in her long yet tangled hair. She lay down on the sand, and she flinched a little. It was supposed to be hot; warm even, but it wasn’t. The sand was cold to touch. Sitting back up, she thought ‘Maybe it’s still cold from last night.’ 

As she lay down on the sand again, she realized that she was merely reassuring herself. 

                    - - - - 

Ravi wiped off the purple stains ink from his notebook for the third time today. “LEAVE ME ALONE ABHI”, he screamed, “or else I will tell ma’am that you’re hitting me again”. There was an edge to his shrill voice, like he was about to break into tears, but he seemed to be holding his emotions back for now. The recess wasn’t being kind to him. His di’s words echoed somewhere in the back of his head.

You have the spirit of a tiger. 

Abhi laughed. He was definitely bigger than the other 6-year old kids in his class. One look at him and you could tell he’s a bully. And he didn’t mess with Ravi just for fun- he clearly envied him. Ravi always got the highest grades in class, no matter how much he tried to waste his time. He was every teacher’s favorite student. Not only that, he bragged about his sister like she was worth a million rupees. “My sister took me to the beach today.” “Saanvi made the BEST vada-pav for me yesterday” and so on. Abhi couldn’t stand it.

“Oh, so now you’ll tell Sarita ma’am? You know what I will do to you if you complain, don’t you?”, he said, with a menacing smile on his face. “I’ll take my little scissors out of my bag-”, mockingly imitating a pair of scissors with his fingers, he said “I will cut your hair, and then you will have no hair, just like Shyamalam sir.” Everyone around Ravi and Abhi laughed, and Ravi felt his tiny eyes well up with tears. Covering his face with his sleeves, he ran out of the classroom, while Abhi shouted, “Are you running to your sister?” 

6-year-olds can be ruthless too. 

Closing the bathroom door behind him, Ravi broke into a sob as he sank to the ground. This is not fair, he thought, as he continued wiping his now swollen eyes. Abhi has money, he has a mumma, papa and everything else. Why is he so mean to me? His childish brain didn’t have any answers for him, so he washed his face and put on his best ‘brave’ face. As soon as he raised his hand to the doorknob, someone forced the door open from the other side. Ravi instinctively jerked backwards, bumping into the wall behind him. He felt a sudden sharp pain emanating from the back of his head, but as he addressed it, the bathroom door opened wide. 

The person standing before him was unnerving in appearance. And that’s because it wasn’t a person. It was merely a cloak, and as far as cloaks go, Ravi had never seen a cloak like it. However, Ravi’s tear-stained face transitioned into an expression of pure horror as he focused on the spot where the cloak/person’s face was supposed to be. His eyes widened as he began to notice what it was. 

It wasn’t a face. It was a set of faces. 

The being’s head was morphing into a different shape with each passing second. Ravi kept gazing in abject horror as its form shifted from a human head to a serpent’s, and back to a horrible satyr-humanoid shape as Ravi’s head started spinning. Barely moving his lips, he croaked “Who are you?” 

The figure shifted uneasily, as if it was not ready to be questioned yet. The structure of the face changed again, this time to a face that Ravi was way too familiar with. It wasn’t Abhi. The face beneath the hood was that of his best friend.

It was Saanvi. 

All of a sudden, Ravi felt his eyes droop. He struggled to fight the oncoming wave of dizziness, but the pain at the back of his head made it nearly impossible for him to focus. Slowly, his eyes closed as he fell asleep to the sound of his sister singing him to sleep. 

------------

When Saanvi was barely eight years old, she accompanied her now deceased aunt to the famous Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations in a separate part of the city. She was fascinated, for there was a sea of people wearing all sorts of colors, revelling in the joy of Ganesha. She vaguely remembered the loud music, the chanting and if she concentrated hard enough, she could recall various fragrances in the back of her mind. But what she distinctly recollected was a memory so unpleasant and grotesque that it made her flinch and writhe in disgust every time she thought about it. Three drunk men. Tattered red scarves covering their faces. Six strong hands forcibly grabbing her waist, gripping it so violently that it bruised some of her ribs. The sound of her screaming for her aunt - a cry so loud yet no one paid any attention to its source of origin.

The bruises disappeared, the scars never left.

Saanvi felt the same vile grip tightening around her body as she lay on the beach and felt the sand getting warmer with each passing second. As she struggled to move, the grip around her waist started spreading to her limbs, and eventually her neck. Saanvi was terrified, but something told her to stop wiggling under the pressure. As soon as she did, she could immediately feel the grip easing down to the point where she could finally breathe more freely. Her relief, however, was short-lived, since she realized she was in the middle of her nightmare from last night. 

Auburn clouds were gathering in the sky, and as the air became dangerously warm, Saanvi felt the same sensation she did in her dream - her body threatening to break apart into a million pieces if she moved so much as a muscle. 

I’m fully conscious. This is a hallucination. It has to be. There is no other possible explanation. How could-

Her chain of thoughts was interrupted by a shrill scream that rang through the now-red sky. Did I imagine it? And then, she realized the futility of her question. A sharp pain emanated from the back of her head, moving towards her forehead before it made Saanvi audibly gasp in pain and almost cry out in anguish. Before she had time to gather her bearings, something happened. Something that she couldn’t have imagined in her wildest dreams. 

The clouds parted suddenly, revealing a gash in the sky - Saanvi had never seen anything like it. It was like the sky was a piece of fabric and someone swung a giant box-cutter at it, ripping it right through the middle. A brilliant shade of blue glistened through the tear, making it nearly impossible to look directly at it. Saanvi noticed that the temperature around her was gradually dropping, and that she was finally able to breathe freely, but as the light in the sky became brighter, she was forced to shut her eyes. Even through her closed eyelids, she could see the light becoming stronger and stronger, until the glow disappeared all of a sudden, just like switching a lightbulb off. 

Saanvi was counting each passing second under her breath as she realized that there was nothing gripping her anymore. Still cautious, she wiggled a little, and her body gradually relaxed as she considered finally opening her eyes. Another nightmare.  But it wasn’t, however, for she felt a cold hand on her head and all of a sudden, it was like all the pores on her body opened up at the same time, and something, someone reassured her that everything will be alright soon. 

The sensation vanished as quickly as it had appeared, and Saanvi opened her eyes instinctively. She couldn’t see the sun anymore, and it wasn’t the clouds either - an old lady was hunched over her with a rather concerned expression on her face. Saanvi squinted, trying to get a glimpse of the lady’s face but her eyes were still adjusting to the surroundings. A few seconds and a lot of awkward blinking later, her features came into focus and Saanvi was taken aback. 

The face before her eyes was the home of a hundred wrinkles. Saanvi had never seen a person with that many wrinkles, but what’s strange was the fact that the old lady had dazzling blue eyes - eyes so blue they reminded her of the ocean. 

“Wow, that was close. I could almost sense your chakras fading away.”

The expression on Saanvi’s face depicted pure confusion. “Chak- Chakras?” 

The old lady shook her head, letting her silver hair flow all over the place.  “How incredibly naive of me. How would you know what chakras are. I meant your life aura.” She paused for a second. “How do you say it in Hindi? Oh yeah, jeevan rekha.” 

“Wait, what do you mean? I was dying? And who are you? Are you from here? Also, why do you have so many wri-”

And then she laughed. Not Saanvi though, the old lady, and when she laughed, Saanvi’s eyes nearly filled up with tears for she had no idea what that laugh did to her, but for the first time in forever, she felt an emotion well up inside of her. 

It was hope- pure, unadulterated hope. 

Those few seconds of laughter made Saanvi feel like everything will be okay soon enough. She envisioned herself walking on the beach as Ravi ran in front of her, and she could almost smell the briny sea air and feel the sand between her toes. The warmth of the moment spread through her body like a fire burning away the ethereal winter night. It was nothing short of heavenly for as long as it lasted. 

Almost as suddenly as it had appeared, the warmth flowed out of her body as she was left wondering what had happened to her. She realized that the woman next to her had stopped laughing, and her first words were “Can you please do that again?” 

The lady didn’t laugh, but the edges of her wrinkled face spread into a wide grin as she placed her hand on top of Saanvi’s head. She half-closed her eyes, lifted her head towards the sky and mouthed a bunch of words that made absolutely no sense to Saanvi. When she was done, she effortlessly helped her up with one hand as she used her other hand to rub the sand off of Saanvi’s clothes. Amidst all this, Saanvi couldn’t help noticing how strong the old lady’s arms were. 

“How are you so strong? You must be like a hundred years old  but you lifted me like I’m a child. Who are you?”, said Saanvi, “How’d you do that?” The questions seemed never ending, so they both started walking towards the other end of the beach.

The old lady spoke with an air of eerie familiarity to her voice. “I’m Miquota, seventy-second amongst the three thousand and forty seven guardians from the alliance of Devtia’s realm,  Ioklaren.” Grinning slightly, she looked towards Saanvi, who bore a bewildered expression on her face. Miquota continued “I have been assigned to help you redeem yourself. However, it’s my duty to-” 

Saanvi interrupted her. “What do you mean, redeeming myself? What happened to me? Also, Ioklaren? I’ve never heard of that place.” Her mind was being flooded with information when instantaneously, she remembered something. “Wait, I’ve been having these terrifying-”

“Visions. Yes, I know. Good Devtia, I have yet to answer a lot of your questions. Let’s start slow. You do know about heaven and hell Saanvi, right? Well, let’s just say they exist, but the people all over the earth know them very differently. You with me so far?” Saanvi nodded half-heartedly. “Like swarg and naraka?”, she said. “Also, wait a minute, how did you know my name is Saanvi. I never told you that!” 

Miquota chuckled softly, her gray eyebrows scrunching together as she did so. “I know all about you Saanvi. I know you were born exactly twenty-three years, eleven months and twenty-two days ago. I know your father was greatly unkind towards you, and that your mother, bless her soul, passed away while giving birth to Ravi. And Ravi? Honestly, the other guardians are tremendously proud of the way you raised that kid. For someone to be cursed with such a fate and yet… never mind. The point is, I know you better than you know yourself, child.” 

Saanvi’s mouth was wide open. The woman walking right next to her had described her whole life in merely a few sentences. “Wait, are you a Sadhu? From, you know, the Himalayas or something?” 

An amused Miquota said “Do I look like a Sadhu Saanvi? I think you have a pretty good idea of what Sadhus look like, don’t you?” and Saanvi instantly regretted her question, for she was walking right next to probably the most hipster old woman she had ever seen. She had jeans on, with a white shirt that said ‘Angels are overrated’ in purple glitter. She even had a pair of super trendy sunglasses pulled back over her head of shining silver hair. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Saanvi had a growing urge to ask her where she shopped for those clothes, but she decided against voicing her questions for now.

“So anyways, where was I? Oh yes, Heaven and Hell. Well, as I said, they do exist, but they are not what you, or as a matter of fact, everyone else thinks they are. Balance is key, for without balance, the state of everyone and everything in this universe would be nothing but chaos. Murderers need to be punished, whilst the kind folk must be rewarded. It’s just the way it is. Imagine if the wrongdoers start getting rewarded- Oh my Devtia, the universe will lose all sense of balance and there’ll be no more living beings left in a matter of years, if not months. One of our departments performed a st-” 

Saanvi cut her short. “I’m very sorry I keep interrupting you, but what’s Devtia?  Is that a chant of some sort? I’m just really confused, since it’s the second time you’ve said this and frankly, all of this is a lot to take in” 

Smiling, Miquota said. “Don’t worry, you’ll get there soon enough. You know Saanvi, you remind me of a younger me- a much younger me, when I was inducted.” Saanvi looked puzzled. “The gist is, the fate of all living beings in the universe is dictated by two realms, Ioklaren and Echegarth. Now personally, I’m a big fan of Ioklaren, and I’m not just saying this because I work there. It stands for everything that is right, and then some more. For instance, the Ioklaren high council of guardians believes that fate is not entirely destined, it can be moulded by your actions. So someone who is meant to be in Echegarth- we’ll get there in a second- can be fit for Ioklaren as well. You with me so far?” Dazed, Saanvi muttered “Again, I’m sorry, but are you making this up?” to which Miquota replied “Honey, I wish I could be making this up, for then, I would make an excellent storyteller, but anyway, here’s where it gets really interesting. Echegarth is, well, the opposite of Ioklaren in a lot of ways. Imagine a prison, but that prison is your own body, add all sorts of mental torture, multiply it times ten and you’d be nowhere close to guessing how terrible Echegarth is. I mean, it is a literal embodiment of dying over and over again without having any sort of control over it. I am not really selling Echegarth, am I?” She paused for a breath. “Saanvi, you my child were destined for the outer circles of-” 

“-Echegarth. I figured.” Saanvi completed the sentence with an odd look on her face. It wasn’t surprise, nor was it shock- It was a realization, with a hint of remorse. She knew something was wrong with her for as long as she could remember. As a kid, she used to fall sick much more often than other children around her. She couldn’t focus on more than one thing at a time, and then her parents…. [EXPAND]

“Yes, Echegarth. I’m sorry, fate can be very cruel. But that is why I’m here.” She placed a bony hand on Saanvi’s shoulder. Saanvi, however, was still not convinced. “Does this mean I have been worshipping the wrong Gods all along?” 

“There is no such thing as a wrong or a right God. The realms have nothing to do with religion, for if they did, religious differences would have torn them apart millenia ago. It’s merely the perception-” At that very moment, the tiny cell phone tucked inside Saanvi’s waistband started ringing. 

A slightly startled Saanvi pulled the phone out and squinted at the display. Clearly struggling with the sun rays glinting off the screen, she slowly raised the phone to her ear as Miquota suddenly winced. Glancing sideways towards her, Saanvi answered the call. 

“Umm… hello?”

“Is this Miss Saanvi Rao, Ravi Rao’s elder sister?” 

“Ye-Yes. Why? Who is this?”

“Hello Saanvi. We’re calling from Ravi’s school. Is it correct that you are Ravi’s sole guardian right?”, and Saanvi replied affirmatively, a hint of worry clearly audible in her quivering voice. 

“Please refrain from jumping to any sort of conclusion, but is Ravi with you by any chance?” 

Saanvi’s eyes suddenly widened. “Wait, what happened to Ravi? Where is he? Is he okay? Did Abh-”

“Miss Saanvi, we cannot find Ravi at the school. He’s missing.”

Saanvi could feel the words burning through the earpiece onto her skin.

“He’s missing.” 

Saanvi kept staring towards a lone rock jutting out of the water at the edge of the beach. Her mouth dried up altogether, and once again she could feel her vocal chords giving up. “Mi-Missing? What do you mean?” EXPAND

“Would it be possible for you to come to the school and meet Ravi’s principal in the next thirty minutes? We have informed the police as well.” 

‘Ravi.. Gone. Missing... Police?’ 

“-you there? Hello? Miss Saanvi? I cannot hear you.”

With tremendous effort, Saanvi croaked “Okay” as the line went dead. Her hand was still trembling as she lowered the phone and stared directly into Miquota’s eyes, which were now a light shade of turquoise. Miquota tilted her neck slightly. “Was that Ravi? I’m looking forward to meet th-”

“He’s missing. Ravi. He... He ran away from the school.”

Saanvi’s voice was still quivering as she broke down, sobbing uncontrollably as she rested her head against Miquota’s shoulder. Huge teardrops were running along the end of her nose, as she tried to wipe her face with her sleeves. All this time, Miquota had the same unchanged expression resting on her face, as if she had a vague idea of what happened. After a few seconds, she spoke up.

“Saanvi, we need to go. You said Ravi disappeared from the school right? Well, that’s where we are going right now. I promise you he’ll be okay.” Grabbing Saanvi by her shoulders, Miquota wiped the remainder of the tears from her face and said, “Listen Saanvi, it might not be too late, only if you trust me and lead the way to Ravi’s school right now. Okay?” Saanvi nodded weakly. “Good. Now, listen carefully. When the teachers and the police ask you about me, you tell them that I am a distant aunt of Ravi’s. If you lose your nerve, don’t worry and let me handle it. Staying strong right now is key Saanvi, for the toughest of times are the real test of one’s mental endurance. Belief will push you through the harshest of storms, and if it doesn’t, it will make sure you are warm enough to last a lifetime.”

Saanvi wasn’t paying as much attention as she should have. Her thoughts were still racing towards her younger brother. It seemed to her like her body was on autopilot. She was walking much more briskly now, fully aware of Miquota’s presence by her side but she seemed to pay no attention to what the old lady was talking about. 

“-so there’s a big chance that someone is using Ravi to get to you. Do you have anyone in mind who might be holding a grudge against you? Saanvi? SAANVI?”

Saanvi suddenly reverted back to her senses. “Y-yes. I’m sorry, what?”

“Is there anyone who hates you to the point of abducting Ravi?” 

With a blank expression on her face, Saanvi replied “Hate? Everyone and everything hates me. Nobody loves me except Ravi, and now, he has left me too.” She was close to tears once more. “Where is my baby now? Who knows? God knows what he’s going through!” They were almost at the school now. 

“I can tell you this: Ravi’s still alive. I can sense his life-force, like I could sense yours, remember? Although I can tell you this,” Miquota breathed deeply. “He is fading. He’s moving away from us, but I can’t tell where exactly. How far is his school?” 

Out of breath, Saanvi pointed towards the half-painted dilapidated building on the corner of the street as she leaned forward and placed her hands on her knees. “We...”, still trying to catch her breath, she said, “We’re here. I dropped him off here this morning.” Her face was quite red now. 

Miquota moved closer and placed her hand on Saanvi’s head, who recoiled slightly. Pulling her silver hair back over her head, she looked towards the sun and muttered something, once again, barely audible to Saanvi. Saanvi, however, noticed that Miquota’s eyes were no longer blue at all. 

‘The-They are changing colors!’

Sure enough, Miquota’s eyes, which Saanvi distinctly remembered to be blue (or at least some shade of blue) now reflected a deep emerald. 

‘It’s magic. It has to be.’

But she couldn’t ponder over her eyes for too long, for she felt something cold trickling down her neck and spreading over her whole body. Hastily touching the back of her neck with her hand, she expected to find some sort of exuding liquid, but her hand was as dry as it was a few seconds before. However, that wasn’t all. Bit by bit, Saanvi felt all the exhaustion from her previous days drain from her body, and as she became very still, a calm sensation spread over her. She felt like she could run another mile without pausing, for her legs didn’t ache anymore. Her shoulders relaxed, and she was vaguely aware of Miquota’s chanting dying down as she removed her hand from Saanvi’s head. 

“Your eyes. Th-They are blue again.” Miquota smiled. “Very observant Saanvi. I hope you feel a little better now. We have a long day ahead of us, so I thought you could use a little extra vitality. Now, shall we?”, she said, as she motioned Saanvi towards the school building. They both approached the entrance, but Saanvi couldn’t help but notice that Miquota looked a little tired, whereas she herself was feeling better than ever. 

Stepping carefully over a bunch of flower bushes, the two women headed towards the slightly ajar front gate. Saanvi’s eyes momentarily darted towards the two policemen parked right next to the road. Scribbling something in his notebook, one of them looked up and locked eyes with Saanvi, who quickly looked away. She hated policemen. Always had. Pushing the gate open, they entered the school building as Miquota took her surroundings in. The corridor was overflowing with students and teachers. The air was tense, brimming with a sinister tinge that made Saanvi feel queasy. 

She noticed the principal hunched over his tea, trying to cool it down. Ignoring everything around her, she sprinted towards him as everyone around her realized what’s going on. A couple of Ravi’s teachers stepped ahead to slow her down, but there she was - a lioness forged in love and devotion - storming through the hallway towards the man now cowering in the corner.

 s