free

I woke.

In a bed

under blankets

with the vertebrae still on.

I blinked

at the face with horns

by the doorway

and asked her

if she was adopting me.

The face

burst into flame

and said

her name was Coach

Purturbelly,

she was in charge of the

portalball teams,

and she better not be

adopting me

otherwise she was going to turn in her resignation letter

to the principal

and tell them

to quit signing legal forms for her

and good luck beating

Grundle Academy this year.

So I asked

what portalball was.

And the flame around her face

dimmed to magenta

and she said

most mortals

were more disturbed

when faced with a demon

after thinking they might have died.

And I didn’t get why

I would be disturbed.

So she said something about shock

and the afterlife and the “bad place”

that a girl my age might not know about

although

she did want to know

how I found their school

with nothing but a small wagon

and serious injuries

and missing hands.

So I said

I just

went up and down the hills

until I couldn’t anymore

and I fell asleep

beside a hill

and woke up here.

Then she patted the blanket

and the vertebrae wriggled

and she told me

they found me

nearly dead

outside the walls of the school

and brought me in

to treat my wounds

because they weren’t monsters,

even to a mortal who wouldn’t live long anyway,

but now

I’d have to decide

if I wanted to stay here,

or go back home

and if I went back home

they’d have to tamper this experience

out of my memories.

And

that was easy to decide,

“I’m never going back home.”

***

Find the other parts of this story here https://jordynsaelor.com/cant-catch-me-now/

find my published book at this link

Ps, I probably won’t be posting for a week or so, due to moving to a new place.