afterward

previous part here: https://jordynsaelor.com/2025/06/27/safe/

all parts here: https://jordynsaelor.com/cant-catch-me-now/

***

no windows or clocks

adorned my room

so all I know is

I slept at least seven times

(it might’ve been more)

before Coach Purturbelly returned,

and she came

without a knock

while I stared at the ceiling

and she asked again

if I wanted to stay

or go

and I answered,

“Stay.”

So she sat cross-legged by the desk

and said,

“But I haven’t even gotten to what we do here.”

Then she thumped a huge folder

onto the wood(?) desk,

loaded with pamphlets and marked-up pages.

“This place is called Winged Demon Box Academy 4,”

Coach Purturbelly said, pulling out a flier

to hand me

with some pictures of fiery faces

and words I didn’t understand.

“We teach young demons and the occasional goblin

magic.

Shapeshifting, magical runes, how to make special artifacts…stuff like that.

If you stay, you’ll be enrolled,

because nobody lives here for free,

not even the gremlin rats.”

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll learn magic.

It’s not making potions though,

right?”

Coach Purturbelly rubbed her one eye

and squinted at me

and asked

where a strange, gray skinned mortal like me came from.

I said,

“Doesn’t matter,

since I’m not there anymore.”

And Coach Purturbelly

looked at me

a while longer

until I almost lifted the flier close to her

green face

to see if the paper would burn

but then she reached out a hand

and patted my head.

Her fingers

were oddly soft.

It made me want to squirm away

but I stayed perfectly still

until she withdrew.

“Your classes start tomorrow, then,” she said.

“I’ll bring a schedule by tonight

and help you learn where the classrooms are.

You can walk on your own by now, right?”

“I don’t know,” I said,

“the blankets haven’t let me out of bed.”

In reply,

the covers

shamefully

wriggled to the edge of the mattress.

Coach Purturbelly laughed

like a clapping bell

and left

and I didn’t get why she laughed

and the blankets didn’t explain

and no one told me what gremlin rats were either

or what the flier said

but whatever,

I figured I’d find out in class tomorrow–

here,

free,

I explored my living quarters

for the first time

in my life

without a wound on my body.

***

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