previous part: https://jordynsaelor.com/2025/09/26/silence-of-the-things/
all parts: https://jordynsaelor.com/cant-catch-me-now/
***
I tried to avoid getting near the trees,
but the further we walked,
the closer they got
and I wasn’t about to go back
to the demon door
so I asked
the blankets
if they could do a protection spell.
They said
we’d be fine,
the eyes
were probably just
scared goblins
watching us,
or green kays–
whatever those were.
But I swallowed
and kept walking;
I had healing runes on the inside of my elbow
and invisibility runes
inked on my ankles
and the blankets
would take the first hit anyway.
The blankets then said
they were more worried about me
dehydrating
or starving,
and with that
I licked my lips
and found them dry,
but worse,
I was getting sleepy;
we’d left
the school
right before sleeping hours
(though the hazy red light inside
never changed)
and we’d only been walking a few hours or so
but the adrenaline of facing the rats
had waned
and I’d been carrying fleshy quilts
across a dry landscape that whole time
growing more suspicious of eyes
in the thickening trees–
“Here,” the blankets said. “Chew on a corner of us,
it’ll give you energy.”
But that
sounded like
it’d start turning me into a codependent blanket
so I shook my head
but
a chorus
wailed out from the branches,
shaking the dust,
freezing my feet,
and the
salamanders
descended.
***
Happy 1 year anniversary to Graveyard of Lullabies!
And happy, like, 1.5 week anniversary to Ruinous Light.
Jordyn Saelor 