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Monday, November 4, 2013

Death is a Welcome Guest: Part II by Becca Halaney

If you missed it, you can read Part I here.
Part Two
            …The beginning to my day was not a good one. First, bad dreams of men with guns coming after me; second, the stupid little girl waking me up two hours earlier than I would’ve liked.
“…Hey, Alex, you awake? Hello? Can we go now?” There was a ball of light coming from the girl’s hand that almost blinded me when I opened my eyes.
“Agh—what is that?!”
“Oh, sorry.” She turned the flashlight off. What’s that human doing here…does she want me to eat her?!
After a few seconds, when my head finally stopped pounding from the light directly in my eyes, it all came back in one horrible train of thoughts. Great. I’d hoped it was a nightmare. The girl—or Angie, I guess—slung her purse back over her shoulder and ran to the mouth of the cave. She stretched her tiny arms out to the sides and gave a long sigh. “Oh, it’s a beautiful day, isn’t it? C’mon, you’ll miss all the sunshine!” The light coming from outside showed me she’d changed into dry clothes…hideous dry clothes. They looked like men’s overalls, but they were made of this stupid, flowery-pink fabric.Does she have any taste whatsoever?
“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming…” I got up from my stone bed and fluffed my fur out, sending droplets of blood flying to hit the walls around me. When I started toward the back of my cave, the little human thing asked where I was going, but I answered only with a growl….
Finally, after much arguing and nagging, we started off. First we passed through the lengthy field surrounding my home in the cliff-side. Then came a river, then the forest, then we looped around a town…needless to say, she was incredibly slow. And don’t give me that “well her legs are shorter” look, either! I don’t know why I ever agreed to escort her on this stupid little trip. She was obnoxious, too; she kept singing these little classic-rock songs. She sang them again, and again, and again. When I heard the refrain of “Here Comes the Sun” for what was probably the billionth time, I finally yelled at her to shut up; my roar could be heard throughout the countryside, and that kept her quiet for at least another half-hour.
By nightfall, we’d only walked five miles. “Phew!” She said as she dropped more wood onto our fire. I came back and dropped the ten dead rabbits I’d been holding in my mouth next to the small circle of rocks; Angie looked at them hungrily, and slowly, very slowly, I felt a growl rising in the back of my throat.
“…Hey, Alex?”
“What?”
The little girl hesitated, scuffing the heel of her battered shoes on the ground. “Could I maybe…you know…have one of those?”
My snarl came out in my voice now, too. “No. Get your own food.” Thus was the nature of instinct; I hunted, caught, and killed it, and therefore, it was mine. Besides, if she was gonna be traveling with me, she’d have to realize I wasn’t gonna wait on her hand and foot like a slave. I was an escort; that was all. I saw her big blue eyes fall, but she made up her mind and waded off into the tall grass around us. Without hesitation, I started on my own food, not even looking back…until I heard small grunts and turned my gaze back over. She was hitting the ground with the point of a dull stick, obviously trying to spear something in the grass. How cute. I think I’ll watch for a bit. So with that, I turned to face the tall weeds and watched her fail time and time again. It was quite amusing. After a few more minutes of not being able to get anything, she dejectedly walked back over and plopped into her previous place across the fire from me. “How’d your hunting go?” It was all I could do not to burst out laughing at her. She shrugged, sniffing, and dug through her purse for a moment. The little Angie kid pulled out a crushed, half-eaten granola bar and began to eat it with sadness across her face. I felt myself beginning to crack. There was a gentle, sort of unsatisfying crunch as she bit off a tiny piece and chewed it. Then she bit off another, and another, each little crunch making me feel like a worse and worse person.
I sighed deeply. “…Fine. Here you go—make sure to cook it, though. I know you humany things can’t handle raw meat.”
Her face instantly lit up, her eyes glowing a little, as I tossed one of the dead rabbits over the fire to her. “Thank you, Alex! Thank you!” With that, she ran to me and threw her arms around my neck. Instinct made me push her off, but she wasn’t discouraged by that and just went back to cook the rabbit meat.
About fifteen minutes later, the little girl spoke with her mouth full. “Sho…Alex, you shaid you know da fairiesh?”
“Yeah, duh!” I swallowed my own food. “They’re always coming after me with their stupid dance and stuff—‘Alexander, come dance with us! Stop ripping out peoples’ hearts and take a break!’” 
She giggled, the sound high and still annoying. I grinned with large, sharp teeth.
“…And what about you?”
Her bright eyes snapped back up to me, “Huh?”
“You know, how’d you find out about the fairies? Most humans don’t know they exist.”
She gave a broad, slow smile and leaned to whisper something to me. Even though she beckoned me closer, I raised an eyebrow and just held my distance. Oh no, don’t you think I’m your friend. I’m only in this to get you off my tail. Nothing else. After an irritatingly suspenseful pause, she finally said, “…I met one.”
I waited for her to go on. “Yeah, and?”
“And…she asked me to come be with them!”
“Wait, wait, wait,” I cut her off, “a fairy was in your town?”
“Well, no, not exactly, but just outside of it! My dad told me to stop daydreaming when I told him…actually, that was really close to when he disowned me.”
I didn’t say anything else, thinking about this, and then our conversation moved to other things.
The little Angie girl was soon asleep, curled up on the ground with the blanket barely covering her again. The thought of eating her didn’t occur to me now: I was too full.

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