A Fairy Out of Her Tale - Dear Diary - 24. Scene 24

11th January 1995

Dear Diary of Things that Keep Going Wrong,

Sorry I stopped writing so abruptly before. That giant gash on my side was hurting again and I couldn’t concentrate. I though I was going to pass out from the pain, but it’s ok now. I got it under control by covering it with a pillow and using my arm to keep the pillow in place. The pressure makes the pain better for some reason. The wound has some bandage and dressing over it, so someone must have been taking care of me. I don’t know who, though.

All I remember is a giant wave of noise. I couldn’t see anything beyond Mamoru and a red wall, but then came that explosion of sounds: screams, gunshots, barking orders from a megaphone. Like we had been inside a glass dome that was suddenly lifted to let the real world catch up to us.

It took a lot of effort to lift my body enough to see what was going on, and even then I couldn’t make out anything more than a wall of white feathers standing in front of me.

Were those wings?

The panicked shouting faded, and so did the gunshots after a while. My belly hurt so much I had to lie on the ground again, clutching my side and closing my eyes so I didn’t have to look at Mamoru’s dead face.

I recognised the voice that laughed in the distance, though. The smoke demon summoned by Morumpi was back. Their deep, booming voice of doom spoke to whoever was still around. I didn’t understand a word, but I got the same chills and same sense of hopelessness as before. It had to be the same demon.

An answer sounded from much closer to me. The winged being spoke in a soothing tone, their voice not quite high as mine, but far from the demon’s dept. Nothing either of them said made sense to me, but at some point the demon laughed again, and then there was silence.

‘We’ll take you home.’ The winged being (an angel! My guardian angel?) turned to me. I couldn’t get a good look at their face because of the setting sun behind us . ‘Branjka, can you pick Nessa up? We’ll travel the quickest way.’

Branjka came up beside the angel. ‘Yes. Sorry, Nessa.’

‘We’ll talk when we’re safe.’

The angel’s words were the last thing I heard before Branjka picked me up bridal style and something tugged at my stomach until I vomitted blood and whatever food I had on me straight into her shirt.

And then there was nothing.