“Thank you, Perry, for doing this for us.” “What are you talking about,” I whispered. He was talking to me, I think, but looking at whatever he was holding in his arms. “I didn’t think she’d make it,” he said in his gravel y voice. It would have fil ed me with hatred so frighteningly uncontrol able, but I couldn’t feel anything but confusion and fear. He looked much like he did the last time I saw him. Seeing Dex’s face both scared and calmed me. He was holding a bundle of something wrapped in thick, white cloth, holding it like a baby.

The door I was parked in front of opened and who stepped out of it but Dex Foray. A low, steady creak came from the front of me. Even though what happened earlier was terrible, it was stil preferable to what was happening here. I had to stil be on the floor in the bathroom at work, that wasp stil crawling on my face. What the fucking fuck was going on? This had to be another dream. The old man, his attention stil at his feet, paid the giant insect no attention. My breath stuck to my lungs and I was unable to let it out until the wood bug skittered past the old man and around the corner. It was the size of a dog its grey, segmented shel of a body moving back and forth with each step of its many spindly legs.

I turned and looked to see a large creature that looked like a wood bug undulating past me. A weird skittering sound, like light nails brushing against steel, came from my right, from the ground. With whatever happened to me, I wondered if I had peed my pants in fright. There was a sticky, wet sensation on my jeans when I shifted, especial y around my crotch. I was stil in my Port-Town uniform skinny jeans, black polo shirt, black apron. There was an old man sitting on a chair outside the door, hands resting on a cane, his eyes concentrated on his feet. I lifted my head and shoulders up as much as they could go and looked around me. The doctor and demon girl left my side abruptly, and I was alone, strapped down, facing a door at the end of the hal way. The movement suddenly stopped and the stretcher was stil. “Oh, you had no idea, did you sweetie?” What, I tried to say but my lips were too dry. She had a mask on, covering up those terrible, sharp teeth, but her red, predator eyes were the same. Her dreads were swept up underneath a white cap, but it was the demon girl from the other night. Flabbergasted, I turned my head the other way to see who he was talking to. I was suddenly conscious of someone else beside me. They were strapped in place by heavy, thick leather. I flinched but felt surprisingly constricted. You did a great job.” The doctor took one hand off of the metal handle and laid it on my forehead.

On Demon Wings by Karina Halle