Page 8 of King of the Unsightly

“I haven’t seen her in over a decade, and the only thing she left me was the stupid key necklace that man stole from me!”

I almost keeled over and died again for the second time tonight when her glare turned into a thin smile.

“Wrong answer. Have fun in the other realm. I’m sure you’ll come crawling back in no time like a cockroach that just won’t die. You are your mother’s daughter, after all.” The woman unbound my hands, pulled me to my feet, and pushed me off thecliff, waving as I plummeted. “Next time, come up with a better answer.”

The wind ripped and lashed at my clothes as my hair plastered to my face, blinding me from my impending doom.

I clenched my eyes and butt, anticipating the end.

A clear, dense substance invaded every crevice of my body. I wheezed for air, but nothing came in until I slammed ass-first onto the cold, hard bottom of the ocean waiting for myself to slip away—but it never came.

Groaning from the impact, I blinked and blinked again. But trees and shrubs surrounded me instead of harsh tides and an unforgiving current.

Stuck, dumbfounded, I didn’t leave the spot where I landed, and it seemed like hours passed before I laughed maniacally to myself.

I was so out of my element.

I pushed myself off the ground and brushed the dirt off my jeans. If I fractured something from the fall, I wouldn’t be surprised as my adrenaline wore off, and I felt strangely high-strung.

I pinched myself, anticipating again for my world to morph into frigid waters and sharp rocks, but my brain kept deceiving me.

Was this how the body copes with dying of hypothermia or drowning? Easing the body into a slow and painless end full of colorful hallucinations?

The sky, painted like a canvas with strokes of cerulean and plum, had two moons parallel to each other. Miniature beings in all hues of green and translucent wings quavered across the soil.

“Thank the Fellow! The prophecy has come true! Our mighty savior has blessed us with her arrival!”

Intense sobbing and cheers came from below as hundreds of winged creatures resembling dolls with wide eyes and wispy limbs flooded around me. My sight lowered to their exoskeleton legs bending outward.

I could have gone my whole life without seeing it.

“We beg you! Vanquish our foe and we shall grant you our most prized possession!” a high-pitched voice cried.

“Hurry!”

I narrowed my eyes, stupefied. Was I tripping balls, or was I in some weird level of hell?

No, hell wouldn't have cutesy, bug-like creatures.

Tiny screams erupted again, and they pointed toward a creature lurching at them.

The more I looked, the more my vision focused, and it mutated into an eight-legged creature like some twisted species of a spider, crimson dripping down its white-striped back and a huge stinger. About the size of a house cat, the creature jabbed at a pixie the color of the forest with an orange dress covered in frills and pink flowers. They looked like a scoop of orange sherbet.

“Will you not help us?!”

I wrinkled my face, repulsed by the pool of saliva dripping from the creature’s mouth.

“You guys need me to kill”—I pointed to the terrifyingly sized spider-creature—“that?”

Tiny screams erupted again, and they scattered all over the place.

Oh my god. This was too much, but I guess I was well past not indulging in crazy, sofuck it.I needed some good karma after all this supernatural BS.

I took my boot off and crept up to the spider cornering a group of them and slammed my boot down again and again. I winced and gagged all at once as it popped and ruptured into a yellow goo. The smell of rotting flesh flooded all my senses.

Squeaky cheers came from behind me, and the fluttering of their wings started.

“Our magic!”

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