Chapter 611 Help
The snack table was nearby. The frozen servants still stood like statues, their trays in their hands. The lemonade pitchers. The plates. The napkins.
No. Not enough.
She needed something else.
Her eyes landed on the decorations. The banners. The ribbons. The streamers. All made of fabric.
"FABRIC," she whispered.
Her mind raced. Earth worms lived in soil. They breathed through their skin. If you covered them in something dry, something that would coat their bodies and block their pores—
"KAEL! I NEED YOU TO BE BRAVE FOR ME!" Alina shouted.
Kael was crying, his face red, his body shaking. "I’M SCARED!" he sobbed.
"I KNOW!" Alina said. "BUT I NEED YOU TO HOLD ON! CAN YOU HOLD ON?!"
Kael nodded frantically, his small hands gripping the monster’s appendage.
Alina turned and ran to the decoration table.
The ribbons were there. Long strips of fabric in bright colors—red, blue, green, yellow. They had been tied to the swings, wrapped around the poles, woven through the fences. But there were spares. Rolls of unused ribbon stacked in a box.
Alina grabbed them all.
She ran back to the monster.
It had lifted Kael higher now, almost to its mouth. The teeth were so close. Kael was screaming again.
"HELP! HELP! HELP!" he cried.
Alina threw the first roll of ribbon. It unfurled in the air, a long strip of red fabric that wrapped around the monster’s body.
She threw another. Blue. Another. Green.
The ribbons stuck to the monster’s slick skin, clinging, coating.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Miss Clara screamed from behind her. "THAT’S NOT MAGIC! THAT’S NOT—"
Alina ignored her.
She grabbed more ribbons. More fabric. Anything she could find. She wrapped them around the monster’s body, her hands moving faster than they had ever moved, her breath coming in ragged gasps.
"Worms breathe through their skin!" Alina shouted, more to herself than anyone else. "If you cover their skin, they can’t breathe!"
She threw a yellow ribbon. It landed across the monster’s face.
The monster shuddered.
Its teeth stopped spinning.
"KAEL! PULL YOUR LEG FREE! NOW!" Alina commanded.
Kael pulled.
His leg slipped out of the monster’s grip.
He fell.
Alina caught him.
They crashed to the ground together, Alina’s arms wrapped around the small boy, her body taking the impact. She rolled, protecting him, shielding him from the hard earth.
They stopped.
Kael was crying, his face buried in her shoulder.
Alina held him tight.
"It’s okay," she whispered. "I’ve got you. You’re safe."
Behind them, the monster was thrashing. The ribbons were working. Its skin was covered, its pores blocked. It couldn’t breathe. Its movements became sluggish, confused, desperate.
It collapsed.
The ground shook as its massive body hit the earth. Dust and dirt flew into the air.
Alina coughed, still holding Kael.
"STAY DOWN," she whispered.
Kael nodded against her shoulder.
Above them, Boo stared down in shock.
"SHE BEAT THE MONSTER WITH RIBBONS," he whispered.
Drake, still flying with Sable and Lucien, looked down. "SHE WHAT?!" he shouted.
"RIBBONS! SHE USED RIBBONS!" Boo yelled back.
"THAT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE!" Drake said.
"IT DOESN’T HAVE TO MAKE SENSE! IT WORKED!" Boo replied.
***
On the ground, Miss Clara’s face twisted with fury.
"YOU LUCKY, STUPID, INSIGNIFICANT—" she spat.
She raised her hands. Dark magic gathered in her palms.
"You won’t get away with that again," she hissed.
Alina looked up at her, still holding Kael.
"Try me," Alina said.
Her voice was steady. Her eyes were not afraid. Her hands were still wrapped around Kael’s small trembling fingers, and the boy was crying softly against her shoulder, but she didn’t let go. She couldn’t let go. If she let go, she might fall apart too.
Miss Clara laughed. It was a horrible sound, sharp and cold and full of something that felt like centuries of bitterness. Her dark hair whipped around her face in a wind that didn’t touch anyone else. Her black eyes gleamed with malice.
"I will deal with you later," Miss Clara said, her voice dripping with contempt. "How are you going to save all the kids? Hahaha! There are dozens of them, little human. Dozens. And more monsters coming."
She waved her hand.
The ground shook again. More cracks appeared in the earth. More worm monsters pushed their way up from the darkness below, their massive bodies blocking out what little sunlight remained. Their teeth spun. Their skin glistened. Their shadows fell across the playground like a blanket of doom.
Alina’s heart stopped.
One monster had been terrifying. Two had been overwhelming. But this was dozens. Dozens of worm monsters, rising from the earth, their circular mouths open, their teeth grinding, their hungry eyes—if they had eyes—fixed on the screaming, running, crying children.
"NO!" Alina screamed.
But her voice was lost in the chaos.
Children were everywhere. Running, hiding, crying, calling for their teachers, for anyone. Some had climbed trees. Some had hidden under benches. Some were just standing in the middle of the field, frozen with fear, staring up at the monsters with wide, empty eyes.
The flyers were still in the air. Drake with Sable and Lucien, Vlad Jr. with Luna, Felix with Rocky, the fairy girl with her twin, the insect boy with three smaller children clinging to him. They were safe, for now. They were high enough that the monsters couldn’t reach.
But the children on the ground—
Alina looked around wildly.
There were so many of them. Class A. Class B. Class C. Class D. Children she knew. Children she didn’t. Children who had smiled at her that morning, who had waved at her during the games, who had eaten sandwiches and laughed and played.
Now they were screaming.
And Alina was just one person.
She couldn’t be everywhere. She couldn’t save everyone.
"What do I do?" she whispered.
Miss Clara laughed again. "NOTHING! YOU CAN DO NOTHING!" she shrieked.
Alina’s mind raced.
She thought of the ribbons. The fabric. The way it had worked on the first monster. Worms breathe through their skin. Cover their skin, and they can’t breathe.
But there wasn’t enough ribbon. There wasn’t enough fabric. There were dozens of monsters and only one snack table full of decorations.
She needed more.
She looked around. The banners. The bunting. The streamers. The tablecloths. The napkins. The flags.
"FABRIC!" Alina shouted. "EVERYONE! GRAB FABRIC!"
Her voice cut through the chaos.
The children who were still on the ground, the ones who hadn’t frozen, looked at her.
"GRAB ANYTHING YOU CAN FIND!" Alina yelled. "TABLECLOTHS! NAPKINS! BLANKETS! FLAGS! THE SERVANTS’ JACKETS! WRAP THE MONSTERS! COVER THEIR SKIN!"
They didn’t question her.
They didn’t hesitate.
They ran.
A girl from Class A grabbed a tablecloth from the snack table and ran toward the nearest monster. She was small, barely taller than the table, but she threw the cloth with all her strength. It landed across the monster’s face.
The monster paused. Its teeth stopped spinning.
"IT WORKED!" the girl shouted.
Another child grabbed a picnic blanket from the ground where it had fallen. Another grabbed a flag from the pole. Another ran to a frozen servant and carefully pulled off their jacket, apologizing under her breath as she did.