A Near-Death Escape

"Hey! Are you in there?" A voice calls over the field to the rundown house.

The girl inside the house looks up and tenses. He knows she's here. He's found her hiding place. Her hiding place from all those days of torture. She concentrates, hoping she'll have enough time to Change and escape.

"Alma! I said are you in there? You'd better come out," her brother calls. A strand of blue black hair falls into her face. She swipes it back, trying to Change. Her acute sense of hearing tells her that Caul is on his way. She finally Changes, her Peregrine Falcon form flying up into the rafters of the old house. She rests inside a hole in the wood. She hears Caul flying in, his wings whistling in the wind. Her heart misses a beat.

What will happen if he finds her?

Pain and suffering, for sure.

She hears a fluttering; the tale-tale sound of Caul Changing from bird to human. The door creaks open, and she freezes, holding her breath, looking out of the hole, down at the floor. She hears Caul padding around the room, a malicious grin on his face. He goes into another room, and out of her sight.

"Alma?" he calls sweetly. He comes back into Alma's sight, and she can see the sickly sweet grin on his face.

"I'm going to give you ten seconds to come out. Otherwise, I'm coming for you. And you know what's going to happen after that, don't you?" Caul starts counting.

He's right. She does know what he's going to do to her if he finds her. He's always been jealous of her powers as an Ymbryne. She knows he's going to find her and hurt her. She knows she has one chance to get away. She looks for a hole in the roof, searching franticly. She sees one, about ten feet away, and wonders if she can fit through it. She decides she has to try, and inches her way out of the hole. Caul has finished counting, and has changed into bird form. It's now or never. Alma propels herself off the edge of the hole, and up towards the gap in the roof. She makes little noise, and Caul doesn't notice her. Yet.

She flies up, out of the hole and into the grey, misty sky, cawing with victory. She hears Caul give a shout of rage.

"I'll find you! You prissy good for nothing! I'll find you, and I will hurt you," he shouts, his voice echoing in the broken down old house.