Celia blinked. An empty blue sky filled her gaze. The world smelled like ash. She sat up and saw burned paper wafting through the air and shifting across the ground. She rubbed her eyes and noticed the whiteness of her strange hands. “What happened?” she whispered.
Something moved to her left.
Celia tensed but then saw it was just a kid. For a second, Celia thought it was Daisy, but this girl had smooth brown skin instead of a checkerboard face. The girl stared at her for a long second. “What happened? A lot,” she said slowly. And the girl’s voice? It was Daisy’s.
Dizziness washed over Celia. “You’re . . . human? Normal again?”
Daisy chewed on her lower lip and nodded. Other Littles from the sanctuary crowded around them. Only . . . none of them were Littles anymore. Celia recognized each of them, but they looked totally different without their horns, strange-colored skin, and other Little traits.
“Krawl died and you all became . . .” Celia shook her head.
“Normal. You freed us,” whispered a boy. He reached up to touch the tip of a horn that was no longer there. “You broke the great spell.”
Daisy nodded. “We’re all just a bunch of normal kids again. Those Bigs who were chasing the hunters? They changed back into kids too.” She grinned and bounced up and down on the toes of her worn shoes. “No more monsters.”
Celia got up and took a step toward them. All of the kids moved away from her. “But . . . me. I’m still . . . ?” She studied her black clawed hands.
“You and Demetri are the only ones. He’s still a Big. You’re still a Little. He said the spell broke with Krawl’s heart, but not all the way. The magic still needed to go somewhere. It’s in you two now: the one who broke the spell, and her maker. It’s in you two, and nowhere else.”
Celia blinked and tried to take in all the new facts of the world. The wind shifted and Celia caught scent of the former Littles. They smelled like fresh-baked cinnamon rolls on a Saturday morning. Or the first nibble of a good chocolate bar. She inhaled the scent. A hunger roared through her.
I’ll get used to that, she thought unsteadily as she bit her cheek and forced herself not to run at them. I’ll learn to deal with it. All she wanted was to hold their hands. Was that so wrong?
“Where is he? Demetri?” Celia asked.
A girl who used to be covered in boils pointed at the sky.
The midnight-black body of Demetri was just visible as he flew in between two skyscrapers. Celia watched until she couldn’t see him anymore.
“You can live at our old sanctuary,” Daisy said. “That’s where some of us will be staying, those of us who were monsters for a long time and don’t have families anymore. We can make a section of it just for you, and it could be okay, even if you’re a Little.”
Hunger flashed through Celia again. She shook her head. “That’s not where I belong.”
She started walking, and the normal kids trailed behind her. They passed a mirrored plate-glass window, and Celia stopped to stare at herself. Her skin was a pale white porcelain, and her irises were bloodred. Her hair had changed from brown to jet black, and she reached up to the top of her skull to feel two small red horns that jutted out of her head. They were smooth and needle sharp at their ends. Celia pulled the hood of her sweatshirt up and over her head to hide them.
A half block later, the burned paper ended and the world was covered in bright soft paper again. Some kids came out of their apartment building and started playing in it like snow. They threw handfuls of it all around. The former Littles moved away from them by habit, but then, one by one, they remembered they were kids again. They ran forward and started throwing paper everywhere. Daisy cast a grin toward Celia and then ran into the mess of kids playing and laughing.
Celia chewed on one of her thick claws and pretended not to notice how the kids smelled. She left them behind and kept trudging forward.
Streetlamps began to flicker on, one by one, and a soft hum filled the air. Maybe a normal girl wouldn’t have been able to hear the electricity flowing back into the city, but Celia heard the rushing hiss of it move across the wires and into buildings. She heard people cry out as they realized that things were getting back to normal.
This will be something everyone talks about, Celia thought. They’ll rebuild the city and their lives, and tell stories about earthquakes, snakes, and strange paper storms, until that’s all it becomes: a story.
For them.
Footsteps ran up behind her. Celia turned to see Ruby’s and Amber’s grinning faces. The smiles fell off them as they stared at her and saw what she still was. They took a step back from her, and another.
“We thought . . . we saw Bigs turn back into kids. And then Littles. But you’re . . .”
“The last Little.” Celia smelled the sweetness of their scent and turned away from them. “I broke the spell, and Demetri and I are the last ones left.” She started walking.
With her sharp hearing, Celia could tell they were keeping pace behind her as they all moved through the drifts of paper.
“You did it, Celia,” Ruby said. “You did the impossible and made it all go away. I can’t believe it.”
“Where are you headed?” Amber asked.
“Home. I just want to go home.”
“Um . . . have you looked in the mirror lately? You can’t live with your parents,” Ruby said. She hurried forward and walked beside Celia. So did Amber. “You don’t fit into their world anymore. They won’t even be able to see you.”
“We’ll help you find a place,” Amber added. “We’re still your friends. Even though you’re a Little. We can help you keep from touching any kid. But you can’t go home.”
Celia closed her eyes and wished her friends didn’t smell delicious. Her apartment building came into sight, half a block away. She stared at the window to her living room. “I think I’m done with being told what I can and can’t do.”
Ruby stopped and stared at her for a long moment. She nodded slowly. “If anyone can pull this off, you can. We’ll hang out soon. We’ll figure out how this is going to work, and we’ll be there for you, Celia. I promise.”
Amber nodded.
“You’ll watch me and keep me from doing anything bad?” Celia said. She had no bitterness behind those words. Not anymore. She had a feeling she was going to need all the help she could get.
“Always,” Amber said.
Celia left them standing in the paper-covered world and went home.