Curiosity's Price

Chapter Eight

RECAP:

"Sera. Why were you out of your bedroom last night?"

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Sera's shoulders stiffened and she turned to face her stern-faced father, who was standing there with his wings slightly extended behind him so he looked larger and more intimidating to his daughter.

"I couldn't sleep, so I went flying for a while," she half-lied without much difficulty. If she could feint belief in the sort-of truth, she would be that much more convincing. All she had to do was make her father believe she was telling the truth. "I'm sorry, Father, for worrying you."

He grunted deeply, leveling that penetrating gaze of his that would make many a man shiver with fear. "Don't do it again, even if you are kept awake all night long. You are to stay in your room at night. Understood?"

"Understood," Sera answered  calmly, internally unable to believe her good luck. Her father was impossible to lie to! How had she managed to pull it off without any mental preparation?

The only explanation she could fathom was that Luck was smiling down upon her this one time.

~

"Alice, I  can't really come see you," Sera whispered to her little sister a few nights later, when the winged girl had risked coming down from her place in the sky so they could talk.

"Whaaat?" Alice whined, standing up straight from her pose where her elbows were on the windowsill and her cheeks were against her palms. "Why not?"

"Because if I get caught after coming down here, I'll get in big trouble," Sera explained gently. "I'm really sorry. I don't want to be separated from you, either."

"But why do you hafta go up there?" Alice asked. "You can live here, in my room! I'm small, we can share the bed!"

Sera shook her head, unfolding her wings slightly. "I'm sorry, Alice, but I can't do that. I have a family up there, too."

"But you're my sister, too!" Yes, Alice had been told by a reluctant Sera that they were sisters, and the thought had been monumental to the young girl. "Please? Sisters shouldn't be split up!"

"Sshhh, Alice. You'll wake up your parents," Sera warned her as she stood on her branch, preparing to take flight. "I'm sorry, I really am. If I can come back sometime in the future, I might. Just... don't hold your breath."

Then Sera was gone, wheeling into the dark night while Alice put her head down on the windowsill and cried.

Her bedroom door opened to reveal Toni, her father, looking concerned. "Hijita? What's the matter? Why are you out of bed?"

"Daddyyy," Alice sobbed as she climbed down from the chair pulled up to the window. She threw her arms around her father's legs and cried there. "M-My angel--!"

"Shh, shh," Antonio said soothingly as he stroked her brown hair back and kneeled down so they were more or less eye-to-eye. "Alice, it's alright. Tell me what happened. Did you have a bad dream?"

She shook her head, scrubbing at her eyes. "N-No, my a-angel... she l-left me."

"What? No, no, that can't be right. She's your guardian angel." Antonio lifted her up under her shoulders and hugged her close as he walked her back to bed. "Come on, you can't really think you don't have a guardian angel anymore, right?"

"She left. She said she couldn't come back," Alice whimpered, hugging her daddy close. "Daddy... I don't want her to go..."

"Maybe she's just a little bit busy, Alice," Antonio suggested. "She wouldn't leave you forever, hijita. Who could?" He looked her in the eye. "But you'll always be protected by someone. Si?"

"Si," Alice replied, rubbing away her tears with little fists. "Gracias..."

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More is to come!