It Wasn't Meant To Turn Out Like This

McKenna stepped from her room and almost walked right into Brian, whose bedroom was nearest to hers. Close behind Brian stood Suzy and Brent. All three looked concerned and confused.

“I heard a scream,” Suzy said, stepping around her sons to reach her daughter. “Did you have a nightmare, honey?” She reached up a hand and rested her palm against McKenna’s forehead, obviously checking to see if her daughter was feverish or clammy. She had yet to even glance inside McKenna’s room.

“I’m fine, Mom,” McKenna answered, swatting her mother’s hand away. “And I didn’t scream: He did.”

She turned and pointed into her room. Suzy, Brian, and Brent all gasped at the sight of the man huddled at the base of the wall opposite the door, whimpering with his hand clamped down over his neck. He stared fearfully up at Mayza, obviously much too scared to do anything other than tremble out of fear of Mayza’s rage. The fairy, meanwhile, just stood calmly a few feet from the man, watching him with an almost business-like aura around her. She looked over her shoulder when she heard their gasps, and McKenna noticed that her teeth and eyes had returned to normal.

Suzy turned towards her children. “Brian, take McKenna downstairs. Brent, you call Senior, and I’ll call 911.”

Everyone moved to follow the order they’d been given. Brian wrapped his arm around McKenna, dragging her against his side before they descended the staircase. He led her into the kitchen and automatically began to make some hot chocolate for the two of them. McKenna seated herself at the kitchen table, clasping her hands together to keep them from shaking.

“What happened?” Brian asked once he had the milk in a pan on the stove heating up. He sat down across from McKenna, resting his clasped hands on the table in front of him, mirroring McKenna.

McKenna took a deep breath and explained everything that had just occurred. Part of the way through her tale, Brian rose to his feet and took the milk off the stove, pouring it into two mugs before stirring in some Nesquik. McKenna accepted her mug without pause and finished her sentence before taking a sip of it. The warm liquid instantly helped to calm her nerves, and her hands stopped trembling.

By the time McKenna finished, the police had arrived and Senior had been called and alerted of the situation. Brent announced to the family now grouped in the kitchen that Senior promised to catch a flight as soon as possible. A policeman holding a notepad stepped up to where McKenna sat and requested that she tell him everything that happened. McKenna nodded and began her tale again.

As she finished, McKenna glanced out the kitchen door in time to see the man being escorted down the staircase in handcuffs by a policeman. Her heart surged with gratitude towards Mayza, and then with confusion as she saw that Mayza, too, had been handcuffed and was being escorted from the house.

“Why is Mayza in handcuffs?” McKenna asked the policeman she’d just told her story to.

“She’s been deemed ‘unsafe’ for her violent acts,” the policeman explained calmly. “She’ll be placed in a nearby prison until your father determines what to do with her.”

McKenna frowned. She knew it wasn’t right for them to take Mayza away as well, just as though she were another common criminal. Mayza had rescued her, but yet the policemen were treating her like a dangerous felon.

“There’s nothing you can do,” Suzy said as McKenna rose to her feet.

“I know,” McKenna answered. She hurried out into the hall, ducking underneath the policeman’s arm as he tried to stop her from getting any closer to Mayza. McKenna threw her arms around the fairy, whispering, “Thank you” into her ear.

As the policeman pulled Mayza from the house, the fairy looked back over her shoulder and offered a small smile in McKenna’s direction.