#good news matilda is no longer treed indefinitely by hackers

[mintywolf]

Remember Us - Chapter 11

Red wind whips Imogen’s hair into her eyes, blinding her. Long meadow grasses, so soft in the daylight, lash knife-sharp against her knees, opening tiny cuts in her skin. She turns, trying to set her bearings by the distant shape of the farmhouse, but the churning clouds are already so close that more than a few feet away there is nothing but ruddy opacity. Lightning splits the reddened clouds, briefly sketching the contours of the surrounding valley upon her vision.

Against the roiling sky, on the crest of the hill, a familiar shape is walking, unsteady against the wind but with purpose, into the storm. A loose-limbed doll of a figure, ragged skirts and trailing hair. Another lightning strike etches the flickering outline of a black and skeletal tree against the darkness, and then it’s gone.

Imogen starts to run up the slope, into the storm. Beneath the clouds the figure lifts her arms to the sky and flings herself into a teetering twirl with the joyous abandon of a child. The wind carries the sound of her high, breathless laughter as it engulfs her.

“Laudna!” Imogen screams, raw-throated, into the wind. And then, at last. “Matilda!”

The dancing figure totters to a stop and turns to look down at her, her face alight with surprise and delight. She is still smiling when the lightning strikes her.

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