Jared needed my help right now.
Slowly, I wrote another sentence, and then another, keeping my message as short and to the point as possible. Jared was going to have a hell of a time deciphering this anyway, because my hand was shaking and I couldn't get it to stop. I did my best to make my writing as legible as possible, anyway.
When I was finally done, I rose to my feet. The letter looked as if a toddler had written it with their left hand. A toddler who was definitely not left-handed.But it was still legible.
Too legible!That annoying voice inside my head screamed again.You can't leave that here.
I closed my eyes and exhaled. The voice inside my head was not important. It wasn't the boss of me. Nobody was the boss of me anymore. Wasn't that the whole point?
With some effort, I placed the paper on the counter and forced my fingers to unfurl, letting go of it.
"Come on, Drizzit," I said to the dog. "Time to go."
The dog brightened, getting up and wagging his tail at me. I grinned back at him. As long as I could keep my attention on the dog, I could walk. I could follow him.
As if Drizzit sensed how important his job was, he ran to the door and out into the corridor, where he stopped to look back at me expectantly.
"Be right there," I called.
The voice inside of my head hadn't shut up, though. It was screaming at me, demanding to know what I was doing, who I thought I was, and how I could possibly justify this behavior. Didn't I know I was going to regret this? That I was going to be punished?
I shook it off as best I could.
One foot in front of the other, I told myself. Somehow the kitchen door seemed forever away.
That was, until a light bulb went off inside of my head.
Why walk when I could fly?
Without another thought, I focused on the energy inside of myself, leaning into it until I felt my physical body fall apart, changing and shifting and rebuilding itself. When I blinked my eyes open again, I was smaller.
And I had wings.
Chirping triumphantly, I flew out of the kitchen.
From now on, I promised myself, I wasn't going to live in anyone's cage anymore.
