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She called out to him, asking him not to leave. Before her words reached him, he had shifted. She watched as his scales glimmered in the sunlight. He shook his head, his horns waving from side to side before he bellowed and flew off the top of the mountain into the distance.
She walked to the mountain’s edge and stared out at the landscape. The forest stretched for miles, and she felt the urge to try to fly herself.
She walked back a few steps and ran, leaping off the mountain. She fell and felt the wind caress her skin as she looked at the sky, falling farther.
Her body spun in the air, and she saw how close she was to hitting the ground. Fear struck her, and she regretted her decision to jump.
The ground approached rapidly, and Charlie screamed before Hammer swooped in, and she fell onto his back, wrapping her hands around his neck. He flew them over the forest and around the mountain, and she smiled at her sense of freedom.
A knock on the door woke Charlie from her nap, and she rubbed her eyes furiously, snapping back to reality. Assuming it was the housekeepers, she yelled for them to come back later. After Hammer’s odd speech last night, she wanted to return to the dream and experience them with no awkwardness again.
A second knock made her roll her eyes and spring out of bed. The nap was needed due to her lack of sleep the night before, but apparently, whoeverneededto see her immediately couldn’t respect that.
She whipped open the door only to find her father standing there smiling. She smiled and jumped to hug him.
“Dad!” she exclaimed as she pulled back from the hug. “What are you doing here?”
“What?” he said, holding his hands to the sides. “A father can’t come to check on his little girl?”
She laughed. “Of course, you can. Come in!”
She ushered him into the room and sat in the chair by the desk while he stretched out on the couch. He glanced at her with a smirk.
“You’ve been gone quite a bit, no?”
She nodded and exhaled. “Well, it’s been, uh …” She began to pull her hair into a bun. “Quite an adventure.”
“Well,” her father started firmly. “I had a little talk with your friend.”
Charlie’s eyes widened as she thought of every possibility aside from Hammer. It could have been him her father had spoken to, but she prayed it wasn’t.
“Hammer?” her dad asked.
Charlie closed her eyes. “Dad, you didn’t.”
“Of course I did!” he exclaimed, sitting up on the couch and leaning toward her. “I wanted to know who’s taking care of my girl.”
Charlie put her face in her hands, rubbing her eyes again. “Dad,” she paused, sighing. “What did you say to him?”
“I just wanted to get to know him,” her dad stated, smiling.
“You’re not going to tell me the conversation, are you?” she asked.
“I think that’s a private matter.”
“Then why.” Charlie released her face from her hands and shook her head. “Would you eventellme you talked to him?”
Her father laughed and held his hands out, motioning for Charlie to take them. She rolled her eyes and placed her hands in his reluctantly.
“Did you hear the good news?” her father said with a twinkle in his eye.
“What’s that?”
“Ajmal confessed.”
“Yes, I heard.” Charlie smiled at him. It was good news.
“He confessed to everything,” her father continued, too excited to contain it. “All of the government scams, the lies that got Hammer locked up. He even claimed he had been,” her father used air quotations, “forcedto do it, but the evidence was so overwhelming that he did it to save his skin that they decided he would take Hammer’s place in Supermax.”
