MASTER SET - 2nd Pass
“Hurry!” he whispered. Her trembling fingers reached for the latch. She tried to work it free as gently as she could, but the metal had become violently angry over the ages. It screamed open. “What’s this?” The girl wheeled and fell back against the cage. She had never seen a witch before, but there could be little doubt that that was what stood before her now. The witch didn’t move, just stared at her with milky yellow eyes and a wide, toothless grin. Her skin was the color of a worm after three days’ rain, and it drooped from her bones like a melted candle. “Open the latch!” shouted the boy, slamming his shoulder against the door. But the witch’s gaze paralyzed the girl. The hag’s eyes bored straight into her own, slicing through her brain and down her throat. The girl gasped for air as the witch stared deeper, deeper, straight for her heart. She was choking on hate, anguish, fear . . . the feeling that she had already seen the sun for the last time without even realizing it. The witch was inside her— “RUN!” shouted the boy as the cage door finally crashed open. The girl snapped free of the witch’s gaze. All that choking awfulness slid out of her throat and she could breathe once more. The dragon scale whipped round to her back as she sprinted for the door. She threw it open and burst out into the night. The blackness of the woods and the swirling fog
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6/24/14 2:21 PM