17

There was another attack the next day. I fought the ghouls on my own, since Mom wasn’t around. Dad didn’t fight. I didn’t know if Christian would show up.

    I got many people away from the ghouls.

    My heart hurt every time someone was in danger and I wanted to help.

    Then, I fought the ghouls so they wouldn’t go after the people again.

    There were others who could fight the ghouls and defend people too.

    The ghouls used snow to bury houses and buildings.

    One ghoul started to bury a woman.

    I attacked the ghoul to stop her.

    While we were fighting, the woman dug herself out of the snow and ran.

    I broke the ghoul’s neck.

    The ghoul leader showed up and we fought.

    He was stronger than the others, so he was harder to beat.

    Because I was such a good fighter, he couldn’t beat me either.

    More than once, I was able to figure out his next move.

    He was only able to figure out mine twice.

    Other people from the neighborhood fought the ghouls and protected others.

    I couldn’t because I was fighting the leader.

    He tried to bury me in snow, but I always escaped it.

    I tried to break his neck, but he fought me off.

    His claws slashed me many times.

    After a long time, we were both too beaten to keep fighting, so the ghoul leader retreated.

    The other ghouls had been killed by other people.

    The ones who were still alive retreated with the leader.

    I got hurt defending an innocent man from a ghoul.

    I killed the ghoul.I went to the hospital, but while I was being treated, I wished Mom was there. She was there the last time. I kept thinking about her. How I trusted her and felt safe around her. I couldn’t imagine how I would feel if I couldn’t find her. 

    I was relieved the man I protected wasn’t injured.

    Over the last year, I had slowly become a celebrity with the ghouls because I protected a lot of people from them and killed many of them. I was one of the people from the city who had caused them problems more than most people. I realized that put me in more danger because the ghouls sometimes came after me specifically like they did with Mom in both wars. Which meant I had more to worry about, but I trusted myself to handle it like I had been handling it so far. I was still scared.

    Every time I got hurt during an attack, my friends were there for me. Christian seemed the most worried and I found him to be the most comforting. He made me feel safer when he was at the same battle. He made me feel safe when I was recovering from injuries. He said I did the same thing for him when he went through those things. I was thrilled to be able to do that for him.

    After the most recent battle, I invited Christian to hang out with me at my house for the rest of the day. It was hard whenever there was an attack. Spending the day together made things easier for both of us. We talked, played video games, watched a few episodes from a sitcom and had lunch.