BAILEY'S P.O.V.

I could not wait for Paige to be discharged from the hospital. I borrowed my father's phone and called her dad. I told him that I needed to speak with his daughter, for it was urgent.

"Is the church on fire?" he asked.

"No, no," I said. "The church is still standing. Just please put Paige on." Seconds later, I heard her. "Paige!"

"Bailey. I would not be honest with you if I did not say that your call took me by surprise."

"Do you or your parents have any idea when you will be discharged?"

"It hopefully will not be too much longer. Why do you ask?"

I explained about my encounter with the goblin. How the goblin had hid inside the snack machine and scratched me. That he spared me. I did not leave out a single detail. Paige was, of course, shocked by my story and asked if it was the same goblin that we saw perching on my sister's shoulder.

"I am not sure," I said. "But I would definitely not be surprised. I mean, it cannot be a coincidence that a lookalike would be in the same area as another."

"Unless there are more of them," Paige added.

We had many questions about these creatures, but had to push them to the backs of our brains. We had more depressing matters at hand.

About half an hour after I hung up, Paige and her parents were back from the Forlot hospital. Paige's nose was white because it was covered by bandages. The doctors said that she could remove the bandages sometime tomorrow. I embraced her in a hug to make her feel better.

"How does your nose feel?"

"Stuffed. And itchy." Her eyes darted around the room. "Where is that sister of yours?"

I wrapped an arm around her shoulders to comfort her. "Are you afraid of her now?"

"Nope. I just want to be cautious. I do not need her to snap more of my bones."

I reassured my new friend that Betsy was nowhere near the church. Right before she and her parents returned, Betsy announced to everybody who could hear her that she was done with this nonsense - as in the church - and stormed out. She was staying in the car until the service was over.

"Is that so?" a man's voice said. It was smooth and calm. "That is a crime shame."

I spun around and spotted an old man. He clutched a Bible in one hand and a cross necklace in the other. His smile caused wrinkles to show up on his cheeks. By the way that he was dressed, I assumed that he was a pastor.

"That is right," the man stated as if he had the ability to read my mind. "I am Pastor Max Hill. I am the one and only pastor here in this little town." He shoved the cross necklace in his pocket and walked up to us. "I suppose that you are Bailey." He stuck out his hand. "A pleasure to meet another of the faith."

"I know him," Paige whispered to me. "We met while I was in the hospital. He is wonderful. And I told him everything that you told me about yourself."

"Oh." Pastor Hill and I shook hands. "Nice to meet you too. Are you here to lead the service?"

"I wish, but no. I do not do services in a lot of areas. This church is one of those places."

Paige tilted her head to the side. "Why not?"

"I am a special pastor, my dear Paige. I do different things to draw people to Jesus. Nowadays, reading your Bible is not good enough. There are creative ways to get people to accept the faith. Did you know that writing this book series helps our writer come close to the Lord?"

"I did not know that," I admitted. "I did not even know that we had a writer. It is no wonder that we say and do things against our will."

"Did you just break the fourth wall?" Paige asked.

Pastor Hill said his goodbyes to us and exited. He said that he had errands to run. The church service had not yet begun, so we had time to analyze what happened to me. I led Paige to the vending machines and demonstrated what the goblin and I did. When I was through, Paige was intrigued.

"I apologize that I was absent when this occurred, Bailey. That goblin would have received a punch in the face."

I wanted to show her the scratches on the back of my hand, but that was impossible. The scratches had vanished. It was as if the goblin never scratched me.

I was at a lost for words. "B-but...I swear to you, Paige, that I am not crazy."

"It is okay, Bailey. I believe you, especially after our encounter with the goblin on Betsy. I wonder why Betsy and the others could not see it."

A cry escaped from deep within her throat. She dropped to her knees and hunched over, her body shivering. Something was terribly wrong.

"Paige?!" I bent to her level. "Are you going into shock? Are you having a stroke?"

The good news was that it was neither shock nor a stroke. The bad news was that the same thing was happening to me. Our bodies shook for a minute and a half. It was over. But what the heck did we just go through?

Breathing hard, we rolled onto our stomachs. We would have rolled onto our backs if not for the large wings.

You readers heard me correctly. Colorful wings were sticking out of our backs. They resembled those of butterfly wings. Paige and I were now humans who had wings. We were beyond horrified and pointed frantically at each other.

"You have wings!" I exclaimed.

"So do you, Bailey." She tugged on her hair. "Oh my gosh. Why do we have wings?"