The Last Fallen Star by Graci Kim (the mitten read aloud .TXT) 📗

fire. If she doesn’t respect mortal lives, then she has no right to roam our realm.

“Auntie O!” I scream, releasing the metal rays of the compass behind my back. “Do it now!”

Auntie Okja might not know who I am anymore, but she still knows the plan. At my command, she rubs her wrists together and starts chanting the threading spell. Before our eyes, tiny silver ropes start appearing between my auntie and the goddess. They look like spiderwebs touched by morning dew, glistening under the lights of the sanctuary.

“What is the meaning of this?” the goddess asks, looking between herself and Auntie Okja.

“You are the patron goddess of service and sacrifice,” I start. “Yet the only one you serve is yourself. You don’t deserve the Gom. You don’t deserve this realm. You want the Godrealm’s last fallen star? Well, here it is. Let us show you what we mortals are truly capable of!”

And with that, I run toward the threads with the star compass in hand. I run with all my might, and with Hattie in my heart. I channel all my anger and grief into my arms, and I slash at the threads with both hands. I attack them with everything in my being, desperate to sever the link between the goddess and the Gom clan.

The goddess watches me with surprise, momentarily stunned into silence. Then she looks at the compass and cackles. “Stupid mortal child, that is not the Godrealm’s last fallen star. How dare you test the patience of divinity?”

“But it…it…it has to be!” I stop slashing and look at the threads between my auntie and the goddess. I expect to see them cut and drooping like wilting flowers. But they’re still connected, firm and taut, as intact as they were when they first appeared.

“I don’t understand,” Auntie Okja breathes.

“It should have worked,” I murmur.

I turn the compass over in my hand. The dokkaebi had said I was in possession of the fallen star, and the compass is the only thing I have on me. And the prophecy confirmed the weapon is made of gold. The compass has to be the last fallen star.

If it isn’t, then where in the world is the real artifact?

The goddess locks her eyes on me, and her glowing skin starts radiating an angry orange. “You don’t complete your job, and then you try to attack me. What utter insubordination! You want to know how we’re different, you and I?” She sneers and all traces of the kind, frumpy woman disappear. “I follow through with my threats. You will feel my wrath, child. This I promise you.”

Emmett runs in between me and the goddess. “You’re full of it!” he screams. “You’re powerless here without a willing host to use. You’re nothing but an empty shell. That’s why you had to possess my mom’s body!”

The goddess smiles and reaches out for the threads. “Indeed. Which is why I’m lucky to have one connected already.” She reels it in like a fishing line, and her catch is none other than my auntie.

“Help!” Auntie Okja calls out, realizing what is about to happen.

I run and grab her from behind, trying to hold her back. Eomma and Appa then wrap their arms around my waist, soon followed by Emmett, Taeyo, Sora, and Austin. We all pull on Auntie Okja with our collective weight, trying to prevent her from moving an inch closer.

But we’re no match for a divine being. The Cave Bear Goddess wins this tug-of-war, and as Auntie Okja screams for her life, the deity reaches out and puts her hand on my auntie’s head.

There is a sound like crashing cymbals. Auntie Okja’s body convulses and floats in the air. Her face distorts and her limbs flail about. Then the goddess disappears, and Auntie Okja’s body falls to a heap on the floor.

“No!” I scream. “Not my auntie, too!”

The goddess, now in Auntie Okja’s body, picks herself up off the floor. She straightens, clicking her vertebrae into place, then puts her hands on her hips and smiles. “All right, mortals, let me show you how it’s done. Who wants to go first?”

“NO, STOP! PLEASE!” I SHOUT, as the goddess approaches my parents in her newly possessed body. My auntie’s body.

She ignores me. Instead, she walks toward my appa and flicks her finger as if catapulting a bug. Appa is propelled into the air and lands with a thud against one of the Gom pews.

“James!” Eomma cries, running to his side. She rubs her wrists and heals him as panicked tears roll down her face.

The goddess continues moving toward my parents, ready to strike again, and my heart drops into my stomach. No! This is not how the plan was supposed to go. We already lost Hattie and Auntie Oh. I can’t lose my parents, too.

That’s when the first metal star blade flies across my vision en route to the goddess.

“Austin, be careful!” I call out, feeling conflicted. I know it’s the goddess in there, but she’s using my auntie’s body.

“I won’t hurt her,” he calls out, hurtling two more stars toward her. “But we need to keep her from hurting anyone else.”

The goddess momentarily halts and looks surprised. She must not have known the Horangi taught themselves a new kind of magic. But she doesn’t stay surprised for long.

“Impressive,” she merely says. “But I’m afraid your party tricks will not be enough to stop me.” She laughs and makes another flicking motion with her hand. Austin gasps as he’s lifted off his feet and thrown across the sanctuary, landing hard against the Mountain Tiger Goddess’s statue.

“Austin!” Taeyo cries. He looks around, searching for any water he can animate. But all he has is the little bit in his water bottle. He makes it shoot up from the bottle and form a barrier in front of Austin’s body, while Eomma runs toward them, leaving Appa recovering in a pew.

As Eomma attempts to heal Austin’s injuries, Sora rubs her wrists together