Still Here

Chapter Sixteen (Final Chapter)

I cry and crumple to the ground. I was right. Calypso, my dear, dear Calypso has been here with me the whole time. I hug her neck and she wraps her head around me.

"I've missed you so much," I cry into her mane.

"Not as much as I missed you and our long rides through the woods," she replies. "Come, you two. follow me." I mount Angel again and follow Callie through the woods and to what looks like a portal. "Step through." I follow her command and step through the portal.

~

I can fly. I see my body on the ground, lying on Angel's limp body with a cat underneath us. Mother and Father are sitting there with their hands on their mouths, sobbing uncontrollably. Ethan is behind them, holding Ms. Margaret. Tears are streaming down his face.

"They'll miss you," the bright red bird next to me says.

"Callie?" I ask, looking down. I'm also a red bird.

"Yes. Right now, you're in a bird form. That was the angel portal we went through," Callie explains.

"Where's Angel?" I ask, looking around.

"Angel was me. I went through the portal and became a horse, so I looked for you and found you," she says.

"But what about the horse that went through the portal with us?" I ask.

"You're Angel now. You were just a soul when you arrived, and when you entered the portal with your body, they combined. You're a horse now." We travel back to heaven through the portal, which is high in the sky. When we reach the forest again, I look down. I see white, fuzzy legs.

I'm Angel now. And I'm going to stay in heaven with my best friend.