June

Issue 45

She looked at the child in her arms. He waved his arms and legs, so delicate yet fleshy.

“But I won,” she said. “I guessed his name. I got to keep my baby.”

The messenger at her side shook his head, distraught.

“Any demon clever enough to spin straw into gold will never be banished so easily,” he said. “He tricked us, and there’s nothing we can do.”

“But I said his name just like you told me to.”

“That wasn’t his name. It was what he is and what he does.”

The child burbled. She looked down and saw the cruel intelligence dawning behind those once-innocent eyes. The babe grabbed strands of her straw-colored hair and placed them in his mouth. As he gnawed, his spit glossed the hairs with a golden sheen.

The messenger moaned and averted his gaze.

“A rumpel steals skin,” he said.