The cracked window casts a rainbow on the wall, beautiful like the fairy-queen in the discarded picture-book by the bed. The little girl watches it through the numbness of fever.

“Have you fled the sky?” she smiles. “Are you sick, too?”

But neither fairy nor mortal last through that night.

Larissa Martins Costa writes short stories to escape from her hopelessly long novels-in-progress. She may be reached on instagram at @mcostalarissa