I went with Option C: Trip over my own feet and crash into my desk.

"Ow." 

Smooth. Very heroic. If there was a medal for Most Graceful Response to the Unknown, I would not be getting it. For a few terrifying seconds, I just lay there, waiting for my inevitable demise. But nothing grabbed me, no claws or teeth, not even an ominous shadow creeping closer. Slowly, I peeked over my desk.

The closet was still open. The feather was still glowing. But the thing that had exhaled? Gone.

"Okay," I whispered, dragging myself up. "Not okay. Super not okay."

I needed to find my pendant. Like, the second it was gone.

If my mom were here, she'd tell me to think, to focus. But she wasn't here. And I had a sinking feeling that wherever she was, she wasn't coming back on her own.

Which meant I had to do something stupid.

I edged toward the closet. It still looked too dark, like it went way farther back than it should. My hand shook as I reached for the door, half expecting some shadowy nightmare to lunge at me.

Nothing happened.

I swallowed hard, "Alright, weird whispering feather, creepy magic closet.... what's next?"

The answer came immediately.

The floor vanished beneath me.

One second, I was standing in my totally normal, slightly messy bedroom. The next, I was falling.