Flight School: Prey

Loud Silence

It was quiet—

ghost-quiet.

With a deafening silence,

 he felt as if he was being watched;

And wondered 

how silence could be so loud.

______________________

He wanted to go home.

The doors slid open cleanly, revealing the station before the last and he breathed as the packed can of sardines dispersed, streaming out of the subway. It was thorough scrutiny; the way he was being watched and it burned no hole in his back but froze it instead. Io was very much alone with or without people and there was nothing about the world that made him feel as though he belonged. Was this the world too?  He couldn't believe the difference. It was, perhaps, the same air he was breathing just miles back in his village and Earth his feet was standing upon and yet—things were different.

What Io did not know was that he, in leaving his nest, was bound to meet the world as it was; without a feeding beak, no more sitting and asking. Just, doing. He was bound to meet the eyes of someone watching and looking. 

After all, there were predators out there. 

He went quietly into the next carriage, empty, avoiding anything that stared at his uniform or him, himself. There was, finally, an empty carriage for his comfort but Io soon found that it was occupied with his fear. He clutched onto his messenger bag and pushed himself against the cold plastic seat—determined to hide, to flee.

Regret filled his mind as he rejected the idea of diving into something so unsure; it wasn't just his senses that were violated. He felt as though his humanity was being put at risk in such a place so hot and filled with empty people with empty heats it seemed as though he was on a different planet entirely. This was not the place he wanted to be. 

He wished to go back. It would be nice to escape from this place. 

He realizes then, that he was indeed—prey.

His role was one of resource. A commoner; a nothing.

Io was at the bottom of the food chain.

The weakest, most useless sort of role.

He wondered if this was part of the process. Was this all part of growing up? Surely not; these were circumstances to be experienced. Had he remained in his village forever, would he have experienced the confiscating of hope and self?  Conditions did not allow him to think in that manner for he would have never known. The future was just that—filled with uncertainty and darkness for there was no knowing and no answers. Iolani Tori's role in Flight School was a sparrow and there was no changing in that fact. 

But were roles something that one had not the power to change? Was it his choice to be brought into this world as prey?  Was his Avian ever a choice?