Silently, he crept out from his temporary hiding place, feeling bones rattle and joints creak from a bout of prolonged inactivity. It didn't help that the wind was chilly tonight, and he had nothing save a torn ratty jacket over his thin shirt as a form of protection against the biting cold.
Looks like winter was on its way.
The beams of lights cascaded in waterfalls of brightness behind him, slowly but surely covering every inch available to the naked eye.
Fuck.
His sore muscles screamed in protest as he tore down what remained of the alley, restraining the urge to simply spread his wings and soar into the sky. As much of a survival instinct that it was, it would certainly warrant a death wish. And he was not ready for death. At least, not yet.
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My mother. She was there. I could see her. I ran towards her, reached my arms out as far as I could, shouted her name at the top of my lungs.
She was always just within reach, an inch short of my fingertips.
But I was always too slow.
An invisible force knocked me to the muddy ground, and I cried out as I was dragged away, kicking and yelling.
She began to fade.
But this time, it was different.
A loud buzzing accompanied her disappearing figure, outlined her faint silhouette against the glow of the setting sun, painting her in blood red and loud cracking noises.
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He ducked in front of the adjacent row of houses bordering the alley, calculating his chances.
One, he couldn't keep running. It wasn't like him to easily evade his problems by running away from them, and yet, if they caught him, he was dead meat. He couldn't fly away now, they had made sure of that.
Two, he didn't know where on earth he was. Scratch that, he did know where he was, but not well enough to ask anyone for help.
Three, even if he did manage to fly, given his huge wings and great speed, he couldn't return home. And he would have left behind too many wrongs to right.
What now?
His breath escaped him in erratic little puffs, grating harshly against his ears, burning deep in his lungs. Fists clenching and unclenching as his stomach swirled, nausea pooling deep in his gut and threatening to spill onto the sidewalk.
What now what now what...
Before he had time to fully comprehend what was happening, the droning increased significantly and the darkness was suddenly whisked away, leaving him to be encased in a pool of bright light.
Wow.
He couldn't have asked for better timing.
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My eyes flew open, meeting with a bright glow that had me squinting against it. My nightlight was a pale dim yellow, wasn't it?
But that wasn't it.
A low humming crashed against my ears, slowly overtaking all of my other senses. Hurriedly, I ripped the curtains open, jaw falling in shock as I lifted my eyes to the sky.
Oh my god.
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Already, lights from several units were starting to flicker on.
No, no. What he needed right now, was to stay out of the spotlight. He couldn't risk anyone knowing about him.
They wouldn't take well to it.
People never took well to something they couldn't understand.
With one last burst of courage, he dashed out from the beam, shielding himself from the prying eyes following him, diving for the darkness that lay beyond.
Screw not risking anyone knowing about him, he needed to seek help quickly.
But who to trust?
The memory of a girl meowing into the alley flashed in his mind, and he grinned.
He had never been one to doubt his instinct.
Now he just had to let it guide him.
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What was a helicopter doing here? Whealdstone was one of the poorest, shabbiest towns in all of Telon. And besides, weren't the helicopters supposed to be much louder than this? This was but a mere buzzing compared to the thunderous droning I had heard at the national parade a few years back.
I moved closer to the window, sliding it up and sticking my head out. The wind whipped across my face, lifting strands of hair. I sucked in a deep breath of cold air, feeling it coursing through my veins.
Lights were flickering on in the different houses across, and the neighbours were coming out of their doors still in nightgowns. No commotion came from the room across mine. My aunt and uncle slept like logs; I wasn't surprised if they didn't wake up till morning.
It was a while before they disappeared. Left the area. And slowly, the people shuffled back into their homes. I stayed a while longer, watching the bright searchlights winking at me from above as they swept over the other parts of Whealdstone, going North to Dania.
It hovered in the sky like a huge dragonfly, choppers revolving in near frenzy, the buzzing becoming more and more distant. The night fell quiet once more, and almost reluctantly, I reached up to pull the window down. It wasn't every night that I got a distraction from the nightmares.
It happened so quickly that I didn't realise what was going on.
A tall black shape barrelled in the still open window from nowhere, knocking me off my bed and onto the floor. With a sharp thud, the window slammed shut on the sill, but not before I heard the distinct hum increase in intensity and loudness.
It was a few seconds later that the beam of light swept directly over where I had once been looking out of the window.
YOU ARE READING
Fading into time
Science FictionBASED LOOSELY ON THIS PROMPT: A long time ago, every human had wings. When you were born, they were white, but they changed to all colours of the rainbow given what kind of life you live, from a light yellow to a dark blue. However, in this time, on...
