City of the Fallen

| four

I find it impossible to breathe as I tumble through the sky that leads to promising chaos. When the wings don't do anything, I begin to panic.

I reach behind me to see what's going on, but the speed at which I'm falling makes it hard to move at all. My stomach grows queasy, like I could throw up at any moment. Jack's words echo in my mind: Just make sure to trust the wings.

Suddenly, the straps pull against my chest and I am  yanked backwards. I spot a large wing to both my right and left side. They majestically move back and forth, bringing me back up, then past the window I jumped out of.

It's absolutely unreal. The wings take complete control as I soar through the air, circling the clouds. I try turning my hips to go left; I must have done it too hard because I rotate in a complete circle and keep going.

"This is amazing!" I squeal, spinning closer to the building where everyone is peeking their heads out the window. The white feathers spread outwards, slowing me down. They wrap around my stomach, enveloping me in a blanket of whiteness.

I fall downwards, my back facing down. I shriek in both fear and confusion as to why the wings stopped moving.

"She's falling!" I hear somebody yell as I tumble towards the ground.

I open my mouth to gasp for air but it's like there's no oxygen to breathe.

The straps tighten slightly, and my eyes pop open. I didn't even realize I had closed them. The wings spread again and I slowly soar back upwards. I turn my body to the right, and the wings begin directing me back around to the building.

The people at the window are cheering, but Brooke looks like she had seen a ghost. Once I slow down enough, my feet lower, hovering over the windowsill.

"Wow." Tanner chuckles, "The wings must like you."

I loosen the straps and hand the wings to Jack, who's holding his hand out for them. "They what?"

"Artificial wings tend to have a... personality, if you will. They act differently around different people and mess with the ones they like. That's why you kept falling." Jack explains for him.

"Well they definitely had me going there. I thought I was going to keep falling. What's down there anyway?" I ask, looking back down into the endless sky.

"No clue. Maybe if you keep falling for a while you'll reach Earth. Like a fallen angel or something." Tanner suggests. I make my way to the back of the room, away from the window.

"You seem like you're keen on adrenaline." Tanner chuckles, approaching me as I sit down on his couch. He stands  in front of me.

"I guess so. Not so much anymore. I'm starting to act like Brooke now." I admit, then laugh to myself thinking of the many times she has backed out of roller coasters and other things. I'll never get to see that anymore.

"Yeah I can tell. I mean look at how much she's shaking." Tanner turns towards the window and I follow his glance over to Brooke, her shoulders strapped, wings hanging off her shoulder blades.

"You've got to be kidding me." I scoff in disbelief. I know Brooke very well; there is only one reason why she would do something like this and it is to impress somebody. I wasn't sure who it was until I saw the way she smiled at Jack.

There's nothing I can do to stop her now; once she has her mind set to something, there is no way of preventing her from taking action. I just hope something didn't go wrong because if it did, she would never set foot near a window again.

"Brooke are you sure you want to do this?" I call out. She looks back at me and gives me a thumbs up. Her smile is genuine, but her eyes are covered with a layer of terror. It doesn't help that she is also afraid of heights. I don't know how high we are, but the miles of sky surrounding us make it feel like jumping out of an airplane.