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*Early(er) update! :D*

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My mind was no longer on the exchange that I had had with Lorin and that demon, whoever she was. Instead, my mind wandered with the wind, just as easily floating away and coming back to me with another thought.

The cold breeze scuttled the dead leaves that were on the ground, pulling my attention to them as they flew across the pavement of the sidewalk I aimlessly walked on. I knew I was getting deeper into town, where all the bars, shops and restaurants mulled with humans. I didn't mind. It would be nice for once to be surrounded by them. I looked liked them even though I wasn't one, but none of them knew that. It would be nice to be an unknown invader in their. . .humanness.

A pair of girls turned the corner of the sidewalk I was on, walking towards me while they talked quietly. Noticing me, they looked up and then looked away, giggling with each other and smiling. I wondered why. I guess I wouldn't blend entirely into a human.

". . .Eyes are so pretty!" One of the girls whispered while they passed me. I furrowed my eyebrows, but kept walking. The faint sound of music told me I was getting closer and closer to the heart of the small city.

As I turned the same corner that the two girls had come from, I finally located where the music was coming from. A local bar. A group of drunk men and women were standing outside, talking and laughing loudly. Shrugging mentally - because I would only look about eighteen or nineteen years old to them - I walked forward, toward the bar.

"Hey, kid!" I heard one of the men tell as I made it to the open door of the bar. I turned and looked at him, seeing that the whole group of maybe twelve people had stopped everything and looked on, staring at me. "I don't think you're old enough!"

"No, I'm not." I replied. "But, how do you know I'm here to drink?"

"Well. . .this is a bar, angel boy." One of the women, a tall blonde with bright red heels and ripped jeans slurred, looking at me with narrowed eyes. But they didn't possess any sort of hatred or anger, instead they were laced with. . .wanting and lust. I groaned internally and turned away from the group.

"Hey, hey!" The same man from before yelled, holding his hands up. "I may be drunk, and I don't care about you, kid, but you're still not allowed to go into the bar."

"I'm here to meet a friend." I replied, no emotion in my voice, but the annoyance and frustration were clear in my eyes. I knew that because the man, despite being a good five feet away from me, still took a step back.

"Seriously? You expect us to believe that? Back off and go home, kid." Another man, a bit on the short side, defended.

"I wasn't bothering you when I came here. You began bothering me." I replied and turned away, taking a step into the dim bar. A hand suddenly grabbed my shoulder and spun my around.

"Listen here, squirt," the shorter man growled out, his stubbly face and narrowed brown eyes glaring at me. He was holding a fistful of my hoodie and pointing a fat, chubby finger at me. "Leave."

"Calm down, Homer. . ."A woman cooed. "He's just a boy. You want to be seen beating a kid up? What if he does have a friend here?"

"Shut up, Natalia." Homer snapped back, never letting his angry gaze leave my calm, laid-back one. I knew the fact that my easy-going and indifferent look was making Homer seethe inside. I was glad that he was taking my bait.

"This punk is gonna get it. . ."Another woman, one that I couldn't see among the group, sung. A few of the people laughed, the man that had first talked to me, smiling and looking at me with revenge in his eyes. Humans, I thought with a roll of my eyes. I don't know where this sense of wanting to provoke and fight people suddenly came from, but I felt that once I released a few punches, I would feel a lot better. Only, that didn't exactly happen.

Without a warning, and with my mind somewhere else, Homer had pulled his fist back behind his shoulder, suddenly punching me in the jaw. My head snapped to the side and I immediately tasted something unnatural in my mouth. What was happening?

"What the fück?!" Homer yelled, and my suspicions were affirmed. I was bleeding and they all could see my gold blood, not the thick, red fluid that they all had running through their veins. I ticked my lip and it came away coated in my golden blood. I looked up at Homer who was staring at my finger, and then punched him on the side of his peppered-haired head so hard that he was immediately knocked unconscious. I don't know what was happening to me. The sudden anger, knocking an old guy out without even having a thought about it, bleeding so easily. . .was I. . .becoming human?

"Oh no, you fü -" A man yelled as he began barreling toward me to defend his unconscious friend. I was ready, standing still but prepared to hit him so fast that he wouldn't even see it. Except he stopped short and backed away, fear evident in his wide eyes. The whole group had slowly backed off, looking perplexed and confused and frightened. The man wasn't looking at me anymore, he was looking down at the pockets of my sweater. Following his gaze I looked down to see what had scared him, and the rest of the annoying adults off.

The knife I had take from Lorin had poked a hole through the fabric of my hoodies pocket, the wicked, sharp end poking out. I slipped my hand into the pocket and pulled the knife out, wanting to put it up my sleeve like Lorin had but failed. Instead, as soon as the flesh of my hand came into contact with the metal handle, the knife began to hum and vibrate like it was alive.

The mysterious, unfamiliar letters transfixed me as they began to shine dully, as if they were being illuminate with a light from within the blade. I looked up at the humans, astonished and curious as to if they could see what I could see. But they couldn't. They had backed off, looking at me tensely. I could see that they were calming down from the fit of rage I had put them in.

"Okay, keep your knife to yourself. Nothing happened, alright kid?" The man who had come at me with a raised fist, said.

"You - you can't see -?" I broke off suddenly as a searing pain shit up through my arm. Looking back down at the blade, I saw my blood on the metal. . .sizzling and bubbling away like it was water on a hot pan. It turned an ugly blackish colour before it began to move. My - now - black blood seeped into the engravings of the letters, filling them up and then moving back down the blade, dripping off in thick, tar-ish drops after the lettering had been filed by my cursed blood.

"What the fück is going on!?" I yelled. I saw the group back away more, cautiously moving away from me as I began to stumble away, toward the cover of trees I could see on the side of the sidewalk I had just walked from.

My vision began to blur and my throat constricted, leaving a short pathway for oxygen which caused me to reel in dizziness. Sweat began to form on my forehead, slowly dripping down my anguished face. My hands became clammy but my right hand never let go, or let the knife slip from my hand. It was as if the knife was taking control of me, commanding me to keep a grip on it, leading me somewhere no one could see me in pain.

Somehow - I don't know how through the black haze that had come over my sight - I had made it across the street and into the forest. I dropped to my knees, panting hard and waiting for my vision to come back to me. It did, very slowly. Then, my throat opened up again, letting my breathe fully and freely once again. But, I wasn't free. I wasn't getting out of the trance that the knife had put me in. Just as I began to calm down again, I felt it.

"No, no, no, no, no. . ." I mumbled in panic and fear. "No!"

Then, the same searing pain that had shot up my arm earlier - the one that felt as if my veins were being pulled on, and my muscles being ripped apart while my skin was still intact - ran through my back and I knew exactly what was happening.

The only warning - besides the pain -that I had, was the loud, sharp sound of the cloth of my hoodie being forcefully ripped apart as my wings, bloodied and massive, emerged from my torn flesh, unfolding wide open.

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Damn, that was intense!!!