Black Feather

The snow crunched as I wandered. I was daydreaming again because of what I believed : ''Living in a fantasy world, so keep your reality away from me''. Abruptly, I stopped walking. My head was suddenly filled with that moment. Memories crawled over each other, all fighting for room in the small cramped space. Bitterness, sorrow and regret rolled over me like waves washing away a beach of sand. Suddenly, I caught sight of a feather drifting slowly towards the ground. But this was no ordinary feather, it was pure black like an fallen angel's tainted wings. Then I noticed that it had a paper tag attached to it. I cut off the distance between me and the feather in a few quick strides. I picked it up. It said :

' Tag, you're it. '

Then I felt a icy chill cross my whole body and a cold breath shuddered out of me as though I was an old man breathing his last breath. Suddenly I let out a piercing shriek like a harpy when I felt something burst out between the back of my shoulder blades. I managed to grab a bit of it and pull it out although the pain was then white-hot like a poker. The last thing I could remember was me staring agape at a handful of soft, ink-like black feathers and a voice coming from my mouth laughing : '' Can you remember me? ''.

The next thing I knew was I awoke upon a bed but with a throbbing head and as I tried to sit up my legs felt paralyzed, as though they weren't attached to me anymore. Then I had a look at my surroundings and saw a vase to my left filled with daffodils that were somehow strangely wilted though they were close to the window with plenty of sunlight and ,as far as I can see, plenty of water. Then I had a strange intuition pass over me and I began to properly analyze my surroundings to figure out how I could leave.

Suddenly, a slow piece of music that sent shivers down my spine drifted through the door and a boy's voice accompanied it:

'' You don't know now,

  You didn't know then,

  Exactly how,

  Much I loved you. ''

Slowly, I crawled out of bed and found that I was still wearing the clothes I had on when I fainted but I saw a wardrobe in the corner of the room. I opened it cautiously and found loads of dresses lined up neatly, I touched one and found that they were pristine and none were moth-ridden. Then I saw one that caught my eye. A beautiful creamy silk halter-neck dress adorned with small pearls at the bodice in a detailed pattern and a perfect white rose bracelet hanging off a rack near the back of the wardrobe. Surprisingly, the white rose was still fine and not wilted as though it had only been picked today...

Anyway, I still changed into it and I felt somehow a bit different. As though I had stepped out of my skin and into someone else's. It was a peculiar sensation but as soon as I looked into the ornate mirror on the other side of the room, I caught my breath. The dress looked like it was perfectly tailored to fit me yet I've never seen it before in my whole life.

Then I went downstairs. There was a grand piano in the middle of the room with an exquisite chandelier hanging just directly above it. The room excluded some sort of elegance yet it was occupied by hardly anybody... until I noticed a head just showing behind the piano.

And then it seemed like he just noticed me as he finished singing, '' I'm only just a stranger trying to make my way through the world. ''. Then he raised up from the piano stool and I suddenly felt a tug at my memory as though I'd seen this person before.

He was just taller than me with mussed up jet black hair and piercing blue eyes that looked as though they could see literally into your soul. He wore a plain light blue shirt and some black jeans. He had light freckles on the bridge of his nose and a lazy smile that reminded me of past summer's heat. But as soon as he saw me, the smile was immediately wiped off his face and replaced with an anxious yet also angry look. '' WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THAT DRESS!?!? ''

'' I'm just wearing it! '' I replied with a nervous feeling hitching a ride on my now-frozen spine.

'' IT'S MY DEAD MOTHER'S WEDDING DRESS! '' He shouted back at me as though the words were like gunfire being fired between us.

I recoiled as though acid had been thrown at me. His dead mother? No wonder I couldn't spot a motherly figure bustling around but that still didn't explain how there was hardly anybody there. I couldn't understand exactly who rescued me then. At first, I thought it was him but how if he was this angry most of the time?  I felt tears welling up in the corner of my eye and then bit my bottom lip hard. Hard enough to draw blood but at least I would know that this boy will not have the satisfaction of seeing me cry. After all, I wasn't a type of damsel in distress. I always managed somehow by my own devices. If I've managed to cope this far without anybody, well I wasn't going to start now. After all, I've always been a solitary person, quiet so I can mull over my thoughts and at times, just daydream about my future. I wasn't going to bury my future already nor am I prepared to. But still, I did feel a little bit of compassion for this boy who was about the same age as me but had the face of an abandoned child.

He looked a bit like me when that thing happened... No! I CAN'T let myself think about that again... All that horrible pain, the torture of living life aimlessly, the feeling of no longer caring about anything or anyone... I can't take any chances of trusting anyone now. I need to be strong enough to be able to defend myself. Anyway, how can I even start helping other people when I can't even help myself?