Suffocating

Illusion; X

Crystal City's official junkyard wasn't even in the city. It was two miles away, situated far from civilization past fields of untamed grass and abandoned shacks.

This was the first time Roxanne had ever stepped foot into the place. She hoped it would be the last.

Everything was so disorganized, dirty. She couldn't help but feel dirty herself, feeling a surging need to take a shower not even after a minute of being here.

She was almost amazed by how cleverly the stacks of trash were being piled together, like a sick, twisted form of Jenga. That, or she was expecting WALL-E to rock up behind her.

She wore a coat too big for her size, hoping it would shield the rest of her clothes from all this dirt, dust, and God knows what else.

When Roxanne began to regret coming here, she pulled out a piece of paper from her coat pocket, neatly folded.

She read it again even when she was sure she'd memorized every word, at this point.

Come to the junkyard alone at 11 if you want answers.

Every fiber of her being told her this was either an elaborate kidnapping attempt or a plotted murder... or both, somehow. That was why she brought a knife. She was no idiot. And she had her phone in her pocket with people on speed dial, just in case things got intense.

Oh, and she wore her sports shoes, so she wouldn't trip and fall when she ran.

Roxanne was as prepared as she could be.

And she was scared to death.

She looked at the paper, her hand shaking despite her attempts at calming it. She then turned on her phone. It read 10:52. She was early. She had never been early for anything her whole life, yet she made herself early for this.

She then heard it; a flap of large wings, coming from behind her.

She turned around. Her phone dropped.

The... creature was up in the air. Its body covered the moon behind it, giving itself a powerful shadow. Slowly, it descended. And slowly, Roxanne could see that it was, in fact, a she, based on the figure of its body and its long hair.

The more Roxanne looked at her, the more she realized just how etherial she was.

There were white floral patterns, tracing from her hands, to her arms, down to her neck, ending in a circular pattern around her neck. They glowed. It was faint, but they definitely glowed. Roxanne was sure that there were more floral patterns hidden under its- her clothing.

The tip of her hair had the same white glow as well.

With each flap of the wings, came a burst of air that messed Roxanne's hair up. The closer she got, the more intense that burst of air became.

Roxanne had to take a few steps back, just so she wouldn't fall from the push of air coming from the flying creature.

Black boots made contact with the earth, for the first time since Roxanne had seen her.

"You came." Her body inhaled a sharp breath without her permission. She planted her feet deeply onto the ground, almost clawing at it, in fact, with how dizzy she was.

This. This was her.

Roxanne couldn't believe it. All this time she'd spent waiting, she'd thought she was ready, but actually looking at her, feeling her presence...

Roxanne could understand why everyone was scared of her.

There was this feeling of... inhuman energy emanating from her. No matter how badly you want to believe that her wings were bought from Costco, and those floral patterns were just very expensive tattoos, and she was wearing contact lenses... you just can't believe it.