Behind These Wings

Clouds

Izzy was shaking. Pure fear gripped painfully at her heart. Pure and unaltered fear.

Fear as she was currently being held by two rather insignificant, if you could see it from her perspective, hands, a thousand feet from the beautiful safety of the ground. She was being held in suspension by a matter of fingers that currently clawed their talon like nails into the loose knit of her cardigan.

The owner of said fingers? Darren.

Darren's wings beat hard and sharp creating massive gusts of chilling air that would completely engulf Izzy for seconds at a time, making it difficult to breath with the decrease in temperature pressing hard at her chest. Although, Izzy did prefer this to him stopping and them both plummeting to their deaths. Well maybe she would prefer it if she could stay up here; he could plummet away and she would happily cheer.

But unfortunately her own wings were limp behind her. They were still bandaged and, as such, they couldn't be withdrawn into her back. Despite being drawn and poised for action they served little purpose as they were immobile due to the large amount of pain Izzy found herself facing every time she attempted to operate them.

Of course with such a small number of feathers left on the wing bone, Izzy wouldn't have thought it was possible for her to be able to hover a foot off of the ground, let alone a thousand.

"How you have these accidents is beyond me Isabelle." Darren's voice only served to chill her body further and Izzy felt the trembling increase as her mind registered the double meaning behind his words.

"It is a wonder you have managed to stay alive this long. Personally I had bet that you would have died months ago. I lost that bet." His cold eyes sliced through hers as she was exposed to the full force of his glare. "I don't like to lose Isabelle."

"I'm sorry." Izzy whimpered as she attempted to force words through her vibrating lips.

"I've heard too many apologise from you. Why can you never get anything right?" Darren hissed at her as he swapped the grip on one of her arms to being around her neck instead.

Despite her airways now being blocked off and darkness quickly ebbing into her vision Izzy found herself with the use of one arm and so she committed perhaps the single most idiotic action she would do in her entire life.

She hit him.

Darren immediately let go of Izzy, completely taken aback by the slap, and before she had a chance to hold onto him she was freefalling towards the ground. Eyes watering from the wind resistance and ears popping with the sudden drop in altitude Izzy prepared herself for the impact she knew must, eventually come.

In the moments before death, or in her case, extreme injury with the possibility of death to follow if Darren decided he was finished tormenting her, it is said that people's lives flash before their eyes.

Izzy did not experience this, for her the only thing she could think of was Drew's kiss that morning.

Izzy woke to find an uncomfortable pressure on her stomach. Whatever it was was rather heavy and unrelenting in the pressure it was applying but Izzy couldn't understand what would cause such a feeling.

Daring to face the world she opened her eyes slowly, thanks to the blinding, low morning sun in Spring, and she tucked her chin into her neck so that she could see her stomach.

There was Drew's head.

Luckily attached to Drew's head was his body but it was not quite a normal picture as between Drew and Izzy lay a duvet.