Unnecessary Words

Wings

I gripped the saw with reluctance. I wished there was an easier way to do this. It wasn't like there were wing removal tools. It's not like anyone else struggled with this problem. I had to do the best I could. In my years of practice I had found that a saw was the quickest way to get them off. I took numbing shots in my back. Those didn't block out all the pain. I still felt most of it.

I set the saw to the base of my right wing contorting my arm to do so. My mind flashed to the years of my mother locking us in the bathroom and hacking ruthlessly at my back, insisting it was better this way. She died when I was sixteen and I had continued doing it. They always found a way to grow back. I hated it.

I took a deep breath and started sawing.

It was as painful as ever. I gasped and bit into the shirt stuffed in my mouth. Why I still did this was a mystery even to me. I guess the world would reject me or experiment on me if I showed them. I didn't want that. I continued to saw at the wing. I was hard with the position. I normally had all day to do this but I had been gone all morning and they were getting noticeable. With the meeting tomorrow I had to get rid of them.

I heard a knock on my front door and jumped, dropping the saw.

"Lyanah?"

Tyler. Of course it had to be Tyler.

I spit the shirt out and called in a shakier voice then I would've wished for, "Don't come in!"

He sounded confused. "Are you okay?" His voice was even closer now.

"Yeah I'm fine." Tears were streaming down my face at this point.

He knocked on the bathroom door. "Are you in here?"

"Yeah." I scrambled to stuff the saw under the sink. Blood was dripping down my back. I pulled tons of toilet paper off and held it to my back.

The door rattled. "Lyanah what are you doing!?" It sounded more worried now.

"Nothing! I'm changing!" I immediately regretted saying that.

"Well that sure is a strange outfit you're wearing." I could hear the eye roll in his voice. "Do you at least have a bra on?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm coming in." He turned the knob.

My eyes widened. "No! You can't do that I-" Tyler's eyes widened.

I shrunk back. I had spent all those years cutting them off again and again. Month after month or agonizingly hiding them from everyone and he had found out.

"You have wings." He stated rather obviously.

I looked down.

"Angel wings."

I was caught off guard by this. My mom had never described them as such.

"They're beautiful." I looked up. His voice was filled with awe. His eyes were glued to the pitiful soft things on my back.

"I don't- no one- um..." I stammered.

"Can I touch them." He asked looking back at my face.

"Um," No one had ever asked that. "I guess?"

I turned around and felt his hand softly brushing over the feathers.

"They're so soft." He said mostly to himself.

My face bloomed red.

"Were you trying to get rid of these?" His hand was now trailing along the scars from the countless times I had cut them off.

"Yes." I whispered.

"Please don't."

I was taken aback. If I let them grow out I couldn't hide them. I turned to look at him and opened my mouth to say something but he shushed me.

Slowly he unbuttoned his shirt and let it slide off him. I gaped in wonder. I thought I was alone. The only winged human.

He looked me in the eye understandingly.

Behind him magnificent feathery black wings unfurled.

(A/N: Not gonna lie I actually hate this one.)