The warm sun shines on our faces as we stand at the gate. The clouds are like fluffy marshmallows in the azure blue sky, scudding steadily overhead. "Off with you, you're going to be late for school!" Mama laughs, pushing the gate open and wheedling me through. Papa sits in a beach chair at the side of the lawn, peeking over the top of his daily papers. "Be good," he says gruffly, then returns to his reading.
I start off at a steady pace, then turn to look behind me. Mama smiles tenderly, and Papa pretends to read but I can see his eyes darting in my direction. I stand in the middle of the bustling sidewalk and tilt my head back, closing my eyes, the warm rays of light bathing in my face in a heated golden glow. There and then, I commit that picture, those feelings of bliss and warmth, to memory, carving a niche for them in the deepest crevices of my mind.
And then I open my eyes.
And I'm greeted with a torrent of freezing rain, grey and bleak. A chilling cold slices through the air, so unlike the warm embrace of the sun.
This time, when I shut my eyes and open them again, the rain doesn't go away, and neither does the cold and hurt that cuts far deeper into my bones than just a normal chill.
Because that sun-lit memory didn't have any place - not here, not today. Not when it happened seven years ago.
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He stepped out of the machine, bare feet touching the ground for just an instant before he was shoved roughly to a corner of the room.
The door wasn't open, but the window was.
It was now or never.
He dived.
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"How was school today?"
"Great." I shot my aunt a grin. I hoped it was convincing.
A slice of meat loaf and a packet of milk, and I ran up the carpeted stairs to my room. My cousin had moved out some weeks ago into a little apartment of her own, leaving me her childhood room. Now, I was the only kid in the house. Man, it sure felt lonely.
I set the food on the dresser, flopping onto my bed and staring out at the rivulets of rain cutting paths on the misty window. The stumps on my back flattened themselves further against the bedspread as I rolled onto my back, opting to stare up at the ceiling.
Humans lost their wings ages ago, and no one knew why. It left the rest of us with ugly grey stumps, nothing like the magnificent wings in the past.
My great-grandmother used to have them, a warm honey yellow.
They said your wings changed colour based on the life you led.
I wondered what colour mine would be, if I ever had wings.
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He was suspended in free fall for a few seconds, floating in the air, hair rushing up past his face.
Angered, shocked shouts reached his ears, seeming to come from underwater, followed by the sharp tinkling of glass whistling through thin air behind him. The shards surrounded him, floating in a gleaming halo of jagged edges and blood-red against transparent green-white and-
-he was falling, the ground rushing up to meet him, the dazzling lights of the metropolis sliding into his vision, laser-sharp.
How long would it take him to meet the ground?
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The screams echoed in my ear as I pushed myself upright, rivulets of sweat tracing lines down my back and face.
Just a short nap, and they had come back to haunt me again.
Pathetic.
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Before he was even halfway near the ground, there was a sudden familiar up-thrust against the bottom of his wings, a huge whoosh as they spread large and flat against the oncoming current of air and propelled him up.
The darts whizzed past him, and he used his wings to cocoon himself, going up, up, as the darkening heavens beckoned to him.
The air above felt crisp, cool, and he inhaled each drop greedily, sucking up the freshness that burned his lungs. It was a relief from the hot, damp air of riding in the machine for god knew how many hours or days. His wings beat slowly, each flap pushing him higher and higher, until he was fully concealed by the clouds and mist above.
chapter picture from: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/645562927825310128/
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Fading into time
Science FictionBASED LOOSELY ON THIS PROMPT: A long time ago, every human had wings. When you were born, they were white, but they changed to all colours of the rainbow given what kind of life you live, from a light yellow to a dark blue. However, in this time, on...
