Human Feathers: Black and White

Chapter 6: Secrets

Wrong. White light surged into Damien’s retinas, blinding him and forcing his eyes closed. He felt the walls around him vanish in an instant, and took it as an opportunity to burst his wings out to break his fall, which just about broke them off. But instead of splatting onto the stone-hard ground like he would have, he just hit on his chest, knocking the wind out of him before his eyes finally adjusted to the bright light.

The floor beneath him was smooth and cold like stone, but it was definitely some kind of textured, metal concrete-look-alike. It smelled, looked, sounded, and felt like he was laying on the sidewalk of a busy street minus the fuel emissions and passing of ongoing traffic. Slowly, as he caught his breath, he found the determination to pick up his head.

When the stars cleared from view, he found himself lying in the center of an enormous dome-shaped room. The walls and ceiling were lined with large, white tiles that gleamed from the lights that circled strategically around the very center of the room, directly above.

Damien took deep breaths as he stood, his widened eyes scanning the parameter of the room, or pavilion more like. All along the curved wall there were doors and windows, with decorative platforms, like balconies, in front of each door and ochre shutters that connected to each window. It was a giant apartment complex.

But it wasn’t until he noticed all the people that he was really struck with the wonder of his surroundings. Some of the civilians were flying through the air, landing on their porch or jumping down to the main level with their wings, but most of them were on the ground, either walking uninterestedly past him or staring at him in shock like he fell from the sky… oh, wait.

At that moment, Rebecca dropped out of the hole above and spread out her wings perfectly, spiraling down to the ground until she landed next to Damien, a wide smile on her face.

“You look like you just had a heart attack,” she laughed, stepping up to his side.

“I might as well have,” Damien replied quietly, watching the city life all around him. Every person he saw was unique with the wings of all different kinds of birds. But there were some without wings, all of which wore black cloaks with hoods and walked hurriedly by without even glancing at him. His eyes followed them until he noticed from his peripheral vision that there were an official group of Avians approaching him and Rebecca.

One of the men stepped up and held out his hand to Damien. “I’m assuming you’re the newcomer,” he said with a trained, charming smile on his face. He looked like a news reporter, judging by the way he walked and moved with a certain amount of cockiness.

Damien began to put his hand out to shake, but the man grabbed it quickly and shook it vigorously before he had the chance to do it himself.

“Yes,” Damien responded, looking at the other two men behind him. All three of them wore spiffy suits and fake smiles. The one on the left had a pair of small, dark wings that sprouted awkwardly out his back, but the other two both had lighter, speckled wings. “And you are?” He looked at all of them skeptically.

“We’re here to account for you. Can we get your name?” The center man said after finally releasing the hand. The man with the dark wings held up a leather-bound book in front of his face, sliding glasses up his nose and pulling a fancy pen out of his coat pocket, ready to record Damien’s response.

Damien hesitated and looked over at Rebecca, who just looked back.

“We represent the Obsidian City Council,” the man on the right clarified. “Dr. Penny sent us to put you in our books.”

They all waited anxiously for Damien to speak with fading smiles.

“Um,” Damien mumbled. “My name’s Damien Jude?”