Human Feathers: Black and White

Chapter 10: The Wayward Soul

“Put them in the cages,” Wallow ordered, throwing Damien forward into the cement floor. The sound of metal doors slamming shut echoed through the hallway as all the Willows walked past them toward the exit.

“Look at you,” Wallow taunted, moving forward and kicking Damien as hard as he could in the side.

Damien coughed and moaned as he crumbled to the ground, his heart pumping wildly.

Wallow laughed as if amused. “You’re nothing compared to my strength!” Continuing forward, he threw his fist down in between Damien’s wings, smashing him down as he tried to hurry to his knees.

Rebecca stood in her cage, knocking her fist on the metal grate. “Leave him alone!” she yelled frantically as Wallow lifted Damien from the ground and punched him in the face so hard, his head snapped to the side. Drops of blood flew from his mouth and hit the wall behind him.

Wallow held still for just a moment. Damien’s eyes were falling closed like he would pass out from pain, and he was still struggling for breath.

With an evil grin, the red-eyed man turned to Rebecca’s cage without haste. “This goes to show you,” he began, turning to the other three occupied cages as well. He held Damien’s weakened body out to them. “That you’re hopes in defeating me are as pathetic as the boy I hold!” He laughed, throwing Damien into the nearest empty cage, locking it quickly.

Wallow left the hallway with leisure. As he disappeared from view, Red banged his fist into the door and screamed in fury.

“We should have been prepared for this!” He yelled out, slamming himself onto the back wall in rage.

“You’re the one that had the idea to remove the ‘protect’ charm from the city!” Robin kicked the grate that separated his cage from Red’s, his red hair matted to the sweat of his face.

Red turned to him defensively. “It was using all of the Manna we were harvesting plus some! How do you expect to keep up our soldiers’ morale if they can’t do anything to help? All of them were out of power! We had no choice!”

“Guys!” Jay yelled. He was sitting against the wall with his wings propped up, rubbing his forehead like he had a migraine. “Now isn’t the time.” He turned to the cage next to him, opposite the hall from Robin, where Damien lay still on the floor, looking up at the ceiling. He was breathing shallowly and there was a stream of blood running from the corner of him mouth.

Red and Robin both noticed Jay’s unusually quiet tone and turned their attention to him, realizing Damien’s state. They both looked at each other, quieting their nerves some.

Rebecca was in a cage to the far left of Jay’s. She nervously pushed herself up against the grate, trying to look in at Damien, but she couldn’t see anything.

Jay took a deep breath. “Damien?” he said quietly.

Not surprisingly, he didn’t respond. With a painful sigh, Damien shut his eyes, wishing for a moment that he could just vanish into the air. His chest felt like it would concave any second, either from overwhelming depression, or from the agonizing wounds he’d have to sustain for the rest of the day.

He was beginning to realize what Bill was trying to tell him a few minutes ago. Every day he doesn’t train, Wallow gets stronger. If he had just figured this out sooner, maybe he could have prevented this whole ordeal from happening. Maybe he wouldn’t have been the cause of the five of them sitting in cages, awaiting whatever fate Wallow had in store for them.

“You,” a young female’s voice suddenly broke the silence. She had been sitting in the corner of one of the cages near Red. She got up slowly, putting her fingers through the grate to support herself, looking directly at Damien. Her sandy hair fell into her face in smooth strands as she stared down at him with a concentrating expression. “I’ve never seen Wallow act like that before,” she hesitated, bending lower. “Who are you?”