Alone Together

Prologue

Prologue

In my dream I was flying. I was soaring through the clouds over a snow-covered landscape, held aloft by a pair of wings as white as the ground. It was peaceful, until the screaming started. That was when my dream became a nightmare. The once serene landscape was now on fire, trees were burning and houses spewed smoke. People were screaming in terror, parents carrying their children as they tried to escape the ever-growing flames.

I had never felt so helpless. No matter how much I screamed or how hard I tried to fly down and help, I was powerless to stop the destruction. I watched an entire city burn to the ground, knowing the entire time that I could have stopped the fire if I had been stronger.

I woke up screaming. My heart was pounding in my chest and my body was covered in a cold sweat. No one came in to see if I was all right: they never did. To them I was just another lab experiment, a genetically altered freak. I ran my hands up and down my arms trying to work some heat back into my body, Sokovia always had the harshest winters and the lab was not the warmest place.

I pulled the rough wool blanket tighter around my thin body and tried to get comfortable, which was very difficult considering that I was in a cage meant for a small dog. Sighing I wrapped my snow colored wings around my body and stared out of the window. Knowing that sleep would not come easily again that night I settled for watching the moon bathe the cold landscape in a warm glow and dreaming about the day that I would finally find out what snow felt like.