Love My Wings

Chapter 17

THE END.

Because every end is just a new beginning.

Lei panted as he struggled to lie on his back, his wings in pain. His body felt compressed. He sat limply over the dirt and fallen leaves scattered upon the floor. The air smelled of rain and burned wood. It was over. Everything was over. He was no longer alive, just existing. The flame had been extinguished.

Rory stood frozen, staring at the wall of bushes in front of him. He stumbled and fell. The leaves beneath him crackled with his weight. He felt nothing. How could you feel the lack thereof? As strange as it sounds, it was there. Emptiness. Why? He couldn't recall. He had no idea how he ended up here, but something... Something was gone.

A tear rolled down the soft skin of his freckled face. Why was he crying? Yet another question with no answer. Another followed that tear, and another, like the droplets of rain hitting the ground, his tears moistened his now damp sweater.

A sharp pain came to his head along with a deafening ring. Sudden flashes of random images, shuffled and crushed in his mind like pieces of a broken mirror. His head was like a blank paper absorbing splashes of watercolor combined to create a painting of the past. He entered a trance. Bright pink, violet, green, red. Books, warmth, the smell of lavender and soap, the sunset at Berrymore Beach. The sound of the waves at the beach. Remember, remember, remember.

He gasped for air as he came back to reality. Him. Who was he? How did this all happen? When did this all happen? And why was he gone? The lights, the violet rays, what were they?

He looked at his hands as he sat on his feet. The lightning bolt on his wrist was now colored as it had been before. Suddenly another memory returned as he traced his fingers over the tattoo. That night also seemed blurry, not in the way things are now, but in an exciting way. He recalled the light forest beneath the lake, the red handkerchief he had tied over the boy's eyes, and yet another vision. One that seemed louder and more intrusive than the others: an image of a small creature with large almond-shaped eyes and horns on its head. The same creature that was now fluttering in front of him... "LIZU!"

He took several steps back in disbelief with an expression of revulsion. "It was you. You did this." He clenched his teeth and his eyes scanned the creature up and down with rage and confusion.

"Who is he, what are you, what did you do to me?!" Lizu was motionless as usual, its eyes were like an abyss of unanswered questions. It spoke, but its mouth did not move.

"He was your reflection, I am your guide, you did this to yourself. Now, I will help you find what you are looking for. It's over, Rory Maple."

He squinted with questioning eyes. "Maple?" Lizu came closer and Rory flinched, almost falling back again.

"Oh, that's right, I should have told you sooner, that is your real name. Your parents were never devoured by these 'goblins' you speak of so much, the walls of this portal wiped them from the very face of this universe as if they had never existed. You weren't ever born in this reality, you only exist as a product of the paradox that occurred when they crossed. That other boy is you but on the other side. Your life itself... is a mistake."

Rory blacked out. He had to be dreaming this was all a nightmare. He would wake up soon and be in his mother's house, playing outside in the sunlight with his siblings. He would go back to when everything was okay, and he didn't have to pretend to be someone else.

"No! I didn't choose to be like this, I didn't choose to suffer, and I've given life the best of me, I've done everything in my power to slap a smile on my face even when I felt like I was breaking into a million pieces. You have no right to pull everything away from me." He shouted between sobs.