Tattered Wings

“Nudge? Gazzy? Where the hell are you guys?” Max whispered as she crept down the hallways of their temporary house. She knew something was up as soon as she had got back from food shopping, but she didn't know what it was. Cautiously, Max opened Fangs bedroom door and screamed. Blood was splattered everywhere, all over the walls and windows, staining everything a crimson red.

Her flock was dead.

Angel and Nudge were laid on Fang's bed at unnatural angles, their throats savagely slashed so much you could see the veins through the wounds. Their wings were broken and their feathers had been pulled out. Gazzy and Iggy had been pinned to the wall with knives through their shoulders, necks and wings. Blood trickled down the corner of Iggy's mouth and Max wiped it away with a sob of despair, leaning her forehead against his. She turned to face Fang and broke down in tears. Fang had taken the worst of it all. There were so many knives in his chest, Max couldn't count them all. He had bullet wounds in his arms and legs and his wings had been cut away from his body and rested next to him, but unbelievably, he was still alive.....just. Max knelt down at his side and cradled his head in her lap, tears dripping onto his face. Fang opened his eyes weakly and stared into Max's watery, dark brown eyes. “I...Love...You...Max.” he wheezed, “Always....have....always....will.”
Max gave a strangled cry as Fangs head went limp, never to move again.
“I love you too.” she sobbed into his bloodied hair, laying him on the floor, closing his eyelids. She removed all the knives from his chest and laid his arms across his torso. Next, she unpinned Gazzy and Iggy from the wall, kissing them goodbye as she laid them to rest beside Fang. She picked Angel up off the bed first, laying her next to her brother, placing a scarf over her throat so she looked just like an innocent seven year old. Finally, she laid Nudge next to Iggy. Max didn't place a scarf over Nudge's throat because she knew Nudge would protest against the fashion clash. Instead, she turned Nudges collar upwards, so the ragged cut couldn't be seen.

“Goodbye, my angels.” Max whispered through her sobs, turning off the bedroom light and retreating out the front door, taking off into the sky, her fourteen and a half foot wingspan carrying her away from the scene of death.

Carrying her away from her family.

Max flew for as long as she could, but soon the tears overcame her vision, so she could go no further. She hovered in the sky for a minute before letting out a scream of pain, loud enough to be heard on the other side of the world. Then she was falling. Max didn't even bother to close her wings, or move them to save herself. This time, Fang wouldn't be there to catch her, to stop her from falling into the world of the dead. Max closed her eyes and waited for the impact of the ground, but instead, felt arms catch her. She opened her eyes to see a man with blonde hair and blue eyes looking down at her. That was the last thing Max saw as she felt her head fall back and she tumbled into the never ending pit of darkness.