Angels Who Fall

Chapter Three - Real-Life Possibilities

/December, 2011, a Friday
Egbert Residence/

John laughed a little nervously.
To be honest, he didn't know if he believed this or not.
Of course, it wasn't possible, he was sane enough to know that. It wasn't possible for people to have wings, or to fly. Anyone could tell you that.
But still...
He had just seen this kid fly.
With wings.
It had seemed so real, it had all looked and sounded and felt so real..
And it still did. Karkat stood in front of him, only a few feet away. Every detail of him was lifelike, sharp and accurate, not at all dreamy or hazy.
His breaths had a rhythm, the gentle ups and downs of his chest and shoulders, his wings shifting ever-so-slightly along with his shoulder blades. Little puffs of white formed from his mouth and nose, rising up and disappearing just in time to be replaced with another.
The still-falling snow stuck to his clothes, his hair, and his feathers, the white glinting like gold in the cold sun.
...It was too real to be a dream.
If it was a dream, he should be waking up soon, but he didn't feel like he would be. Besides, he'd never had a conscious dream, one where he was aware of his hallucinations. That didn't happen, did it?
So maybe this.. wasn't a dream?
He had to be sure... Perhaps if he felt those feathers..?
Karkat's now-soft voice broke him from his trance. "Hey.."
John realized that while he'd been busy thinking, his body had autopiloted itself to Karkat, reaching out a hand to touch the silky grey feathers on his shoulders.
"What are you doing..?" Karkat looked at him with a calm, yet almost wide-eyed expression, and John found his hand running over the feathers a few times, the red-and-grey softness much too lifelike under his fingers.
There was no way this could be a dream...
Karkat must have noticed the change of belief on John's face, because he smiled slightly. It was something that looked a little foreign on his face, like he didn't do it often.
"So, do you believe me now?"
John took a deep breath, then sighed. "...Yeah... I do, I think..."
Saying that, for some reason, seemed to take a weight off his shoulders. Made all of this seem easier. As if he'd known, somewhere deep inside of himself, that he would believe it. He felt a kind of small warmth near his chest, but brushed it from his thoughts and stood back a bit.
Karkat released a breath in relief. His job just got about ten times easier.
"Well... now that you, at least, are going to believe what I'm telling you, I should explain the full story... Because obviously you didn't get the memo."
John nodded. "Yeah... There's still a lot of explaining to do."
The wind started to pick up again, blowing snow in their direction. John shivered, his legs nearly numb by now.
"Um... do you want to go inside? It's warm in there... My dad isn't home, so you don't have to worry about that."
Karkat nodded thankfully. "Yes, thank you... Besides, I think you'll want to sit down, it's kind of a long story."
John started back to the door, Karkat grabbing his coat and following.
Once they were inside, John sat down in his mound of blankets, grateful for the warmth to his legs, and Karkat sat on the couch.
He was quiet for a moment, looking around, before looking back down to John. He wondered aloud, "Where should I even start..?"
John shrugged. "The beginning, I guess..."
Karkat nodded again, took a deep, steady breath.
"Okay."
And so he began.
"Well... Here goes nothing. I'll try to make it fast and painless, but... no promises.
There are cities in the clouds, and passages between them and the earth called the SkyWay.
In those cities, there are many Anima like me. Our leaders are called the Council of Archanima, and there are six of them. No one ever really sees them, but... they kind of run everything.
I was called by them to find a lost Anima, one of us who was born on earth. It was an honor of a job... you see, there zaren't many Anima born down here...
I was to find this Anima, and bring him back up to the Haven with me."
"That-" -at this point he made a little gesture to John- "was supposed to be you. The Archanima Council said that there was an Anima down here, right at this spot... And his name was John Egbert."
John processed all of this. He knew it was probably a lot more complicated than Karkat was making it out to be, but it was still a pretty wild story... even coming from a person with wings.
"Me..?" He asked. "You mean.. I'm supposed to have wings like you?"
Karkat released another deep breath.
"Yeah."
John held his head in his hands, attempting to make a little sense of this.
"But... I'm just a normal guy..."
The winged boy just looked down.
"It seems so. But that's the thing. You're not supposed to be! All their indicators said you were an Anima... I don't understand it, either."
John leaned back, landing in his blankets with an oomph.
"Ughhhhhhhh!" He let out a frustrated sound and closed his eyes. "..So what do we do?"
Karkat shook his head.
"I don't know, I was never prepared for this situation... but... I think I'll have to take you up to the Council myself, and ask them what went wrong."
John thought about this for a minute. Up to the Haven? A city in the clouds?
Karkat continued, brainstorming a bit.
"But considering that you have no wings, I'm not sure how I'll get you there. Finding the SkyWay isn't the hard part, it's directly above your roof... But it's a flight tunnel, so I think carrying you as I fly would be the only way... But I have no idea how -or if- that would work..."
He trailed off, and as he did, John let loose another sigh.
"So that's the plan then?
We just.. Wing it?"
Karkat's tiny smile returned, and he laughed a little. Wing it.
"Yeah. Go get warmer clothes on and find a ladder... and meet me up on the roof."
John pulled himself up and obeyed.  Karkat watched until John got to his bedroom doorway, and then he disappeared back out into the snow. A few seconds later, John heard a gentle tap on the roof.
He went to his closet, pulling out a blue sweater and a pair of black skinny jeans. He pulled them on and grabbed his black combat boots, which, admittedly, weren't as cool as Karkat's.
He checked himself in the mirror, brushing through his hair with his fingers and pulling on a dark blue beanie. He looped a grey scarf around his neck and made sure his mother's necklace was hidden well under it and the sweater.
He thought for a minute he was overdoing it, but there was snow outside, and he was susceptible to the cold. Besides, if they were going up to the Haven like Karkat said... wouldn't the altitude difference make him colder?
Then he started to worry a bit. What if he couldn't breathe that high up? Air got thinner the further up you went. And didn't Karkat mention their cities being built on clouds? Clouds were anything but solid!
He took a few breaths, holding himself together.
"Calm down, Egbert..." He told his reflection, "If Karkat's real, and he definitely is, then all this other stuff is probably real and okay too. Besides, it isn't like you're going to be living up there! They just need to figure out what they did wrong, and then Karkat will take me back here before Dad gets back on Monday..."
He pocketed his phone, just in case, and headed to the backyard to find a ladder, pushing his worries to the back of his mind.