Formerly pure ivory wings were dappled gently with smoky pigments. Bright, loving oculars turned darker and darker. Her façade full of sorrow and a seldom, gloomy frown. Once soft and lush lips were dried and cold. Around her the frigid air pushed and pushed with the howl of winds. The voices rang in her audits. The same redundant sayings, the same redundant words and phrases. She saw their eerie grins, heard their pained chants. Soft, small hands gripped the snow beneath her knees with all her life. She couldn't let them get her. Them. Her demons, the voices, the grins. But despite the tearing in her heart, her mind was more hesitant. It replayed every word. Over. Over. And over. Their eerie grins became her own.
Her large, feathered appendages grew darker with each aching fraction of time. A scream, a stumble. None to be heard. Who can hear a cry for help when there is no help? When there's no one. No one cares for a monster. No one but her demons who replay what she's always heard. The phrases she refused to believe but maybe if she hears them enough she'll believe them. How can you deny what's all around you? How can you stay an angel when through the eyes of everyone you're the demised monster? Maybe deep beneath all the voices she knows she's not a monster but who's to say anymore? She can't hear them anymore. The few voices that will always say they're wrong, her angels. They've vanished. What do you do when your angels drown beneath your monster? When you become what they say you are.
When her wings become obsidian shaded, and they crack and shrivel. Her eyes crimson, her physique cold and sullen. Maybe she wanted to give up. Maybe she wanted the frost to take her. Maybe she believes it's easiest to become what they want, rather than be who she is. Maybe she's fighting to breathe but her mind has let go. One breath. Two breaths. Three breaths. Give them what they crave. Let go. Become what you know you are. So why won't she give up? Why won't she give in? What is the sliver of hope that keeps the small shine in her oculars and her beaten appendages attached. The small light that won't go away, it won't believe the voices. Her angel that gasps to breathe beneath the darkness. Then she smiled. She smiles. She always smiles.
