Wings

Please, Help My Son

I rolled over in bed and smiled, seeing Chase's sleeping face beside me. I hadn't noticed before the dark circles that had formed under his eyes, and how pale his skin looked. He had to be as worried as me about the upcoming deadline. It was his life on the line. I gently raised my hand to his face and softly traced soft patterns onto his jawline. His eyes gently fluttered open and he looked at me. For just a second, I saw the panic in them, until he seemed to realize that it was me. He relaxed and smiled, closing his eyes and snuggling close to me.

"What a wonderful thing to wake up to." He breathed into my ear. I smiled and curled against his chest, comfortable to just be in his presence. There was no way anyone could tell me differently than the fact that I loved Chase.

After a long time of just spending time like that, I was half-asleep when I felt Chase sliding out of the bed. We had been there all day, wasting all of the time we had left. But I guess it wasn't wasted time, since we had enjoyed wasting it. I was confused, but I pretended to be asleep as I watched him pull on his shirt and jeans. Was he going to leave without saying goodbye? In horror, I watched through slits in my eyes as he grabbed a piece of paper and a pen. He wrote something quickly, grabbed his backpack from the end of my bed and turned to look at me.

"I love you, Belle. I love you more than my own life." He breathed. Then I heard the door open and close. I opened my eyes and instantly reached for the note. With shaking hands, I opened it and looked at his familiar handwriting.

Belle,

There are a lot of things we never got to do, and I wish I could've shown you the beauty of this universe. I wish we could've grown old together and I wish we could've just experienced life together for a little longer. But I have to go now, and I'm gonna miss you. I would say that maybe destiny will bring us together again in another lifetime, but you know I don't believe in destiny.

I love you, Belle. Never forget that.

Tears pricked my eyes as I read the letter, and they fell from my thick lashes and onto my cheeks. I gasped heavily and tried to control the sobs that were rising in my chest. I had to get ahold of Andi. And fast.

The street outside the warehouse was deserted, except for Andi and I, and we were walking quickly, our hands shoved deep in our pockets and our hoods pulled over our hair.

"Are you sure that this is the right place?" I asked as we approached the gate. Andi glanced at me.

"Yeah. Trust me. This is where everyone is supposed to meet if they want to attend the trial." She replied. I frowned as she looked around nervously and then reached for the fence. She began pulling herself up and over the fence, dropping down on the other side. I followed suit and dropped off of the top of the fence, landing in a crouch to absorb the force. Andi steadied me as I straightened up. I looked at her.

"Let's do this." I breathed. She nodded seriously and we began to creep towards the side door of the warehouse. We slipped inside and we found ourselves amongst piles and piles of storage containers. I could hear voices, and as Andi led me towards the other side of the warehouse, the words became easier for me to understand.

"-two minutes, commander. Prisoner has been detained and is controlled." A woman's voice reported.

"Good. Prepare for flight, Sergeant. Let the rest of the crew know as well." A deep, strangely familiar voice replied stiffly. I glanced at Andi as she drew in her breath sharply.

"It's his father." She growled quietly. I felt anger and fear jump into my veins and clenched my fists. His dad. Of course. We continued to creep towards the area where the voices were coming from. We turned a corner and we found ourselves peering down a slight corridor that was made between storage containers. At the end, I could see a group of people standing. To my horror, Chase was standing with his hands bound tightly with ropes and his face had some sort of metal piece that covered his mouth and went down below his chin. He stood with his eyes glaring angrily at someone standing out of my line of sight, and I could see that two people were standing guard next to him, guns in their hands. I swallowed hard as Andi carefully pulled me back around the corner, lifting her finger to her lips to signal silence. I nodded reluctantly and peeked around the corner.

"Alright. Prepare to fly. Hang onto the prisoner, soldiers. Wouldn't want to lose him mid-flight." I heard Chase's dad order. The soldiers began to organize themselves and Chase was shoved roughly in between a few of them, who tightened their grips on him.

"Commencing flight in 5... 4..." I heard a woman saying. I glanced at Andi. She grabbed my wrist and we darted down the small corridor, racing towards a bright light that had suddenly opened above the soldiers.

"3..."

We were almost there.

"2..." Andi's wings appeared and she dove towards the group.

"1." I felt a lurch and I was suddenly jerked upwards. I felt Andi's hand clenched around my wrist and I tried to move my other hand to latch onto her wrist tighter, but I couldn't move. What sounded like wind blasted into my ears and the bright light nearly blinded me. I couldn't breathe, and my heart was racing. After what seemed like ages, when it was really only seconds, I was thrown down on the ground, my legs collapsing from underneath me. I gasped and tried to pick myself up, looking around. My vision was blurry and my head was spinning. But I could tell that there were voices all around me, yelling about something. Someone was very mad. Finally, my vision cleared, and the ringing in my ears ceased. I stumbled to my feet to see that the group of soldiers were carrying Chase away and who I could only assume was Chase's dad was yelling at Andi.

"-know better! This girl could have DIED because of the risk you just took! Was she even prepared properly?!" He demanded. I stared after Chase. He was trying to turn around, his head twisting as he tried to look at me.

"Chase." I whimpered as I saw one of the soldiers jerk him into a silver elevator. I glanced around at where we were. It was a huge room, with what looked like army vehicles parked all over. We were standing in the centre of a huge red circle, and I could see that some extra soldiers had arrived. They looked like normal soldiers, with their camouflage fatigues and guns strapped to their waists, apart from the fact that a lot of them had huge white wings spreading from their backs.

Suddenly, a hand grabbed my arm and jerked me to look the other way. I found that I was staring up into the face of Chase's father. I knew I should've been afraid as he glared down at me, but something inside of me snapped. I would've punched him in the face if not for the fact that he had a gun slung across his back.

"And you?! What made you think it was okay to ask that one of our own bring you to a place you don't understand?!" He shouted. I swallowed a sarcastic response and took a deep breath.

"I'm here to defend Chase Roberts in his trial. I have concrete proof that he was not the one who killed the girl." I told him evenly. I saw Andi smirking behind the man's back and I knew that she was confident that this would work. I looked back at the man and saw that he looked flabbergasted.

"W-What do you mean you have proof? That's... That's amazing!" He breathed the last part so that nobody else could hear. He looked at me carefully.

"Please, help my son. I know he had nothing to do with it. If you can help, then please." He begged in a whisper. I looked him in the eye.

"I will." I replied. He nodded sharply and released my arm.

"Please, escort her to the courtroom that the Roberts trial is taking place in immediately." He ordered one of the soldiers. I swallowed hard as the soldier saluted him and quickly started off toward the elevators. Andi rushed after us.

We hurried through maze-like corridors until we reached a large set of wooden doors.

"This is it, ma'am. The trial has already begun." The soldier explained. Andi quickly bid him a thank you and we stepped inside. Everything was in an uproar. I could hear people arguing and people yelling at the judge as he sat in his seat above where I could see Chase standing. Nobody paid any sort of attention to me or Andi as we ran down the aisle and toward the front of the courtroom. The judge, a man with salt and pepper hair and a weathered face, was shouting for order. Andi put a hand on my shoulder and she turned, screaming that everybody shut up. Slowly, silence fell around the room, eyes turning to us. From what I could tell, apart from Chase, we were the only people our age in the room. Andi glanced at me, urging me on. I took a deep breath.