Feathers and Flight

Chapter 7

                                              Being Blind Isn’t Everything

We flew over the city we knew so well, high enough that the people down below would take us for birds, though Jared would look like a strange bird without wings. It's a good thing that he figured out how to fly using the kinetic energy in the air, otherwise he probably would never have connected with us like he did. My strongly flapping wings reminded me of Selene staying back at the caves.

The look on her face when we had left had chilled me to the bone. She never let her darker feelings through and tried so hard to make sure we were happy and together. She was always positive around anyone and I sometimes wondered what she was holding in when her poker face was on. That picture of her worried face spoke a thousand words of anxiety for our safe return and was just a glimpse of what she kept locked tight inside.

She wasn’t a leader, or a mom, she was just a best friend trying to keep what was left of her world protected and safe.

                                                                           ***

As they were nearing the orphanage each one noticed that, for a split second, the orphanage was fine. After a blink, however, it reverted back to its charred and destroyed form. They all assumed it was just wishful thinking so didn’t mention it.

Landing in the alley between two buildings across the street, the three friends forced their reluctant feet to move them across the concrete to stand in front of the memory of what was once their home. Sadness flooded through the three and, holding hands, they moved forward to scout out the wreckage. They tried and tried to find a way onto the destruction past various obstructions but after roughly 20 minutes, they decided to take a break. Sitting a little slumped on the curb, Kallie suddenly stiffened.

Jared and Jamie, turning to look at her followed her line of sight and saw the person, no, the girl about their age, sitting on the roof of a building across the street. she had blood red hair in a pixie cut and wore form-fitting black leather pants and a black leather tank top on. She looked like she was sweating profusely and panting a little but strangely, she was glaring at them.

Through Kallie's eyes she could see the girl had a leaf of some kind tattooed into her right shoulder and looking at her face, there was a long scar on her left cheek. The most disturbing part, however, about the girl was that her eyes were blood red and didn't have any discernible pupil. Kallie decided to keep this to herself though because to her, it didn't mean anything special.

The three friends looked at each other, nodded in understanding, and got up to go talk to her. When they started towards the alley next to the building she was on, they didn’t notice that she was glaring daggers at them, literally.  Right before one of the daggers skewered Jamie’s skull, all the daggers vanished and the three friends, in the shadow of the alley, flew up to the rooftop. She was gone. They searched for a while but eventually decided she must have run away while they were on their way over. Taking it as a signal that they would learn nothing useful that day, they headed back to the cave.

                                                                                 ***

That was close, too close. She had been less vigilant in the weeks they had not returned and had started thinking that maybe, just maybe, they were too spineless to come back. Inferior Supes were like that, always hiding away to avoid exposure or whatever lies they told themselves.

She smirked to herself, letting her illusion, a red deck chair, melt away. They couldn’t even pierce her illusions, how would they survive the little surprise lying in store for them back at their “hidden” cave.