Wings

7: I'm The Dead Man In This War (But, Baby, I've Been Here Before)

This is revenge for solangelo_ships stealing my glasses and not giving them back for a long time.

A/N from 2024: This chapter is no longer revenge, but the A/N was funny enough that I decided to keep it.

NPOV

Track: Dead Man, David Kushner

I remain frozen on the roof, and my heart might actually beat out of my chest. I clamp my hand over my mouth to try to quiet my erratic breathing. It doesn't help that I was already a little out of breath before seeing the knights—the near-kiss with Will was enough to set me over the edge of anxiety anyway, and now I'm falling into the abyss of nerves.

Someone must have reported me. The awful thing is that I'm pretty sure the only one who wouldn't report me here is Will, and that's because he's apparently some sort of love criminal. (Fucking ridiculous, by the way. I had kind of started wondering if he was a murderer or a thief or something—I had been kind of hoping it would be something exciting. Only to find out he just had a crush. Humanity is a joke.)

I cross my fingers and hope that the knights will stop at some other house—like, maybe they don't actually know where I am yet.

Unfortunately, I'm not that lucky—the knights make slow but steady progress through the neighborhood until they're close enough that I can hear their suits of metal clinking and scraping. One of the knights draws her sword as she approaches Mr. Chase's front door. She raps her fist against the wood four times, loud and demanding. I lie flat against the roof, doing my best not to make any sound at all. I'm not sure I'm actually breathing.

Will reaches out and touches my shoulder, but I'm too frozen to even look at him. If the knights knew to approach this house in particular, this is no random search; someone definitely reported me.

And the knights are heavily armed—they each have their sword and lantern, but most of them also have bows strung over their shoulder and a bunch of arrows in a quiver that hangs off their back. I spot several daggers in the mix as well, the hilts gleaming and the blades sheathed. None of the soldiers look particularly thrilled about hunting me down at such a ridiculously late time of the night, but I'm sure this was their best idea to get to me—they were hoping they could get me in my sleep.

Mr. Chase opens the door. I can't see his face, but I hear his groggy voice: "Uh...may I help you? If you're here to get treated, I'm low on medical supplies currently, but if you point me towards the worst injuries you bear, I can try to heal those first and get more supplies first thing tomorrow."

"Mr. Chase, you are under arrest for harboring a fugitive," the woman announces, and her expression is an awful glare. "Knights—search that house. Don't leave until you find the Monster."

"What?" Mr. Chase says, probably louder than necessary. "Ma'am, this is ridiculous. I'm not harboring anyone, let alone the Monster!" He's practically shouting it, and I realize he doesn't know I'm on the roof—he's hoping he can wake me up to give me enough warning to run. I'm already safe—although...

When they check the guest bedroom, they'll find the open window, and they'll know I was here. I don't have much time to close it, though. Also, if I move around too much, or if I sit up too much, the soldiers might spot me up here.

I don't dare sit up. Instead, I flip onto my stomach, trying to ignore the adrenaline shooting through my veins like a drug. I army crawl across the roof to the back side of the house, and then I take a deep breath and listen: Mr. Chase is still arguing with the soldiers, which means I should have enough time to close the window and get back up before anyone sees me. That doesn't help dull the fear, though.

Will is watching me wide-eyed, shaking his head vigorously, as I push myself off the roof deftly and disappear from his view. I quickly pull the window down, trying to minimize the amount of time that someone might finally barge into the house and see me from inside. I manage to get the window closed all the way, and then I fly back up to the roof. My wings make a soft woosh sound as I gain altitude, and I cringe.

I quickly flatten myself against the roof again, my breaths coming in quick and short. I'm hidden again just in time to hear Mr. Chase cry out about not housing a Monster—and then the sound of metal clanking inside the house as the knights enter the home to try to find me. I hear them shouting to each other each time they clear a room. Everything else is muffled. At some point, I can hear Annabeth arguing with them, but the metallic sounds continue, and I know she has failed to convince them that they're innocent.

Except they don't find me. It's not really human instinct to check the roof, anyway.

When the entire group is inside tearing up Mr. Chase's house in search of me, I swallow thickly and whisper to Will: "What if I left a feather inside?"

Will shoots me a nervous half smile and reaches for something in his pocket. He pulls out—

A feather. A long, dark feather.

He must have grabbed it before following me up here. Without even knowing that grabbing my feather could protect me, he did it. If not for the fact that we're supposed to be hiding, I would have laughed.

The knights are thorough with their search—even after most people would have given up, the knights continue stomping from room to room. Mr. Chase and Annabeth continue denying that they ever helped me.

I'm not sure how much time passes, but it's excruciating. After what feels like an eternity of remaining frozen on that roof, the soldiers finally report back to the woman. Their words are largely muffled, but the meaning is not lost: There is no Monster in the house. It was a false alarm.

And on the roof, I am thinking I have never been so grateful for claustrophobia, and I cannot help but fear what would have happened to me if I had not felt so trapped in that little room.

As it is, the knights do not find me, and whoever reported me will surely be surprised tomorrow when they find that no Monster was found in the house. I let out a small breath of relief as I watch the knights disappear back into the night, and I know that I won this round.

Word count: 1188

A/N from 2024: I know the A/N below this one no longer makes sense in the context of the story but I'm keeping it here for the sake of preserving history lmao:

I know this is a short chapter and I know most of you probably can guess who that is (if you remember the rest of the story and haven't forgotten everything)... but it was revenge. I'm not sorry. Even after I reread it when I was done and realized it was cringy.

You're welcome.