Black Wing [Watty Awards 2012]

Chapter 7

I woke up in someone’s bedroom, its walls were white, and a bookshelf stood in the far left corner of the room. I was lay on a single bed, its cover on the floor, I sat up, and my head spun, I closed my eyes for a second or two to try and make sense of what happened. I didn’t recognise this room, where was I? I stood and tip-toed around the room, trying to find some sort of clue as to where I was. I opened a draw on a bedside table, nothing was inside. At the bottom of the bed there was a desk, it was old and wooden, and a box lay on top of it, I walked over to it and opened it, inside was a bundle of poems. I read the first one:

'I always thought we’d grow old together,

Facing each new day,

But now, in the tears that fall across upon my face,

Your memory fades away.

When you left, I wanted to scream and shout,

My mouth opens, but the tortured words,

Just wont come out.

This girl I began to love,

Decided to up and leave,

Everything we’d built, destroyed,

It felt hard to breathe.

I used to think I was lucky,

That I had it all,

Taking my own life,

You just watched me fall.

You’re like salt on an open wound,

Reminding me you were here,

Warm like the blood in my veins,

The love I had for you, so dear.

I am sorry that I loved you so,

And you didn’t feel the same,

When I think of what could have been,

What a waste! What a shame!'

 

I couldn’t believe what I’d read, my heart was crumbling in my chest, I knew where I was, but I wasn’t sure what the poem was actually about.  Only one line stood out on the page, jumping up at me in big bold letters ‘Taking my own life’ I wanted to know what this poem was about, and I wanted to know now! At that moment Gabriel walked in, looked me up and down, his lips parted when he saw what I was holding. He came over to me like a tornado and snatched the poem out of my hand and threw it back into the box, which he slammed shut. I stumbled backwards, scared of what he would do next.

“Who said you could go through my things Amelia?! You had no right!”Gabriel shouted, I stuttered but couldn’t get a full sentence out. I wanted to ask him what happened in the field, where I was, but most of all I wanted to know about the poem. He stared into my eyes, and all I could see was anger. I looked down to the ground, and he walked closer, but I stumbled back again.

“Don’t be scared Amelia, I’m not going to hurt you” he said “I’m sorry I scared you, but I don’t like people looking through my things like that” I kept my eyes looking down on the ground, I thought about running out of the house, but I wanted answers, I just had to find my voice, and ask them. I looked up and looked straight into his ice blue eyes.

“Where am I?” I asked.

“You’re at my house; you fainted in the field so I brought you here”