Soar

Chapter 10

Voss flapped his wings sluggishly, tired from making trips to and from Earth all night. There had been a large avalanche over a small but densely populated town. There had been a lot of deaths, and if the Border Valkyries hadn't transported them all night, there would have been a surplus of souls on Earth. That had only happened once before, and it had caused WWII, so nobody wanted a repeat of that.

He was headed for his small room underneath the castle - the designated quarters of all Border Valkyries. Most of them seemed to enjoy the solitary rooms with chains and spikes still left laying around from the time when the space was used as a dungeon, but not Voss. He had been alone since he was 8 years old - twenty years now. He was tired of being alone, and hadn't had any real friends for most of his life. That is, until he met Angie. Despite how tired he was, a smile touched his lips as he thought of his friend. Angie had become like a light in the darkness for him - and, slowly but surely, he was changing Voss. He had noticed himself unconsciously showing more compassion when he went down to retrieve souls, and he was finding more joy in the simple beauty of a sunset.

Yes, Angie was special, he was sure of it. He hadn't told Angie yet, but Voss was gay. He almost wondered if Angie had guessed already - he could never tell. He wasn't good at reading people, so he usually felt kind of like he had the word "gay" written in big, bold letters on his forehead. Not being straight was fairly uncommon among Valkyries - almost rare - so it was generally frowned upon by society. Voss's parents, in particular, were adamantly outspoken against homosexuality. For this reason, Voss had told almost nobody about the way he felt - he was afraid of rejection.

Dang... I wonder if I was too straightforward with Angie the other day. He seemed kind of uncomfortable when I hugged him. Augh man... I screwed up.

Eventually, Voss reached his desolate room. He sighed, all happiness from his thoughts of Angie gone, knowing that it was just going to be another lonely night. He slowly reached out to push on his door, momentarily forgetting that it would be locked. To his surprise, it wasn't. Suddenly alert, he tensed his wings and bent his knees slightly, ready to spring at a moments notice. He carefully and quietly crept forward, past the small entry hallway and towards the main room.

Voss almost fell over with the shock of what he saw there.