City of Light

Chapter 12

After Claire closes up the container, we walk back to the entrance, I look at all the failed machines, "Useless." I think. We exit and back try to my horrible decorated apartment. Really who decorated that place? The sun is peeking its way through and snow covers the ground. We walk back to the pent house, I hope anyone won't ask anything of me today, that counts for Mathew to. Mathew is what I call an old friend, I met the young 12-year-old boy in a pile of rubble and ash, that used to be a house. Their farm land was burned and the animals slaughtered, the boy sat in the pile and held a delicate pale hand under all the rubble. In his night clothes, all covered in soot, I put the pieces together and figured his mother was under there, a house fire occurred and the mother forced the boy out and she got crushed by the crumbling walls. One of my soldiers pointed the fire out to us when were doing a scouting mission, I told him to leave it alone. "It's not our problem," I said. "Someone could still be alive," He said. He flew down and scooped the kid up, the boy said nothing. In the air I screamed at the soldier for disobeying my orders, I later sent the soldier to the rear and the enemy artillery quickly blew them up. The boy stayed at our camp until I sent him to an orphanage with a piece of paper. Written on it was an address when he grew out of the system he would come to the address, the pent house I now live in. My parents set aside that place when I grew up. Mathew isn't a talker but I cal tell he gets terrified around my parents, still complete silence, so golden. He listens, carefully and most impotently he listens to me. When he went to the hospital to see me, my parents, they knew we were close friends but they don't know we live under the same roof.

We finally get home and I walk in alone. Mathew is at the stove making scrambled eggs, with spinach, and shredded cheese inside. It smells delicious. I take off my scarf and put it on the counter and sit on one of the stools, I guess the guys returned it. Mathew takes out a plate from the shelve and serves up his master piece. He reaches into the drawer next to the stop and brings out a fork and along with the plate and puts it in front of me on the counter.

"Did I miss something?" I look up at him and he shakes his head and smiles. I cove my mind for a reason why he would do this. He never cooks for me none the less do it for himself. Then I sigh, my birthday. Something not worth celebrating, whats so special, we circled around the sun once big deal.

"You know your not supposed to do this." I dig into the delicious plate of eggs, I'm attracted to the smell of my favorite meal like I am to blood. While I eat breakfast, Mathew washes the pan and cleans up. I wash my plate and look at the calendar, nothing at all. Mathew always updates my calendar. Thank god my parents want nothing from me, I'm glad nobody expects anything of me anytime soon.

"I'm going to my workshop, I'll be out later tonight I have a lot to work on." I enter a room behind the kitchen, I close the door and pull down the blinds and turn on the lights. I sit at my messy desk with metal parts, computer chips, wires and welders. Time passes fast, minutes turn to hours and the sun came and went. I spent my time looking at my arms circuits and workings. I finished a robotic dog I started before my sleep. I don't know if I will keep it or destroy it and reuse its parts. I open the blinds and a pearled sky is displayed before me. I know Mathew is on the roof with his telescope again. I take the stairs up to the roof and notice the snow flakes, still. A plane in the sky frozen, a lonely leaf is in front of my face, the wind no longer carries it anymore. Then I wonder out the door wondering if I ingested some sort of hallucinogenic. I turn my head and see Mathew by his telescope in a choke hold, by a man dressed in all black, with the soulless black eyes filled with evil, his hair black and short. Mathew looks at me and his eyes blank and glossy.

Smoke sits on the ground and circles him. The calmest, creepy, young voice speaks.

"Once born with immense power, the girl rumored to have been born in the flames rose from the ashes with wings of the darkest night. Feet of a raven, a face with feathers shielding her like a helmet, and within a moment of her birth she rose her wings so high they could be seen from the farthest ocean. With the loudest most powerful voice that this world has ever heard she screamed "Come forth to me and fight along side me, stop wondering this empty space. Lend me your power and continue your fight!" Then in her dress of the black inky feathers, a light so bright struck down upon her that left a crater so big you couldn't see the end. The girl was nowhere to be found, just a trail of black feathers that turned to ink when you touched them. Rumor has it that the being was thrown into deepest, darkest corner of the universe in another time, to then be reborn as another life. They gave her the name Being of the ashes." What will it take to make the injured raven fly? How far will she go? The one thing she cherishes most will be the one thing to break her, is it worth the little ravens' life? If you love him, catch him." He tosses Mathew of the edge, my heart stops and within half a second I jumped off the edge with him, his face is paralyzed with fear, I reach out as far as my metal arm can allow, I scream his name. Then half way down me and Mathew both freeze where we are. I see that being appear sitting on Mathews' chest.

"You called me once, and you did it again. he who opens his eyes sees the truth, close them and see what lies ahead." It whispers to me, calmly, the voice makes my skin crawl. Am I loosing my mind?

"Say the words, and take back your empty throne. Don't worry nobody sees you, in this form my dear. Say the words and have control." The figure collapses to dust and fades away. Time slowing speeds up and I feel gravity again, my hair is pulled away from my face. I get closer and we join hands and I pull him to my chest and brace for impact. No matter how fast I feel time going, I can never feel the ground or time stopping again. I pry my eyes open and see we are only inches away from the ground. My heart stops when I see a pair of large black talons where my legs should be. I feel my body bobbing up and down. I feel my brain extending out ward to a new extension of the body, I try my hardest to not scream, or drop Mathew. Ignoring everything else for a moment I look at Mathew only to find that he passed out.

"What are you? What did you do to me?" I'm terrified, nothing in words can explain what I'm feeling. I can't move, I want to scream, and rip my self apart. I feel like I'm surrounded by spiders, my living nightmare. I want to take of each feather, tear of these wings. Tear off my limbs and hopefully bleed to death, scratch and peal my skin off. I feel dead.