City of Light

Chapter 13

I float there, blank, scared, confused, feeling everything and nothing at the same time. The being takes Mathew from my arms and props him on the alley wall. I feel nothing, my brain can't comprehend what's happening.

"You know who I am. I just simply made you remember a part of your self." It steps in front of me and looks at my new accessories.

"I know what you say inside your mind. There are no cameras out here, you can be seen but not your form, nobody in this physical world can see it. Unless you want them to." Great, now he can read minds too? His attention is redirected to my robotic arm.

"Hmm, that won't do at all." In a blink, he grabs my arm and yanks it. Harder and harder pain goes through my body in waves each one more powerful than the last, I scream till my throat is raw. The rods are pulled off, I try to swat at him but my hand goes right through him. It pulls the arm away from its joint and five cables are shown that run into my arm that connects to the nerves. Blood drips from the wound and my wings go crazy, swatting at him, feathers fly all over and cover the ground. With one last powerful pull, the last cable is pulled and I drop to the ground and lay among the feathers. It kneels down with me and yanks the plating on my shoulder off. It tosses the metal away and my arm twitches and then goes limp. A pool at blood starts and moment later I'm laying in it.

"Don't worry you will heal up nicely. I'm going to take care of this, so there is no further confusion." It fades away. Tears stream down my face and slowly freeze and I try to stop the bleeding with my hand but it hurts too bad to touch it. The snow makes me feel numb and at this moment I hope I either freeze to death or I bleed out. It appears in front of me again and looks at the pool of blood I lay in.

"If you want to stay in this world, live through all this for him, let me in and I will save you." It says. It smooths down my feathers on my wings, suddenly it plucks one for fun. I flinch and try to convince myself this isn't real.

"You're not real.." I whisper to myself. I try to hold my chest with my arm but I feel even more awake than I hope I am.

"You know this is real, I proved it to you. You're just scared, afraid of what the outcome of all this is going to be. I saw your past, you're ruthless, your title as one of the Vitality won't matter anymore, you are higher than that." It leans up against that wall as casual as possible.

"Now, accept it, or die." It adds punch to this statement in hopes to scare me into submission. It might work, I won't leave Mathew here all alone again.

"I don't know what this is, or who you are, or even what you did to me. But if I accept this, "offer" tell me that Mathew won't be hurt in all of this, tell me he will be safe." I try to muster whats left of my voice and also try not to throw up in the process.

"I can't protect him but you can." It steps closer to me, up close I can smell the scent of death and blood. It coats him, thick, like honey.

"You look pale, time is slipping away. Would you rather die and leave Mathew or let me in and survive? I know what choice you are going to make." It's right, I need to keep Mathew safe from all of this and I can't do that if I'm dead. He means more to me than my own life.

"I accept your offer." It grins at me, my body shivers and it puts its pale hand on my chest and it chuckles. A soft yellow glow comes from my heart and fills the empty space and the endless darkness.

"It's been too long..." It turns to dust and disappears into my body. The glow turns into a bright light, my body warms up and I feel so comforted. It reminds me of the trips to the beach my parents took with me when I was little. The light becomes strong and blinding I clamp my eyes shut and I blindly search for Mathew in a general direction ahead of me. I scrape the floor and pull my heavy body away from my pool of blood. I feel his leg and I pull my self up to his side and lean on the wall, and roll him on my chest and with my hand I put it over his eyes, trying to block the light. The light reaches its peak and then a force unimaginable strikes down on us and sends us high in the sky, I feel us going up for forever and slowly falling. The light is gone but I can't bare open my eyes, it hurts. My wound doesn't hurt much anymore, I still feel the blood loss, I don't understand why I'm not dead.

"You're not dead because of you can't die, idiot. You think the blood loss would have killed you? Please, that's the least of your problems, what you should be worried about is the fall. I'm concerned for your friend. You will survive the fall but he sure as hell can't. I wonder how you will handle this one, little raven." The emptiness of my mind is filled with this beings words. Before all this, my soul was in pieces, but in a way this being found a way the fix the glass fortress.

"Buckle up, you're coming in a little too hot." It says I sense the happiness and the race this thing is having. I hate you.