Angel's Wings

Unraveled Words Like Moths Upon Old Scarves

   Jon continued to pull on my jacket. I threw it off, and sprinted back. 

   It felt like I was in slow motion, as I watched Brendon shove the knife right into Ryan's chest, holding his shoulder, and looking him right in the eyes. He pulled the blade out and let him fall. 

   I nearly tripped over mine own feet as I ran to Ryan's side. There was still a little life in his eyes, but just barely. 

   He looked up, and gave a small weak smile. 

   I put my hand on the side of his face. "Hey, no, come on..." His eyelids fluttered, and then remained shut. 

He was gone. He put me through hell, yet I felt my eyes get hot, threatening tears. There was good in him, if you stayed long enough to see it.

I heard a cold laugh from behind me, that sent a chill down my spine.

I stood and turned around to see Brendon. His eyes were glowing yellow, claws sprouting from his fingers, and fangs decorating his smile. 

I wanted to say something but my lips felt glued together and the words were caught in my throat.

"Smile, doll, he's dead." 

This was not the Brendon I knew. 

"You can drop the act now, princess." He took a step forward, and went to caress my face with the back of his hand, but Jon jumped in front of me and growled. 

With a wave of his hand, Jon was thrown into a tree.

"No!"

   I went to go to him, but Brendon had grabbed my wrist and spun me back around to face him. His face was just an inch from mine.

He squinted his eyes. My breath quickened, I was terrified. I tried to remember that somewhere behind those glowing eyes lied Brendon, my Brendon. Yet as he still held his grip tight around my wrist, those sweet memories seemed miles away.

He looked as though he was searching my face. His eyes stopped, and just looked into my own. Then he smiled, but it wasn't a smile. It was cruel, and twisted. Somehow I would be less scared if he was glaring at me.

"I never took you to be such the talented actress." The grin never left his face, but his tone was so pointed that it was more painful than a blade. "Even after your role is done, I can't tell what side of you is the character, or the real you." 

My heart didn't sink, it was thrown to the ground and shattered. Yet I guess it was only just then I realized how deep I had dug my hole. There was now only one direction to go, further down. He was right, I had become quite the actor. Let's see just by how much. 

I slowed my breath. "Why thank you for noticing. I do try." 

I thought the twisted smile was bad, but then I heard his hollow laugh, this one more so than the first. It came from somewhere deep in his maniacal thoughts. When humans can't figure out a reaction they laugh. That's why 'crazy' people laugh. They have no other way to express their unexplainable thoughts or emotions. With this laugh, he might as well have played a recording of a doctor certifying his insanity.  

I stood there doing as he did to me, searching his face, for any sign of something to grasp on to. Of course there was nothing. 

His laughing died off. "Ah, I don't know whether to let you go on like this, or pull your loose thread, unraveling your façade." 

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"As far as the loose thread, of course not. Though for your lovely façade, I would like to politely call, bullshit." 

"Classy." I smirked. 

"Why thank you for noticing. I do try." He mocked. "Now let's snag this thread, shall we?" 

   He took a step forward and I took one back. This happened again and again, until I was reminded of my surroundings, as I was backed up against a tree. He placed an arm on either side of me, boxing me in. 

   "Any thoughts as to what it could be, doll?" He caressed the side of my face, as he stepped one foot up onto the roots, pushing himself up closer to me, and placing his knee against the tree between my legs. I was trapped. 

   "I could name a million things, each one something you can't see or feel, and never come close to knowing the other million that only you can see. So I'm better off keeping my mouth shut."  

   "You're too smart to fall for any trick I could pull." He ran his claw down from my neck to my collarbone. "As for Ryan's tricks though..." Suddenly he caught his nail on my necklace, and ripped it from my neck. "You can't resist playing right into them can you?" 

He held the jewelry by it's chain, holding the crystal pendant up for me to see. 

   "Do you know what this is? Or more, what it does?" He smiled.

   I took a breath as I looked from him to the pendant multiple times. I didn't want to know, yet that's precisely why Brendon wanted to tell me isn't it? 

   "It's a loyalty charm, the closest thing to a love spell there is. I know you're strong, but there's no way you could have completely shaken this. Though now I at least know your acting capability, so next move sweetheart." 

   I couldn't begin to process this. Every emotion I had felt, seemed so real. Now I can't tell which thoughts are my own or have been placed in my head by someone else.  

   "Next move?" I laughed slightly. I shoved him with all of my strength, just barely pushing him backwards, off of me. "How's stay the hell away from me sound? In the past four months I have had my head turned upside down one to many damn times. I haven't seen my friends and family for so long, meanwhile they are busy worrying about where I'm at. I know this isn't you, but I will not sit here and play your goddamn games!" 

   I was done, and whenever I gave people these long rants out of built up frustration, people normally backed off. Though this was Brendon, and 'normally' obviously does not apply to him. 

  His head hung until I was done talking, that's when he looked up at me. I felt like prey as smile spread across his face.

   "Who said anything about sitting?"