Golden Wings

Chapter 29~ Present Day, New York

My feet make a slapping noise against the damp pavement, causing a little shiver of pain to go through me. I hadn't realized that I was going to be this close to the sea, but there was no going back now.

The walkway along the pier was wet with overflown seawater, and the night was dark. I could feel a storm brewing on the horizon. Looking out, I saw the ever-changing light from the lighthouse, illuminating a lone cement platform almost a mile from shore. A shiver crept its way down my spine for reasons unknown, and I forced myself to continue.

And then I was before it. The abandoned building, looming over me. Number 17. It was dark inside, and I considered turning back only briefly. But then again, if I was right...

This will lead me to Kyle.

If I was younger perhaps, if I had spent less time in The Blue, if I hadn't known Kyle for as I had... Maybe I wouldn't be here. Maybe I would have never cared, never gone to Eagleais, never ended up in Gehenna, or in New York.

But I had. And I have known for 75 years, and I'm not going to just give up on him. I had never truly believed him to be dead, and something tells me now more than ever that he can't be dead.

I have to believe it. If I don't, then what's the point of being here?

I open the door to the warehouse, it's hinges squeaking, and enter, closing the door silently behind me.

The warehouse is silent; eerily so. It's tall and looming on the outside, and the only thing preventing it from looking that way on the inside is the rows of thousands of shipping containers. Without proper lighting from the inside, the only light provided was the lighthouse lights shining through the dusty glass windows on the second level in the warehouse, making movement slow.

My footsteps are the only noise, but with every creak of the building or shutter of a window, I jump. I sneak down rows of shipping containers, weary of every shadowy movement. At one point my heart leaves my body as I see a shadow resembling a human form, but I soon realize

it's only a coat on a hanger.

But that then means...

I got closer, looking at the area where the coat hook is. Not only is there the coat, as well as the hanger, but in an area devoid of shipping containers there's a desk set up with papers, blueprints, and other items I can't distinguish in the darkness. This place... is being used as a workshop. For what I don't know, but maybe-

Crash.

I spin around, the hairs on the back of my neck rising. I back away from the table, looking around the next corner of crates.

Nothing. I let out a breath of air I didn't know I had been holding. I turn around, meaning to go back to the table but something caught in the light of the lighthouse catches my eye.

I turn, heading back to where I saw the light glowing. I move forward slowly, careful not to hit anything or make any noise. As the light flashes over the area again, I know I'm going in the right direction. I slink forward, making no sound.

I recognize the shape of a human, head down, looking as if they are asleep. They stir, and in the next flash of light, I see a chain snaking from their ankle to a bolt in the floor.

What the...?

Then their head lifts slowly, and my heart stops. A golden halo of hair coats his head, messy and unkempt and recognizable from any distance. His eyes, barely open, greener than any garden. The colour indistinguishable from here but I know it from memory. Freckled face, sunburnt nose, smirky grin, I know it all. Though I see none of that right now, and as I watch in horror his head lolled back to his chest.

Somethings wrong.

I take off at a run, not caring that I can't see; not caring for the noise I make. I bump into the edge of the table as I pass, knocking it over and sending papers flying. My feet slap against the pavement, and my dress whips out behind me, fluttering.

My heart is racing, my head is pounding, I'm so close, I'm almost there, I'm-

A push out of nowhere sends me flying into a shallow side alleyway of shipping containers, and my head snaps against the one I hit with a ferocious violence. I stand there stunned until my feet slip out from under me. I fall to the ground in what seems like slow motion, slamming my head into the ground. My vision fades in and out, but my mind is repeating the same thing like a broken record.

Suddenly, I feel a weight on top of me. My head is pounding and my movements are sluggish, and I can hardly move. I blink hard, trying to clear my fading vision, but all I see is blackness.

And somewhere in that darkness, I realize something.

I've never felt this way about anyone else. Not about Edward, not anyone from England.

Everything I thought I felt for Edward was a lie, it had changed me, but there's no possible way these feelings could actually be true.

I think I've known for awhile now, and I should, it's been three-quarters of a century.

And right now I couldn't care less about he thinks of me; all I know is how I feel.

I want to spend the rest of my life with him; bets friends or closer, I couldn't care less. We'd been friends forever, but maybe I could change that. I want to change that. And now I realize that there's no one else for me in this world or any other, I love him.

I love him.

And as the images of the warehouse fade to an unforgiving darkness, the only word that slips out of my mouth is his name. The name that means the world to me, that I should never have abandoned; never should have believed to be dead. Because now I know better, I've seen his face, I've seen him alive. He's not dead, I know it as a fact.

Barely above a whisper, I say the name of the only person I could ever love.

"Kyle."

My vision fades out as a pair of darkly familiar eyes cross my vision.