Set Him Free

Beat

Rin loved having wings. He'd been the first kid able to fly. His wings were always stronger than most, even when small.

But that first time he'd flown above the clouds, he knew he'd never go to sleep without seeing the sun set and the moon rise. It was a sight that never got old, even into his teen years. He was sixteen and free as any bird in the sky. Free as the wind itself. He let the wind flow through his feathers as he flew over treetops of a dense forest, over desert mountains and big cities and small towns and fields of crops. Over lakes and seas, ponds and streams that waterfalled into a river or lake. He loved bathing in the clearest waters he could find and seeing all the wildlife in the forests on the rare occasion he decided to walk and wander for a bit.

It had been so long that he'd forgotten what it felt like to be contained. Held back, stuck, trapped.

But as a net entangled his wings and then him and he dropped like a rock, panic welled up inside him. He struggled, but that only tangled him worse. His wings were cramped and his feathers were shoved in all sorts of wrong directions. His body was stuck in the net with feathers trailing after him in the sky.

Finally, he fell into a pond.

Convenient.

Unless you A.) are tangled in a net and B.) Have giant wings making you sink even deeper.

He was hoisted out and had a chance to look at the people who had shot him down–Hunters. He should have figured. Hunters hated Unusuals. They wanted to rid the world of them. They'd make up crimes Unusuals never did and execute them for it. Hunters had been trying to capture Rin since he was thirteen. Over the last three years, they'd never caught him.

Now, he was s rewed for sure. And there would be no chance of getting one last flight in before his inevitable execution....

He struggled. He kicked and punched smd yelled as they tried to drag him away from the water. He'd rather drown than die at the hands of these murderers. He made it back into the matter, but someone pulled him back up and he screamed, screamed as loud as he could, hoping another Unusual happened to be passing by and came to help him. His wings flapped uselessly at their weird angle as he rolled around, lashing out against the hands on him until he felt hands on his wings.

He froze. His eyes shifted to the man holding his wings at an angle that was unmistakeable. If he snapped them together, he'd break them. He held the man's gaze as his mind searched for some way to escape, to get out of this mess, to live.

But there was none.

No one was coming to save him. He couldn't get out of the net on his own. They wouldn't let him drown himself.

He was going to die soon.

Son of a Bitch.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Alright Y'all, this is the Halloween Special I'm posting this year. It's gonna be a short story! It might get a little too dark for my usual writing style, but it's Spooky Season, so why not?