There was something about her soul.
The air was frozen, come the day of the service. The ground wore a muddy overcoat. All stood gathered round the casket, speechless for lack of adequate words. Only Margaret came forward, a single sheet of paper enfolded between her numbing fingers.
"I hate funerals."
~
"You amaze me, I'm telling you-out of all the people I've known-I've never-"
She closed the breathless space between their lips.
~
Yes, she caught my eye, but how could she not?
To think I might have missed her, had I walked a different path around the stars.
(UPDATED REGULARLY)
Wren's life is about to change forever - but not how she expects it to. Kidnapped on her wedding day, she finds herself trapped in a mountain cave, unable to return home with no company outside of the inhuman creature that took her.
***
"Wait, Wren! Not that way!"
It was darker here and panic limited her vision, but she could see it reaching for her; its wings like two huge looming shadows behind it.
"Get away! Don't touch me! No, let me go!" She shrieked.
She screamed in earnest as a hand took hold of her arm, and then even more when her own hand reached for something to hang onto and grasped at empty air. She had been scrambling towards a sudden drop! The hands hauled her back, but she still struggled. She didn't want to look at it, and she still wasn't sure she wouldn't rather take her chances with the open air instead.
"Stop it, I'm not going to hurt you! You'll hit your head on the rock or something. Wren, please!"
It knew her name. Somehow it knew her. She was going to die!
"Let me go! Stop touching me!"
She was sitting on the rocky floor now with her back against an uneven wall, and it was trying to pin her down and hold her still. She kept her eyes turned away and struggled helplessly, but it was no use. It was strong like a human man too, and she couldn't keep it off of her. The wings had moved until they curved around them both and shut out a lot of the light. Its face was so near hers that she could feel its breath brushing against her skin.
"Please just look at me for a second. Just look. I'm not going to hurt you."
One of the hands grabbed her chin and forced her head to turn, and then she was looking straight into a pair of dark brown eyes. It had a human face too. She had been expecting something monstrous or ghastly, and the surprise made her falter for a moment. He looked young, with a bad haircut and an earnest expression on his face.
"I'll let go of you, okay? Just don't lunge around like that anymore, you'll get hurt." He whispered.