We Were Birds
Epilogue; the birds
This was not a story about the life of Quinn Sutherland and Fern Whitelaw.
It was a story of how, even after life, even in Death, they could find each other. It was a story of the endurance of love. The story of how, despite everything that inhibited them, Quinn and Fern decided to keep going, to keep moving, keep on that path that eventually led to one another. It was a story of two people discovering the joy and beauty of the lives they led and the deaths that made them realize, understand, accept and adore that beauty.
Together, they ended the chapter of their Deaths - the chapter where they'd waited and wandered and searched and hoped and dreamed and lived. They picked themselves up off the platform floor and stood up and turned around. Hand in hand they waited one last time. For one last train. To take them to one Final Stop. Both thinking seperatley of the wonders of life and death and how two people could spend so much time searching and then find each other on the platform of the city. How two people could be lost and find themselves at one place where they'd never thought to look in the beginning. Then again, wasn't I the one that said the city is the place that people find each other?
So they boarded the train, sat down together. They looked at each other, both opened their mouths and laughed. Quinn nodded and Fern smiled and they fell into easy conversation of what had happened to them. When they remembered a funny anecdote they'd laugh, when recalling a painful one, there would be a few tears. Not many, though. They were far too happy.
They found themselves moving on and on without stopping, no one got on, no one got off. The faces of these people, though, were not fearful. They were all calm. They'd all decided this fate. They'd all been given a second chance and they'd taken it.
But when the train entered a long, dark tunnel, Fern felt fear grab ahold of her and gripped onto Quinn's hand and shut her eyes tightly. She couldn't even feel the train moving around her.
Quinn indulged her behavior for only a little while before he nudged her side. She squinted her eyes open at him and saw his smile and all of her fear, her apprehension melted away. Quinn kissed her once more and the taste of him lingered in her mouth, a good taste, a familiar taste - the taste of home. It was a kiss that opened the cage, it was a kiss that set her free. She looked ahead of her. Beyond the darkness there was a bright light.
What was beyond that, she didn't care. Not now when she was letting herself free fall away from the world, one more time, one more time she was flying away. The train picked up speed and hurtled them along so it looked like they might crash into the light.
Except they didn't.
And in that moment when they broke into that light, Fern thought one, final, perfect thought.
In the brilliant light, I saw everything. And oh God, we were birds.
It was a story of how, even after life, even in Death, they could find each other. It was a story of the endurance of love. The story of how, despite everything that inhibited them, Quinn and Fern decided to keep going, to keep moving, keep on that path that eventually led to one another. It was a story of two people discovering the joy and beauty of the lives they led and the deaths that made them realize, understand, accept and adore that beauty.
Together, they ended the chapter of their Deaths - the chapter where they'd waited and wandered and searched and hoped and dreamed and lived. They picked themselves up off the platform floor and stood up and turned around. Hand in hand they waited one last time. For one last train. To take them to one Final Stop. Both thinking seperatley of the wonders of life and death and how two people could spend so much time searching and then find each other on the platform of the city. How two people could be lost and find themselves at one place where they'd never thought to look in the beginning. Then again, wasn't I the one that said the city is the place that people find each other?
So they boarded the train, sat down together. They looked at each other, both opened their mouths and laughed. Quinn nodded and Fern smiled and they fell into easy conversation of what had happened to them. When they remembered a funny anecdote they'd laugh, when recalling a painful one, there would be a few tears. Not many, though. They were far too happy.
They found themselves moving on and on without stopping, no one got on, no one got off. The faces of these people, though, were not fearful. They were all calm. They'd all decided this fate. They'd all been given a second chance and they'd taken it.
But when the train entered a long, dark tunnel, Fern felt fear grab ahold of her and gripped onto Quinn's hand and shut her eyes tightly. She couldn't even feel the train moving around her.
Quinn indulged her behavior for only a little while before he nudged her side. She squinted her eyes open at him and saw his smile and all of her fear, her apprehension melted away. Quinn kissed her once more and the taste of him lingered in her mouth, a good taste, a familiar taste - the taste of home. It was a kiss that opened the cage, it was a kiss that set her free. She looked ahead of her. Beyond the darkness there was a bright light.
What was beyond that, she didn't care. Not now when she was letting herself free fall away from the world, one more time, one more time she was flying away. The train picked up speed and hurtled them along so it looked like they might crash into the light.
Except they didn't.
And in that moment when they broke into that light, Fern thought one, final, perfect thought.
In the brilliant light, I saw everything. And oh God, we were birds.
♠ ♠ ♠
The End.