Caged

At first, Brian thought that the boy had wandered here from the graduation ceremony—after all, he didn’t look to be far from Brian’s age—and found his bottle of whiskey, thus leaving him passed out cold in the middle of the narrow pathway.

But that was before his eyes had traveled any further than the boys legs—which was what he had tripped over—making their way over more than just his feet. And soon, Brian realized that the creature lying before him was far more than just a boy.

The only way he could think to describe the smaller, pale figure was breathtakingly beautiful. And not only because of the billowy white wings that spanned from the muscles of his back.

He had cheek length, onyx-toned hair, and proudly wore two sterling silver rings piercing his plump, pink bottom lip, which contrasted stunningly with his ashen pallet of skin. There were even rings of black shadow encircling his eyes, which hadn’t yet opened.

Brian wondered how exactly something so utterly perfect existed in this world; in his
world, in this moment.

He tried for a moment to come up with an explanation for this… this angel, to be lying in the middle of a dark, grimy alleyway, but came up dry.

After another few minutes of simply staring (as there was no lighter term for what he was doing), Brian took a few steps toward the glorious being before him, and found himself kneeling next to his head before he realized what he was doing.

Being closer, he noticed an immediate change in the way the young angel rested. The muscles surrounding his eyes twitched slightly, and an expression that seemed somewhat like frustrated confusion settled subconsciously into his perfect features.

But even as his wings curved over his body and his hands came to rest, curled in tight balls against his chest, his eyes remained closed.

Brian continued to examine the angel’s body, now noting that his black-clad legs were twisted slightly, tangled in one another. It seemed as though he might’ve landed on his feet
whilst he was still unconscious. A fallen angel.

If nothing else, if this did turn out to be just a wild and vivid dream, Brian wanted to remember every detail of the strange boy, and every ounce of the feeling that being near such perfection gave him.

The rather confused boy’s eyes continued to linger over the slender, winged teenager’s closed ones, as the strangest feeling settled into the center of his chest.

Suddenly, Brian felt the need to reach out to the younger looking man… to see if the milky skin that made up his stunning face was nearly as smooth and velvety as it appeared.

Again, before he could process what he was doing, Brian’s fingertips were brushing across the angel’s cheek. His sight had proven him right; the pale skin was nearly the softest thing he’d ever felt.

The muscles beneath his pallid white flesh that Brian’s fingers continued to make soft patterns over twitched and contracted slightly, but the charcoal coated lids that covered the boy’s eyes, which still seemed to present such mystery, never once budged.

And so—again, never thinking about what he was doing—the newly graduated 18-year-old reached a hand toward the divine creature before him. Slowly, his calloused fingers made their way through each silken black strand of hair, moving the hood of his white shirt from his head… Now, Brian realized, there were shorter layers to his ocean of hair, some of which were dyed a gorgeous shade of violet.

As Brian ran his fingers throughout the shorter, spiked up portion of the soft, two-toned hair, he noticed the billowed feathers that were his… his wings, flutter slightly.

For some reason, this brought a smile to Brian’s face, and now, likely for the same reason, he couldn’t take his eyes off of the perfectly white span of silken feathers.

As his eyes continued to scan each crevice, each curve, Brian again found his arm stretching, extending his hand outward…

The next event happened so quickly that had the beautiful boy not remained in the alley before him, Brian might’ve thought that he had, indeed, dreamt the entire situation.

As the tips of his fingers made contact with just one of the silky feathers, the wings began to flutter furiously, pushing soft gusts of air into Brian’s face.

As this happened, the boy’s eyes flew open, and somehow, so quickly that the older of the two couldn’t decipher the movement, he ended up crouched against the brick wall of the
alley, his knees hugged to his chest.

“Wh-Where am I..? What’s happening?” he whimpered, as his entire body, wings included, began to tremble.

Brian held up his hands, attempting to make the young creature see that he meant him no harm. Now that he could see the angel’s mysterious eyes, even though they were sad and afraid, he realized that they must’ve been the most stunning part of him. Their color resembled lightened sea foam with a jade green tint.

“Hey, it’s okay… I don’t want to hurt you…” Brian said gently, keeping his place as not to scare him more. As he spoke the words, the tremors shaking the boy’s body seemed to calm somewhat, and his wings wrapped around him, draping over his shoulders. Somehow, he appeared as a human with a blanket secured tightly around them, trying to keep warm.

“Who are you..? Where am I..?” he asked again, peering up at Brian with those still frightened, yet beautiful eyes.

“My name’s Brian… and you’re in Huntington Beach… California…” Brian replied, and took a step toward him hesitantly. His frame began to tremble once again.

“Y-You mean E-Earth?” he almost whimpered, as something that looked like a sense of realization settled into his eyes. Brian noticed them fade into a dark gray as he peered at him, and instantly wondered if he might have been seeing things. But could someone really see a mirage within a mirage, if that were the case?

“Yes…” Brian said, squinting slightly. It seemed that the boy’s eyes had continued to fade; they were an eerie metallic color now, something that reminded him of aged steel.
“Where are you from..?”

He didn’t mean to disrespect the other boy, or scare him any more than he already had, but he couldn’t think of a way to ask that would be any more polite. After all, he should’ve expected the stranger to be from somewhere far, far off from his home town.

“A place called Aralaysia… It’s really… v-very far from here…” he murmured, his voice dropping to nearly a whisper with the last words.

“I’d imagine…” Brian mused, and immediately after realized how his words must have sounded to his new acquaintance. “I mean… just looking at you… It must be different there. Better.” he restated, looking up to the young man as he stepped to sit down beside him.

“I c-couldn’t really say… I’ve never been here before…” he sighed. It seemed that he wished that he hadn’t.

Brian sighed, looking into the angel’s eyes with a definite spark of complete truthfulness and honesty. “I’m not gonna lie… from my point of view, at least, it’s terrible…” he almost whimpered, as his mind traveled back to the original reason he’d been there in the alley.

As he looked back into the corner of the alley that was the darkest, he saw the very top of the cap to the bottle of whiskey he’d hidden there.

Suddenly, he felt a pair of velvet fingertips brush across his cheek, smearing moisture. “Brian..?” the boy spoke. “Are you alright?”

The angel’s touch had been such a surprise, such an amazing feeling… Brian wasn’t exactly sure what he should say, so he merely replied with a sharp nod.

“Do you mean it’s only bad for you, or that it’s the same for everyone..?” he questioned. He seemed truly curious, so Brian glanced back up at him and went on.

“It’s bad for a lot of people… but not all. It just depends on how things play out for you. Like you… you’d probably be famous here, loved by everyone… not like me.” he explained,
his voice lowering to a whisper with the last three words.

“No one loves you?” he murmured, tilting his head slightly as tears swelled in his eyes. Brian found it odd that he was growing so emotional over a total stranger’s life. Perhaps it was just part of his ways.

“Not… Not really. The only person who ever did is gone n-now.” Brian sputtered, again finding himself fighting tears. But again, they became defiant. “She’s d-dead…”

“I’ll love you.” the boy said firmly, as his soft fingers again smeared the salt moisture over his new friend’s cheek.

At this, Brian’s eyes widened further, and his frame trembled slightly. What did that mean? Could this astonishing creature really accept him as a friend, all flaws and personality faults included?

“I know what it is to not have love… I’ll love you.” he repeated, as one of his arms wrapped around Brian’s shoulders. The confused graduate wondered if his new friend really knew what that meant.

“Wait… so you’re staying here..?” Brian questioned, dumbfounded.

“I really have no choice.” the angel sighed, extracting his arm and returning his gray-toned eyes to the pavement they both sat on. “It all ties together… but I’ll explain that later…”

Brian nodded, and for the first time in the longest time, a smile—real, not forced—spread over his face.

“What’s your name?” he asked. It seemed like an obvious question; one that he should’ve asked at the very first.

“Zack.” he smiled back, though there was still an apparent tinge of sadness to the gesture.

“Zack… thank you.” Brian smiled, glad to have something to call his beautiful new companion by.

Zack nodded, as his eyes traveled back up to meet Brian’s. They had lightened quite a bit, to more of a bluish-gray; somewhat like the color of the water that made up the west-coast oceans.

“Brian..?” he asked, his voice timid as it had been when they’d first spoken to one another. The only difference was that this time, there was a smile on his face.

“Hmm..?” Brian murmured, looking back to see Zack’s arms folded over his knees, which were still curled to his chest, his cheek rested on his arm as he cast his gaze up at him.

“Will you love me too?” he asked, biting down on one of the silver rings that graced his plump lower lip, seemingly out of nerves.

Brian felt a soft coat of crimson fall over his cheeks as he thought through what Zack had just asked of him. Again, he wondered if Zack’s or his family’s definition of love was the same as his own.

Even as he rested his eyes on the ground, he could feel his strange new friend’s eyes lingering on his face, and he knew he’d have to answer soon.

Even though Brian wasn’t entirely sure how it would come across to Zack, he smiled
as he brought his eyes back to lock their gazes.

“Yeah… I’ll love you too, Zack.” he said softly, reaching to take one of Zack’s clenched hands in his own. He wasn’t wholly sure why he did this, but he knew that it felt right; in this moment, at the very least.

But as he felt the angel’s fingers stretch out of their position and wrap around his hand, and noticed his billowy white wings flutter more than slightly with happiness, Brian knew he’d given the right answer.