Broken - Winged Lovers

The streets were dark and lined with dirt. Hardly any light came from the street lamps, giving me an eerie feeling. Indeed, I wasn’t scared of the darkness. That was not what I feared, what I was afraid of was what could hide in the shadows – and above us.

Every few seconds, I looked up into the sparkling starry sky, half expecting to see dark, feathered shadows looming above us, not hesitating to shoot down, strike and kill. But the stars were the only company of the sky and we were alone.

I’d call the sky at night beautiful if it wasn’t for those creatures. I long ago gave up on daring to raise myself into the air at night again. It was something I enjoyed to do when I was little - at a time where I still believed I could reach the stars and the moon if I’d just fly high enough. It was I dream I had been determined to make true, now the only dream I had was gaining my freedom back and living a peaceful life with my little sister.

Sighing, I looked down at the little bundle in my arms around which I had wrapped my leather jacket. Maggie had been fast asleep again as soon as we set foot into the cool night air, filling the silence with her soft little snores. If it wasn’t so cute, I’d think it’d be one of the most dangerous things at this time. But I wanted her to sleep for once and avoiding stepping into the light of the street lamps seemed to be careful enough for me right now.

After all, Maggie needed all the sleep she could get. It wasn’t hard for me to notice that it seemed to get pretty normal for her to sleep as soon as time allowed lately – in fact, I wasn’t surprised. In order to be extra careful, I forced us to change places sooner and more often, which almost always ended with us getting hardly any sleep. I wouldn’t mind if it wasn’t for Maggie. But Maggie was only just a few years old and she wasn’t yet accustomed to our new lifestyle. So it was no wonder I carried her around like this more often than before.

But as much as I hated having to wake her up early all the time, I’d much rather do that than see her dead - which brought me back to looking up at the sky.

The stars looked back at me, blinking like there was no tomorrow. They were so beautiful, smiling down at me with their radiant smiles. They called out to me – and I wanted to forget all my troubles and join them. But reality had never cared to help me forget. Reality rather reminded me that the night sky wasn’t as beautiful as it seemed to be. It was the dominion of my enemies. Enemies that were up there, they just didn’t show up now. Or did they?

Shaking my head at my paranoia, my eyes returned to the streets in front of me, feeling more than just relieved that the sky was clear of any sign of danger. That was when my ears picked up a sound that sent cold shivers up and down my spine. My body didn’t waste any time and made my feet instantly start to run, going zigzag in order to be less of an easy victim, carefully avoiding the light. My arms closed around Maggie’s body like a vise, clutching her to my chest. At that moment, I didn’t really care whether it could be uncomfortable for her. All that mattered was that we got to hide somewhere. None of us would appreciate lying on the dirty ground – dead.

I don’t want to lose her again.

My eyes frantically looked right and then left, searching for something – anything – that would at least give me the time to hide Maggie and draw my stiletto.

Heart pounding at a speeding race, I turned in the next best side road on my right, leaving the dimly lit streets behind me and melting together with the darkness – the thing that has never left my side since everything changed for the worse. It was ironic, really.

Careful not to let go of Maggie, I bent over, my fingers slipping into my leather boots. The stiletto felt good in my hands, cooling off the sweaty feel on them. Gripping the weapon firmly with my right hand and trying hard to control my breathing, I leaned against the old brick wall and focused solely on my hearing. But the sound of wings did no longer reach my ears – which didn’t set me at ease at all. It had the opposite affect: it made me panic even more. It didn’t sound like there were many of them, but I learned never to underestimate their skills at hiding their presence. Maybe they already left, but it’d be very unlike for them to leave when they set eyes on their prey.

But maybe they didn’t even see me.

That’s what I desperately wanted to believe, but the logical part of me knew that there was only a very slight chance that’d be true – if one at all.

But the longer I silently waited, expecting to be attacked at any time and not as prepared for it as I should be, the more I got the feeling that we were in fact safe for the time being. I even wondered if the sound of wings had been real. After all, it could be possible that I’d only imagined it. Not only Maggie was affected by our unusual lifestyle after all.

I nearly jumped with fright when I felt something move against my body, but it was only Maggie - sweet little Maggie, looking as cute as ever and calming me with only her presence. I hastily, but carefully, slid the stiletto in my back pocket – just in time. Her big brown eyes popped upon suddenly, searching her surroundings before focusing on my face. Her head titled to the right, as if she knew that I was scared and why I was – which she probably did. I gave her a smile, trying to reassure her - and mostly myself – that everything was okay. She didn’t look very convinced. For a five-year old, she sure knew how to see right through me.

“Morning, little angel.”

She looked around confused and furrowed her brows. “This doesn’t look like morning to me, sis.”

I laughed, relieved that she did no longer look at me with those knowing eyes. “That’s because it isn’t,” I said and stated the obvious. “It’ll take a few more hours till the sun comes out, but we’re soon gonna reach our new home.” The last word seemed to sound very wrong, since it wasn’t true at all, but I didn’t want Maggie to feel uncomfortable, so ‘home’ was the word I always used when we found another place to say.

However, Maggie didn’t seem to think home was the right word either, but instead of pressing on the subject, she squirmed in my hold.

“What’s wrong?” I asked her.

Her demanding voice helped me forget all about the danger form just minutes ago. “Mr. Mojo. Where’s he?”

I nearly rolled my eyes. All she could think about as soon as she woke up was that thing?

The truth was that even that little, ugly pink teddy made me nervous. I didn’t want us to stand out – and if that bright spot in my little sister’s hands seemed dangerous to me, I wouldn’t hesitate to hide it. And that’s exactly what I had done. As soon as she’d been asleep I gently pried that thing out of her tight hold and put it away.

I gently stood her on her feet and fixed my pony tail. “It’s in the backpack, I’m gonna give him to you right away.” Though that sure as hell wasn’t what I wanted to do. Nevertheless, my hand wandered to my shoulder in order to grip the strap of said backpack that hung loosely on it – only that it wasn’t there. Oh no.

I froze. Everything we needed was in there. As if it’d rematerialize again if I’d reach out, I touched my shoulder again – nothing. It must have fallen off while I was running. It couldn’t be far away, it was probably just lying deserted on the street, I told myself. I panicked only thinking about going on the streets again.

The danger is gone. I soothed myself. No need to be afraid.

I still told Mags to quietly hide and wait for me behind the dumpster that I didn’t even realize was there from the beginning – which was very odd considering it smelled like hell. I wasn’t surprised that Maggie wrinkled her nose and only reluctantly followed my plea before crawling behind the smelling mess.

Slowly, I peeked around the corner, only to be greeted by the deserted streets. I breathed a sigh of relief. That was until I realized that not only were the streets free form danger, but without our backpack as well.

I didn’t want to believe it. Leaving the to me seemingly safe hideout, I walked up and down the streets at least ten times, looking behind anything that could hide the backpack from my sight until I had to conclude that it was in fact gone. For real.

My hands started sweating and my mind began to swirl. This was bad. This was really, really not good at all.

Not only was food and clothing in that backpack. No, there was one thing in there that meant only one thing: I sealed our death for real.

It was a photo of all of us together - Mom, Dad, Andrew, Maggie and me.

Whoever took it now knew who we were. They were determined to kill us before, but now, nothing in the world would stop them to set that plan into reality once and for all.

Would we be able to hide any longer? I seriously doubted it.

I killed once, now I’ve killed again.