Flightless

"Flightless"

Written by: Mitchel Rey and Robyn Rey

Tattered white feathers stained with red. They were hers, and they weren't. Graceless wings.

"And then she met him."

She had a soul as pure as it could be in this wretched world. Her heart loved for all it was worth. Her wings were delicate -- something that had never been touched by war. And then she met him. The horridly scarred saw this. They warned her to stay away and told her that she'd only become broken like they were.

But she did not heed their warnings, thinking that they were wrong, that he was different. And he was different. Seeing this, she grew even more in love with him -- deeply, desperately and despondently in love with all caution thrown to the wind. And with that, she gave him everything she had.

Then there came a time when he asked her to go through hell and back. With the assurance that he would be waiting for her, she bravely marched on. Poison was fed, scars were constant and blades were wielded, yet she refused to give in. She was battered, bruised and barely there, and suddenly, she was outside, enveloped by the warm, fading light.

She called out...

and it echoed...

                    echoed...

                               echoed...

yet he never answered. She looked for him up and down, left and right, never stopping. But he was gone.

Her beauty and innocence shattered, she wept. The scarred wept with her, and the still pure ones merely gave her questioning looks, never understanding why the tears flowed freely down her face. Such is the price of full understanding.

Tattered white feathers stained with red. They were hers, and they weren't. Graceless wings.