One morning, I awoke with wings. Opened up my eyes tiredly, stretched, putting arms back at my side to now resting on a soft silky mass of feathers. Closed my eyes. Opened them again, with the realization of the feathery mass underneath me. I ran my hands along the wings, eyes widening. Sat up quickly, stumbling out of bed to the mirror. Looked at myself, eyes blurred, still half asleep. Traced my eyes along the familiar features, brown hair and matching eyes, pajamas... And a strange black mass sticking out behind me. I turned around quickly, looking for what was behind me, but nothing. I looked in the mirror again, blinked, but it was still there. I leaned in closely, stretching, and they moved.. I leaned in close to the mirror, wiping my eyes, seeing what they were, turning on the light. Deep black wings, like a crow's. "you.....this...this is a dream..?" I sputtered on my own words. Slowly made my way back to the bed, trying to get used to the new weight at my back, careful not to knock anything over. Sat down on the bed, looking at the loose feathers strewn where I had been laying. Carefully picked one up, examining it closely. Black but in the light, it shined colorful, like oil spilled on the road. 'Pretty..' I thought to myself.. and set it on my window sill. Spread out my new set of wings, lying down again. "Okay.. I'm going to pretend this was a dream now, and I'll just go back to sleep.." I instruct myself. With a little difficulty, I close my eyes, wrapping the covers around me and falling into sleep..
The next time I opened my eyes, light shined in through the window, and I sat up quickly, hands searching along my back.. But nothing. Both relieved and disappointed. Eyes went to the mirror again, but it was true, nothing was there. With a sigh I lay back, remembering the warm mat of feathers, and my head turns to the window sill.. where a single black feather still sits, carefully and deliberately set among the line of candles.
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I wrote this story for Ariel, as in her journal she requested a short story...
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