Together Fallen [#Wattys2015]

3) Part Two

3) Part Two

Before I could blink, the balcony doors swung open. The flash of a lightning bolt momentarily illuminated a tall figure who was stood proudly on the balcony.

Impossible, I breathed out in amazement. Apparently it wasn't. After all these years... He really was there - in the flesh. I couldn't move; couldn't think. Couldn't breathe.

How?

Just as the thought occurred, something dark flew past the figure and out into the night. It had been so quick that I couldn't be sure I'd seen it. The look of revulsion as well as fear on my face had the figure stepping closer into the room, shutting the doors with one quick movement.

I was surprised my aunt hadn't even woken up.

"I..."

The power suddenly came back on, startling me into silence just as he took another step closer. My breath hitched. It really was him.

The boy - now wingless - tentatively took a step forward until he was sat on the edge of my double bed. Rain dripped from his light-blonde hair and across his tanned face; down along his torso. I couldn't help but see that he was clad in tight jeans and a coarse-looking jumper. The outfit suited him.

"What did you see?" His intelligent  eyes questioningly met mine for what felt like several eternities.

"What the hell was that thing?" Was my response. Ordinarily, I would've been polite and just answered the damn question, but it wasn't an ordinary circumstance. Far from it.

I had no time for rules or niceties.

He looked shocked out my outburst  for a few seconds before wiping his face clean of all emotion. "I need you to tell me what you saw." He spoke slowly, almost as if this was the norm and he was talking to an incompetent child. I'd never felt more scared or confused.

"Nothing." I wanted this whole thing to go away and for me to recharge. "I saw nothing."

All I'd seen was a shadow, a darkness. My mind whispered out of fear. Something that I could never outrun.

The storm went on as we sat in silence. Eventually it weakened until just a drizzle of the rain could be heard pattering against the glass. The occasional small gust of wind blew the leaves on the driveway.

Finally, he stood.

"Wait!" One of my hands outstretched towards him imploringly. "Please, don't leave. I...Who are you? Why did I see you when I nearly died that day?"

Why didn't you come back? I screamed silently.

My lower lip began to tremble. "Please don't leave me." I whispered. "Tell me what that thing was - tell me the truth. I need to know." I cried. Everything I'd withheld for the past few months came gushing out of me. The nightmares, the fear of the unknown, the danger; the not being able to confide in anyone which had become too much for me to bear.

"I don't understand any of this. Why me?" I yelled at him as he stood frozen. "Why is it after me? What have I done?" Wiping the tears from my eyes, I sobbed.

As if snapping out of a trance, the boy came rushing up to me, engulfing me in his arms. Kissing the top of my head, he rocked us both back and forth and made soothing noises until I'd calmed down. "I'm sorry, it's my fault." He said. He kept on repeating it over and over until I could summon the energy to reply.

"It's... your fault?" What?

Sighing, he abruptly let me go before standing once again. I felt as if my safety net had been taken from me, engulfing me in loneliness once again. This time he refused to meet my eyes which felt like a betrayal somehow. "You don't need to worry about anything," he said. "I assure you that no one will hurt you."

He left for good - too quickly for me to comprehend - leaving the balcony doors open as the only evidence that he'd ever been there.

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