Insangel

Chapter 7

Back in 'my' room and I am alone once more, the faint outline of the wall grid visible in the gloom. Stuck with little to do, I strain my eyes to see the grid and attempt to trace their shapes.

Squares alongside squares alongside squares...

     "What is the point of staring at the grid? What purpose does it serve?"

     "Head Voice? Have you returned?"

I do not realise I am holding my breath until I am forced to let it out in in a series of painful coughs. Footsteps directly outside draw my attention like the crack of a whip.

      "Doctor Forfax? Is that you?" I call out between coughs.

The footsteps stop suddenly and the silence seeps in. Filling the air. Filling me. Until... Until!

The footsteps recede.

Surely, if it was Doctor Forfax, he would have answered me or entered My Room, for it is MY Room now. The Wall Grid shall be mine and mine alone.

Whomever it was, I appear to have scared them away.

Time drags on as I analyse The Wall Grid from every angle that enters my mind.

As I begin to struggle for angles, the cold begins to seep in to draw my attention away. My chattering teeth drowning out my thoughts.

I almost miss that jacket. At least it was warm... Too warm, perhaps. But, warm.

Perhaps my arms and wings can offer some protection from the cold.

So, finding a suitable space in the corner, I curl up with my arms and wings wrapped tightly around me.

The darkness that has been steadily encroaching on me, decides that now is the most suitable moment to abandon me to the essence of blankness, which fills and consumes the window on the door.

What? How? We are deep beneath the palace! Is... Is that daylight?!

Wasting no time, I hastily scrabble to my feet and lunge for the door, yanking it open and nearly falling backwards in the process.

Outside the door is a white void... as if God deleted everything. Sights... Sounds... Smells... Everything.

Afraid to venture further, I stand transfixed at the threshold.

Gradually, senses begin to creep into the void until I realise that I am at the gates of the palace, gazing out over the city that surrounds it, the sun resembling a bright white ball punctuating the otherwise clear sky.

It is... beautiful.

After several long minutes of absorbing the senses, I realise that out here, I can fully extend my wings. Though I had space to extend them before I was confined in Doctor Forfax's domain, out here I have the opportunity to actually use them beyond that stupid 'exercise dome' that serves as a controlled substitute back home.

      "Stretch your wings and fly," a familiar voice says from behind me, "Fly like you were born to do."

Turning my head, I see that Azrael is standing at the palace gates, a radiant smile on her face.

Stretching my wings as far as I can, a shudder runs through them from the exertion and I stumble a few steps towards the sheer drop.

      "Careful, Charmaine. Do not hastily overextend your reach. Open them with purpose. With confidence."

Nodding, I pull my wings in a little and try to calm my breathing.

It is a long way down to the city and there is no safety net should I fall. I am not ready for flight out here yet. Baby steps, I think...

As I move to return to the relative safety of the palace, and enter into Azrael's embrace, the ground beneath me leaps off the cliff, pulling my feet out from under me in the process.

Fragfragfragfragfragfragfragfrag!

Not willing to let me go quite yet, gravity pulls me back towards its crushing grasp.

Fly, fool, fly!

But while I had been able to fly in the exercise dome, I was not prepared for the buffeting wind assaulting my body as I hurtled down.

As the buildings rush towards me at a breakneck pace, I clench my eyes shut as if to wish it away, though knowing that the inevitable collision will occur.