Lockdown

First Person: Hawk

I was jolted back to reality and blinked a few times. “You’ll be fine.”

“I didn’t see anything…” He told me.

“I could only see five years but you were doing fantastic,” I wiped away a tear from his cheek and more fell.  

“I’ve only got five years?” his question was quiet and he looked at the underside of his arm.  

“I can only see five years into the future,” I answered and held his hand with my right hand. I looked at the scars and continued. “So you have at least five years.” I ran my left palm up his arm. “To get there,” I spoke as a pale green haze engulfed his arm and covered his scars, healing them. I did the same to his other arm, “You need to be strong and know that if you give in, you will be missed by many people.” I held his arm in my left hand and put my right palm on his chest, “there is an entity of darkness inside you that is able to dominate your consciousness and you can’t let it.”

I closed my eyes and was struck with darkness. I heard the same laugh from that first night and forced my eyes open. I breathed in; he put his hand on mine and looked at me. When I breathed out, I looked at him and felt warmth hidden underneath all the cold of the depression making itself at home.

“Don’t give in…” I whispered as I pulled back.

He broke down and started crying. He moved forward. I wrapped my arms around him and held him.

“We’ll be away from here tomorrow,” I whispered.

He sniffled, his voice was shaky. “How… can you believe in me so much? I’m just a human… a nobody… I’m not important…”  

 “You will be.” I whispered back. “You’ll be so important to so many people. And they’ll need you to believe in them, like I believe in you. You will make a change in the younger generation. You will start something that will grow into a much bigger thing, maybe even global.”

He smiled a little, “You saw all that?”

I nodded, “To some extent.” I held him close and supported him as much as I could even though he’s almost twice my size. “It all starts with you,” I commented as I rolled my shoulders forward. I felt my wings move out of the wing scars on my back. They are jagged, open scars on that allow me to use my wings at any time. The edges of the scars closed around the bases of my wings. I moved my large wingspan around us. My tan wings overlapped as they settled. My wings created a sort of closed space, separating us from everything else. My shirt fixed itself to mold to the new form, all my earth clothes fix themselves. It’s very handy.

He hadn’t moved as I readjusted my wings. I felt him nudge his forehead into my neck and moved one hand under his face. It rested on my shoulder.

“If your collarbones didn’t jut out of your skin…” He chuckled quietly. I felt his breath on my skin as it started to calm down.

I smiled, “I can’t really help that, you know.” I made sure my voice was quiet.

“The wings are a nice touch,” he commented as he reached out to touch some of my feathers.

“They help create an isolated environment,” I paused and lifted my right wing up as he reached for the top of it. I folded my left wing and moved the wrist of the wing, the second joint that folds down, and covered his hand. I pressed it down to his waist and held his arm there. “But that only works for as long as I can hold up my wings,” I put my right wing over my left one. “or until someone tries to grab them.”

“So you’re holding my arms down?” He asked.

“Not really,” I answered, “my wings are built for flight, not to keep someone close to me.” I lifted my wings and pointed them up. “Feels good to just have them out and not need them,” I let them fall to the ground. The ends folded up against the furniture. I pulled them back towards me a moment later. “I don’t think my wings will be very comfortable if I just leave them out like that,” I said as I watched them fold up and press against my back.

“Why are your wings so big? They don’t seem proportional to your size.” He asked as he sat up and faced me.

I tilted my head and looked up at the ceiling, thinking for a moment. I snapped my wing out to the sides, “well…” I spoke through his startled scream and paused as he looked at me, bewildered. “Right now they are fifteen feet across, but they weren’t always that big. When I started out, six years ago, I had a wingspan that was my size. It was ten feet, if I remember right. When I couldn’t complete a flight training lesson better than I was taught, my wings were expanded.” I leaned back on one hand and held up my other hand. I clenched my hand into a fist a few times.

 “As you would assume, breaking bones hurts a lot. But that’s when I found out that I could manipulate my bone cells.” My hand settled into a fist and I watched the skin on my forearm move around. The bone underneath moved out from the arm bones, over my metacarpals then down in between my knuckles. At this point in my training, I can sharpen my bone as they move out of my skin. I held out my arm and extended the sharpened bone claws until they almost reached his face. He was sitting about two feet away, so my claws could have been a foot and a half long.

He moved back and looked at them, “that’s borderline terrifying.”

I bent my arm and pointed my fist up. “Just a little.” I opened my hand and the bone claws retracted back into my skin. “I don’t like fighting with them like that, though.” I pointed to my forearm, “Three spikes out of my forearm are more effective,” I pointed to the three spots where the bone would come out of. “And if one of these is broken off, it hurts a lot less.”  I slowly moved my arm in a hook punch in front of him and watched the bone spikes move out of my skin at the spots I had pointed at. Each spike was blade like and about eight and a half inches long. They created a smooth bone blade that extended beyond my elbow.

I held my arm up in front of me, “One day I’ll know how to use some of my powers without needing to fake a punch.”

He smiled a little. “You don’t know how to do that yet?”

I opened my hand and closed it a few times so the bones retracted. “I may be destined for greatness but I don’t know everything about combat yet.” I put the back of my right hand on my left palm and let my element of Life fly.