Burning Wings (Discontinued Until Further Notice)

Chapter Twenty-Six: Birds in a Cage

There was only silence. Neither had the heart to speak.

Jason and Jerome were sitting silently in the guest room downstairs, both of them seemingly lost in their own thoughts.

Jerome was the one to finally break the silence, his voice laced with sadness as he spoke. "So that's what happened... You guys didn't see any trace of the driver that hit him anywhere?"

Jason, who was sitting on the edge of the bed, shook his head. "Nothing."

Jerome sighed, shaking his head sadly. "Dammit! How could this have happened?!!?"

Jason didn't reply, instead lifting his head to look at Jerome, who had tears building up in his eyes, threatening to break free.

When Jerome had seen Ian's body, it was only moments before Jerome completely broke down in tears. He had fallen onto the wet concrete, his eyes wide as tears rolled down his face. Mitch had gone to comfort his best friend, but Jason insisted for him to get Ian upstairs. Mitch reluctantly did so, leaving Jason to deal with Jerome.

Jason had eventually calmed Jerome down, and the two of them went inside, the two moving into the guest room to avoid making noise. Jason had explained in full detail the events that followed after he left the house in his rage, from Mitch and Jason's discussion and discovering Ian's body.

When Jason had finished, the room became silent, the two saddened by their grief.

"The others are going to lose their minds when we tell them." Jason said sadly.

"Understatement of the century." Jerome said with a scoff. "Speaking of, where's Mitch? We need to figure out what we're going to say to the others."

"He's probably with Ian... if I had to guess." Jason said grimly. "We should leave him be. He went through a lot tonight. He deserves some rest..."

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"Mitchell, wake up..."

Mitch groaned, a numb pain resonating in his head as the echoing voice reached him. Mitch slowly opened his eyes, and as he realized where he was, his eyes shot wide open in surprise.

He was once again in the black landscape, the familiar emptiness seeming to stretch on for forever. Mitch was sprawled out on the ground, but he quickly pushed himself onto his knees, his mangled wings fidgeting uncomfortably as he looked at the space around him.

Mitch narrowed his eyes as he let his gaze wander. He had expected to once again find himself in the black space, but something was definitely different.

Surrounding him were tall, slender columns made up of white light, reminding Mitch grimly of the larger ones he saw during his previous dreams in his chase after the golden light. This time however, the white columns didn't stretch infinitely into the black, but instead looped together a few meters above his head. Mitch also noticed that the columns were lined up so that Mitch couldn't slip in between them and just escape. It's like a cage... Mitch thought to himself with a shudder.

Also surrounding him from within the "cage" were his own white feathers, strewn here and there on the ground. The last thing Mitch noticed was that there was a glistening silver chain hanging from the top of the cage, dropping down and connected to a silver shackle around Mitch's right ankle. Mitch slowly stood, and tried to pull on the chain hanging above him. The chain was just long enough for Mitch to walk around his cage, drawing tight when Mitch tried to pull them from the white columns that it was connected to. Mitch scowled, his unbroken wing flapping angrily behind him.