In Dreams || A Collection of Short Stories

Smoke & Mirrors

Smoke covered the rough granite ceiling. It snaked around a single black feather, wreathed a dark pool of blood, smothered a ghost-pale corpse.

He was nameless, as no one dared to name him; voiceless, as no one dared to hear him; loveless, as no one dared to care for him. He was a ghost story, a fallen angel, a devil of the mortal world.

He smiled, and his teeth were fangs. Smoke-thin wings spread at his back, midnight black and vast as the sky. He rolled his shoulders, took off to destroy the next offender.

A bang like a gunshot split the grey sky as he went supersonic. Smoke spiraled behind him, a black feather caught up amongst it.

He landed in a tiny rural Scottish town. Rain poured down around him, battering his shoulders and displacing the smoke of his wings, but it could not dim the dark inferno of his eyes.

A young girl stood before him. A mere child, her red hair soaked through, holding a small blue lamb toy to her chest. He met her eyes, dark to pale.

He raised his sabre, ready to kill this sinner, all sinners, anyone who hurt anything-

He paused. Scanned the mortal before him... and froze completely.

She was sinless. She'd never hurt anything in her life. Impossible... but still somehow there.

And for the first time, he was truly uncertain as to what he should do. He really had no idea.

With a hesitant hand, he sheathed his sabre. Closed his mouth, hid his fangs. Folded in his wings.

He couldn't hurt her. Despite having killed millions, he had his rules, his morals. He couldn't destroy the mere mortal at his feet.

Unable to handle this, this revelation, this bare-bones fact that somehow there was still good in this shattered world, he shot into the still-grey sky. A ray of sunlight fell on the girl, who shrugged the encounter off with childish innocence and went on her way.

And him? He soared above the clouds, wings spread as wide as they could. Slowly, as the sunlight hit his back, pearlescent white spread over his feathers.

He broke the sound barrier, went supersonic. Smoke still trailed behind him.

And caught up amongst it, a single white feather.