The Anthem of the Castaway

The Prophecy

"Welcome back." Father greets me. I collapse onto the stone pathway and he comes to me and picks me up. "Let's take you to the hospital." He tells me. I clutch onto him silently and allow him to take me.

He sets me onto a soft white bed and I'm surrounded by a group of nurses, my mother being one of them. I relax into the bed and stare at the ceiling, ignoring the pain from the numerous broken bones in my body.

"Did I do good?" I ask him faintly, wanting his approval.

"You can't fly. You still have a long way to go." He responds before leaving the room. With that statement I feel something inside of me break, and tears flood my eyes.

Numb. I can't feel anything. No emotion, my skin feels numb, and I can't hold a thought other than the pain in and around my body. My wings are tattered and still bloody, and the feathers are still falling out and growing in gray and withered. Others try to talk to me, but my vision is blurry and their voices sound so far away.

They stick needles in my arms and even in my neck, giving one serum after another to try and wake me up.

Another needle is stuck in my neck and after a few minutes my vision becomes slightly more clear. It takes a minute to focus, but I figure out that it is Wolf. He places yet another IV into my arm and I continue to feel just slightly less numb than before. I vaguely hear him talking to me, and I hear glimpses of his words.

Moments later Father walks in and joins Wolf. "She's going to be too powerful." I hear Father say. "We need to restrict her."

"What should we do?" Wolf asks Him.

The ringing in my ears is too powerful to hear what Father says. "I'm afraid." He tell Wolf. "You know the prophecy, and here she is."

"I'll think of something."

"We can send her back to Earth." Father suggests.

"You can't keep toying with her like that! Every mission you send her on is torture! She needs to rest or she's going to keep breaking like last time!" Wolf shouts, emotion evident on his voice. Father falls silent for a while.

"Think about the prophecy. All will bow to the double winged angel. We were lucky when her kids never grew their angel wings, but here is our double winged angel." Father says before leaving. Anger spikes inside of me and I feel more alive than before, but I keep my eyes closed as Wolf approaches me. I feel him check my multiple IV lines and he uses a wet rag to clean off the wounds covering my body. I doze off, slipping into the land of nightmare.

"Well, well." Wolf says to me. "Daddy's little princess disobeyed again? You just couldn't resist saving a couple of humans could you."

"Fuck you." I spat at him as well as I can from the ground. The cuffs on my wrists contain a metal bar running through my flesh between the two bones in my forearms. Blood oozes down my arms and pools on the floor under me.

I try to jerk my arm away but the needle still sinks into my flesh and into my vein in one well aimed stab. The serum connects with my blood and travels into my brain, which starts a round of hallucinations and nightmarish memories flashing across my conscious. My body is paralyzed in fear for a moment before I start thrashing at the imaginary issues around me.

An eternity of fear overwhelms me and I crumble. I begin sobbing and my thrashing subsides as the serum fades.

After a moment I'm able to open my eyes and above me stands Wolf. "That was a production." He says, grinning above me. I close my eyes again and lay my head back, hoping that he leaves. My body is exhausted and my hands shake. I feel him shake my arm roughly and he speaks into my ear. "Wake up!" He says firmly.

I jolt awake to find the real Wolf standing over me and reflexes force me to strike at him. My fist connects with his nose, and he jumps back, blood immediately starting to drain from his nose.

"Oh lord you can pack a punch." He mumbles through his hands. I glare at him for a moment before I lay back, trying to focus on everything around me.

"Sorry." I mumble to him through the fog.

"What, did I pull you from a nightmare?" He asks. I nod faintly, hoping he's watching. I feel a pinch on my wing from a needle and nothing more as Wolf begins to fuss with the area. I doze off lightly, still listening to the fog around me while I rest my mind.