"Do you think...?" Alice began to ask, but then petered off unsurely.
"What is it?" Matthew asked his wife.
"I'm just worried," she answered, looking down at the ground. "This is kind of new to me."
He chuckled a little and shook his head. "It's new to me as well. But we'll be alright. You will be fine."
Alice wrapped her arms around him, having to twist her torso a little to the side because her swollen belly would be squished between them otherwise. He returned the hug, pressing a kiss to her hair while he rubbed her back. "...Did you have another weird dream last night?"
She stiffened momentarily, but gave in and sighed. "Yeah. It was short, but I wasn't sure what to make of it."
"What happened in it?" After a couple of years married to her, he knew to trust her dreams, bizarre as they may be.
"There was a lot of pain," she said. "Just pain. I didn't even see anything."
"Oh." Matthew frowned thoughtfully, resting his chin on top of her head. "Maybe it was just about the birth?"
"I hope so," she agreed softly, clinging tighter to her rock.
~
Around this time, the best in the magic sector were picking up the soul imprints of something else down on Earth.
They knew they would have to do something about the child, because it wasn't supposed to be down there on the foul, unholy ground.
~
"What are we going to do?" Alice asked her husband as she held their newborn baby in her arms protectively. "Mattie?"
He was facing the window contemplatively, staring out with a troubled expression at the sky. He turned around and met her tear-filled gaze. "I... I don't know."
Mother and baby were healthy, perfectly fine. The home delivery had gone well. There was just one problem...
Wrapped up inside the baby bundle were two tiny, almost featherless wings. They pressed against the child's back as he slept on peacefully for the moment.
Alice looked down at her son with a fearful expression. No, she wasn't afraid of him. She loved him with all her heart, but she was afraid for him. "Milo..."
What would happen to him? Would they even be able to keep him? He was their baby!
~
"Sera, what do we do?" Alice asked her older sister fearfully. "My parents, they want to see him but how can I show them?"
Sera folded Alice into her arms and held her quietly. "I'm so scared, Sera..."
"I wish I knew what to tell you, Alice," Sera said honestly. "But I don't. It's just... I've never heard of this happening before."
A baby's wail erupted from the cradle, and Alice immediately rushed over to pick him up and soothe him. Surprisingly, as soon as her arms were around him, he quieted and opened his eyes even though it was unlikely he could see much of anything.
Sera hovered over Alice's shoulder and peered down at her nephew. "Hi there, Milo~"
The baby gurgled in reply and smiled a wide, toothless grin.
"He's so sweet," Sera said. "I hope things go well for you all."
~
"You can't take him!"
"Madam, please--"
"Give Milo back!"
"He doesn't belong in this place!"
"Give me my son!"
~
A few years later~
Milo flapped his reddish-brown wings a bit and grinned as he lifted into the air. His eyes, a bright indigo hue, sparkled with the delight of flying. 'I love it!'
That night, though, he was passing by Papa's study and was surprised to see an envelope flutter to the ground. 'What...? I should put it back.'
He darted in and picked it up, but was just about to let it go on the desk's surface when he saw his name written in somewhat hasty penmanship. "Is this for me?" he wondered.
The eight-year-old couldn't contain his curiosity at all and stuffed it into his pocket before dashing down the hall to curl up in his bed, where he might get a little privacy. Without hesitation he tore into the paper and pulled out a folded page. Accompanying it was a photograph of two adults holding a newborn baby with dark hair.
Milo looked at it for a few seconds, pursing his lips as he tried to figure out who it was in the picture. 'Maybe I'll find out in the letter.'
His eyes scanned the page once, and then he delved deeper into it. "Wait... What?"
"Papa!" Milo exclaimed, taking the entire envelope's contents with him as he ran out to search for his father. He found him in the kitchen, making that night's dinner. "Papa, what is this?"
~
Dear Milo,
Oh, baby. I know this is going to be hard to imagine, but I'm your mother. My name is Alice, and your father's name is Matthew. We love you so, so much, honey. We didn't want to let you go, but... we live on Earth. I know, you think that place is a horrible place, but I've lived there all my life, and your father has since he was banished here many years ago.
Milo, we love you so much. I know, I already said that, but I can't say it enough. You were born with wings, and then the Angels came to take you away because you couldn't live with humans. Sweetie, you have to understand that you probably are where you need to be. That doesn't mean we wanted to let them take you, though. I couldn't stop crying for days after they came.
But you need to stay where you are. That's where you belong. Your grandfather (You probably call him "Papa") does love you, too, and you will have a good life in the sky. You just should know the truth about where you came from.
All my love,
Alice Williams
Matthew Williams
"Papa, what is this?" Milo asked, holding out the page and the picture.
Francis sighed and set down his utensils so he could lead Milo to the kitchen table. "Milo, you weren't supposed to see that until you were a bit older. Why were you in my office?"
"I... I saw it fall down and I wanted to put it back," Milo answered. "But what does this mean?"
Francis took in a deep breath, let it out, and began to tell him what he knew of where Milo really came from.
~
Milo lay in bed, staring out the window at the shining stars between the clouds. "Mom and Dad... you're down on Earth..."
And he started to pray to them, every night, asking for guidance and answers to his questions.
And every night, when Alice went to sleep, she dreamt of a little boy with hair like hers and eyes like her husband's. He was asking her to help him, to give him answers. She did her best to explain everything he wanted to know.
------------------------------------------------
A very melancholy ending, I know. You guys probably hate me.
Like Washed Up On the Shore, this was an experimental piece for me. I'm sorry if you don't like the ending, but I tried to amend some of the sadness there at the end.
It's a little ironic, an Angel praying to a human... (Well, she's not human but you get what I mean)
As always, I am truly grateful to you readers for sticking through until the end, and I sincerely hope that this wasn't that bad ^_^' If you have flames, you better keep them to yourself.
I am fed up with flames, guys. Seriously. I don't appreciate them at all.
To the potential flamer who may be reading this: If you are having a hard time understanding why I did this, just remember that I don't try to write happy endings all the time. Those are too cliche, too boring. And this wasn't that sad of an ending, either. This was an EXPERIMENT FOR ME. Thanks, and I hope you can write nice things in the comments below.
Ciao~!