Angel's Feather (Flyer Chronicles, Book One)

by Alina Popescu

  “Will it hurt you?”

  Without answering, he caught it between his thumb and index finger and pulled it out. He gently placed it in my open palm and I stared at it for what seemed like forever. Although normally feathery-soft, when wrapped around him, Michael’s wings would turn into a true armor, their golden sheen intensifying. Their normal texture didn’t even come close to the silkiness of this one discarded feather. The gold edges disappeared and rainbow colored shadows glided along the pure white surface.

  “It’s gorgeous, as everything about you is,” I whispered. “Thank you.”

  Michael pulled me into his arms and kissed me slowly. There was such a difference between our earlier encounter and the softness of that kiss that I felt the need to cry. I blinked my tears away and snuggled close to him.

  It took a long time for me to fall asleep. I rested my head on his chest, smelling him, feeling the rise and fall of his rib cage as he breathed, and hearing the rhythmic thump of his heart. That familiar sound eventually lulled me to sleep.

  I WOKE UP ALONE, abandoned in the hotel room. I did not need to look for Michael, I could feel him flying away from me. I clung to our connection as the distance between us grew at mind numbing speed. With every beat of his wings across the cosmic skies, my soul disintegrated even more. It hurt so badly, I couldn’t even wail or shed tears or yell. I stood there, pinned to the bed by the weight of the blow he’d dealt me, and felt him running away. From me. From us. From what he felt.

  Poor Michael, he did not know he’d never be free of me. Just as I would never be free of him. Despite that knowledge, as he was fading away from my mind, the distance muffling our direct line to each other, I felt myself dying on the inside. I’d not exaggerated any of it, I’d always been honest with him.

  Wings fluttered outside and I knew I was not alone at the hotel anymore. I stood and pulled my clothes on, not wanting to greet the flyer naked. He stepped inside the room without knocking. It didn’t matter though, this place felt empty again. Foreign, not connected to me in any way.

  “Michael is gone,” he said, and I could feel the smirk on his lips. I tuned to face him, not bothering to hide anything of what I felt. I let him see the hurt, the way my world was crumbling, slowly shattered cell by cell, disintegrating my very being at a subatomic level.

  “I know. He’s not coming back, ever.”

  The flyer’s knees gave out and he braced himself against the nearest wall. His grin was gone, his eyes filled with fear. When he managed to steady himself, he stepped closer to me.

  “Come, I’ll take you home.”

  I picked up the feather from the side table and shoved it in my jeans’ pocket then turned to face him.

  “I’m ready.”

  He opened his mouth and closed it, then rubbed his forehead. Sighing deeply, he straightened his back and looked into my eyes.

  “I am Samandriel,” he said simply. I snorted and turned around, not wanting to see him as he flew me home. Flyers never bothered to reveal their names to us. If we treated them as nameless enforcers, it was easier to put fear into us. Michael had been the only exception. We’d known his name because he’d introduced himself when he’d first arrived on Earth and recited the new laws to every village still remaining on the planet.

  “I don’t care what your name is, flyer.”

  Part II – Descent

  “ADAM, WHERE ARE you?” Samandriel’s voice boomed through the small garage. I jumped off the huge tractor and went about my business, ignoring him. I couldn’t be bothered with him. Or any other flyer for that matter. Since he’d flown me back, he’d gotten into the bad habit of checking up on me. It was a nuisance. I wanted him gone.

  Samandriel had inherited Michael’s position after the former flyer leader’s swift departure. He hadn’t bothered to introduce himself to the masses, the new flyer in charge seemed quite fond of the Punisher moniker. It kept him nice and detached from everyone. Except for me. With me, he hovered, and it made me want to punch him in the face.

  “What do you want?”

  Samandriel gasped and pressed his right hand over his chest. “Oh, how you wound me!”

  “Stop it with the theatrics, will you? You’re bad at it.”

  He shrugged and smiled. “I’ll get better. Give me more of your movies.”

  “Go get them yourself. It’s not like you don’t stroll right into my house without my permission.”

  “Your mother lets me in.” He tilted his head and stepped closer. “Why does my presence bother you so much? Why do you want me to leave you alone?”

  I sighed and wiped the sweat off my forehead with a dirty rag. “I don’t understand why you chose to turn me into your project. You owe me nothing, there’s no need for you to guard me or ask how I feel. We both know you don’t care.”

  Samandriel sighed and jumped up to sit on my workbench. “I do care. I can’t explain it. There was something in your eyes that morning when I came to tell you Michael was gone. It just made me want to stay close.”

  “You came to gloat that morning, let’s not beat around the bush. And I’m fine.”

  “No, you’re not. That was… watching a being destroyed from the inside with a touch of pure hopelessness.”

  I smirked and turned to face him. “Oh, I have hope. I have a plan to carry out. So no, you don’t need to watch over me.”

  “Why do I get the impression that plan of yours will get you killed?” Samandriel asked, his eyes boring into me.

  “That’s because you don’t know me very well.”

  He shook his head and took a deep breath. “I know what you’re working on. I just don’t know where yet, or how.”

  I nodded slowly. “Whatever you say, flyer. Catch me, kill me if you think I’m doing something wrong… Just stop looking over my shoulder all the time.”

  His laughter flooded the garage, sounding like clinking crystal. “How will I catch you if I stop?”

  I chuckled and shook my head. “Not my problem, flyer.”

  “True, it is mine. Why do I have the feeling Michael won’t be the only flyer to regret his departure?”

  I arched a brow at him and smirked. “I doubt he regrets it. He was miserable here, had been for a long time. And besides, why would any other flyer regret it?”

  “Oh, I don’t know.” Samandriel stared at the battered ceiling of the garage. “Maybe because one of the very few voices that preached about following the rules is now lost? None of us like to kill humans, you know--”

  “My organization is still here. My mother and I still try our best.”

  Samandriel nodded and tilted his head. “Your mother, yes. You… You seem to be focusing on something else.”

  “Yes, I am almost done with this tractor. I fix things, she does the talking and convincing.” The truth was the tractor did need constant maintenance. It was an old piece of garbage.

  The flyer sighed and finally stood up to leave. “I wish that were true, Adam. We both know it’s not.”

  I watched him fly away, carried by strong wings. He was breathtakingly beautiful, just like all the flyers, but none of them made my heart skip like Michael did. Despite that, Samandriel seemed much better at reading me than Michael had ever been. I had not talked about my plans with anyone, yet he sensed something was brewing under my dedication to helping my fellow villagers.

  Oh, well, I’d have to up my game, find a way to distract him and all the other flyers. I wasn’t too concerned about it. I knew even if they found me out, I could keep them away until I was finished. I also knew I wasn’t alone, there were a lot of human resources I could tap into. And tap I would… It was time I took back some of what they’d squeezed from my family.

  I looked around the garage, trying to find something else to do before heading out. I knew I had to go visit my uncle, but dreaded the encounter. I blamed him for Michael’s departure. It had all been Michael’s choice, but if my uncle hadn’t been so determined to speak against flyers and break all
the rules, Michael would have never been forced to make such decisions.

  Nothing pressing needed my attention, so I threw my screwdriver on the work bench. With a deep sigh, I turned off the flickering lights and made my way to my uncle’s house. They didn’t live far, just a minute’s walk from ours. As I didn’t want my mother to catch me walking by our house, I took a different route, circling our neighborhood so that I reached my uncle’s house first.

  I knocked on the door, my body stiff and my mind reeling. Hold it together, Adam. Don’t throttle him! My aunt opened the door and she sneered at me.

  “Good evening, Auntie. Is Uncle Fred here?”

  “Not for you!”

  I cringed at her aggression. Where was all that fight when he beat her kids up? Apparently, Fred was above all reproach, while I was the scum of the earth and deserved all her negativity. Silly woman…

  “Please ask him to come outside for a minute. This is important.”

  “I bet it is! You are one flyer short, and now you remember your family.”

  “What’s going on?” My uncle’s voice reached us from their small living room.

  “Adam is here,” she shouted over her shoulder. “Wants to talk to you.”

  I heard him moving across the living room, slowly but surely. His teasing grin made my stomach roll, and while I didn’t immediately throw up, I did roll my eyes at him. He huffed at my gesture and frowned deeply, his lips twisted in an angry snarl.

  “What do you want, boy?”

  “Come walk with me, Uncle. I am fairly sure you’ll want privacy for what I have to say.”

  “You little shit!” He made out to grab me, probably in an attempt to impart a bit of his discipline.

  “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” I said sternly, pinning him down with my gaze. I didn’t expect it, but he read the atmosphere correctly and stopped boasting his imagined manly superiority. With a curt nod, he stepped outside and motioned for me to lead the way.

  I walked briskly, not bothering to check if he was following. I didn’t stop until we reached the remains of what used to be a neighborhood park. Every piece of usable metal and wood from the children’s playground had been long ago harvested and used for more practical purposes. No one had cared for this small place since, so the overgrown grass, bushes, and trees provided enough seclusion.

  “Do you know why Michael left, Uncle?” I asked, my voice even, my back to him.

  “He grew tired of his human toy?” Fred chuckled, amused by his own joke. He stepped closer to me, making the hairs on my back stand on end. “What do you want, boy? Spit it out quickly, I don’t have time for this.”

  “He found you and some other idiot working on a rocket engine. To protect me, he left and gave you another chance.”

  The sharp intake of breath was the only noise he made. I could almost feel fear gripping him and I stood there, saying nothing more, letting it sink in.

  “Now, I told him he should have reported it and ended your miserable life. He saw things differently.”

  “What are you going to do now?” Fred asked in a meek voice.

  “You are mine now. You do as I say, or I go report it. I am sure they can still contact Michael. Do you think he’d deny it if I am the one to come forward?”

  The silence was a better response than what I’d expected. My uncle was a lot of things, and coward was on top of that list. While he wasn’t particularly smart, he wasn’t stupid enough to miss the obvious: I held his life in my hands.

  “What do you need me to do?” Fred asked after a long stretch of silence.

  “For now, contact all the Freedom Alliance cells. They need to be ready to transport every piece of technology they have. All their experts in mechanics and engineering will need to follow.”

  While the flyers had banned all use and construction of rockets, ships, and anything that could fly, other than helicopters, there were still enough mechanics and engineers. Those were the most prominent two professions, mostly because of the Freedom Alliance propaganda and efforts. They all lacked any practical experience, but had outdated software to train themselves as best as they could. Lucky me.

  “I don’t hold that much power over them.”

  I turned to face Fred. I expected fear, but a certain curiosity was alight in his eyes.

  “Tell them the angels will never discover them.”

  He gasped and his eyes widened. “That’s impossible!”

  I sighed and closed my eyes, trying hard not to get angry. “No, it is not.”

  “The transports will still be dangerous. The flyers will spot them.”

  “The flyers will be too busy to spot anything.”

  “What do you know?” he asked, taking a step closer and looming over me.

  “I know each cell will rise up every couple of days, and the flyers will have enough riots, executions, and surveillance to need backup.”

  “You’re crazy!”

  “Keep your voice down,” I muttered.

  He shook his head, his lips moving in an attempt to find his words. “Dozens will die.”

  “Hundreds, more likely. It will take a while to transport everything and then to start work on the ship I’m building.”

  “You’re insane, no doubt about it! They will never agree to that.”

  I shrugged and turned around, dismissing him. “Then they aren’t prepared to sacrifice everything they have to get off this planet.”

  “Why would they trust me? Or you for that matter?” He snorted and started pacing. “I don’t have the required skills and you’ve kissed flyers’ ass since you were a kid.”

  “You are very good at bullshitting people, Uncle. And you know me. When did I ever say I’d do something and failed?”

  I knew I had him. No matter the odds, I’d always delivered on all my promises. The tractor, a lot of repaired computers and household items, as well as other small mechanical devices stood witness to my abilities.

  “He showed you plans for a ship, didn’t he?”

  I smiled, concealed in the darkness, and rolled my shoulders. I didn’t confirm his suspicions, it was better he reached his own conclusions than me having to tell the truth.

  “Let’s just say I’m privy to some aspects of flyer scanning techniques.”

  “Why not share your knowledge with the rest of us?”

  “And risk you turning against me? Uncle, you have no love for me, and no one in the Freedom Alliance thinks differently. The fact I am the only one who knows what he’s doing is how I’ll keep you all under control.”

  He chuckled again, placing a sweaty hand on my shoulder. “You fight it all you want, but you are your father’s son. You have his intelligence and his strength.”

  “I would never deny genetics, Uncle. But you are wrong. I am not like my father. Thankfully, my mother’s heritage was prevalent in my genetic makeup. And her nurturing made sure I was nothing like him.”

  Fred growled and his hold on me became painful. “You little…”

  “Careful, Uncle. It might take longer, but I can do this without you. Whether you live or not, it makes no difference to me.” Not when I blame you for Michael abandoning me.

  He sighed and released my shoulder, then cleared his throat. “Fine, it will be done. I’ll get your message across the grapevine. I’ll contact you when everything is ready.”

  “Don’t come looking for me,” I said sternly, turning to face him again. “I’ll come when it’s time.”

  Without another word, I walked out of the park. I could hear him trailing behind me, but couldn’t be bothered to focus on my uncle’s actions. With a deep breath, I let it all go, the anger and the distaste of having to be around him, the heaviness of my plans. All that was left was enough of my active mind to guide me home and the ever-present sense of loss.

  Despite my always renewed efforts of not thinking about Michael, he took my mind by force. Images of him swirled in my head, sensations and scents, words and motions, everything tangled i
n a heavy mess that kept my heart and stomach in a constant twist.

  What I had learned since his departure was how to give the semblance of a functioning human being despite my soul being gone. The pain was enough to pin me to my bed, but I moved and talked and acted as if I wasn’t broken in every way imaginable. Most people were fooled by it. Even my mother was starting to believe the act. She thought I was recovering. She kept preparing my favorite meals, she kept pouring her everything into Blossoms of Hope.

  The only one I couldn’t fool was Samandriel. For some reason, the flyer knew exactly how I felt. As if my broken heart and mind were a powerful beacon warning him of my sorry state. Maybe there was something truly angelic buried deep down in these flyers. Maybe there was a need for them to save us, even if it wasn’t our souls they cared for. The utter sorrow in Michael’s eyes at every kill, the way Samandriel watched over me, or how other flyers would shake their head whenever they caught another one of us breaking the rules… Who knew, if I looked far enough into flyer history, I could maybe work it out.

  I didn’t care about flyer history though. I was more worried about one particular flyer’s future. Besides, Michael had little relevant information on his own species. Or maybe he’d managed to shield that from me. I doubted he would have.

  THE HOTEL WASN’T easy to reach on foot. I struggled for half a day to guide myself through the rough terrain relying only on an aerial view plucked from Michael’s head along with a million other details. Once I reached the mountain side where it had been built, I almost lost all desire to get to my destination. The ascent looked very steep. It had rained a few days before, making the ground slippery. I had to grab tree roots and branches to pull myself up and by the time I made it there, I had cuts and bruises everywhere. I’d nurse them later though, right now, I had other, more pressing issues to attend to.

  After a bit of a struggle, I managed to find an entrance into the ground floor. It was dark, too dark to walk through, but I had come prepared. I lit up the small torch I’d made and started to walk around, trying to locate everything. The eastern side of the hotel was a bust, too many fallen walls and columns.