Page 112 of Scars Like Wings

Pops held out his hand for me, and I took it without hesitation. He led me out of my room and into the hallway.

There, my whole world tilted for the second time in my life.

Aunt Max was slumped on the floor. She had been gutted too quickly for her body to heal. Her blood stained the carpet. Her eyes were vacant. Flames licked up the walls and around her body. They were the only things moving around her. She couldn’t be dead. It couldn’t be…

Before I could cry out for her, a body burst through a previously closed door in front of us into the flames near Aunt Max’s body. The intruder screamed as the flames devoured him, Aunt Max’s last stand.

Uncle Everett came from the room, stepping over the shards of the door. He looked worse for the wear with open, bleeding cuts and scrapes all over his bare chest and arms, and he was favoring his left side quite a bit. He was also breathing heavily. But he was alive. That was all that mattered to me in this moment. I ran up to him and wrapped him in a tight hug.

“Happy to see you, too, kiddo,” Everett said, hugging me with one arm and hissing from a sensitive spot on his ribs that I had touched in my hug.

“Don’t you die on me, Everett, ” I said.

“I will do my best. You have my word.” Everett clung to me, even though I knew it was hurting him.

I didn’t get to savor the moment for long. Downstairs, I could hear absolute chaos break out. More intruders invaded our house. I could hear bullets and arrows being shot from below up to the second floor. Their shouts were numerous. There had to be at least twenty of them, if not more. We were outnumbered and overwhelmed before any of them had even made it up the stairs.

“Everett, get Byrd out of here,” Pops commanded, coming to stand in the entrance of the hallway.

“Pops, no! I’m not leaving you!” I said.

“Yes, you are. You and Everett have to get out of here.”

“Pops!”

“Forrest, please,” Uncle Everett begged. “We can take them on together. If we are both here, maybe we can?—”

“Everett,” Pops interrupted with a finality and demand in his voice that I even felt.

Uncle Everett nodded finally and picked me up. As he turned around, I watched Pops. His back was to me, but he turned so that I locked eyes with ones that matched my own. It was quick. A moment at most. But looking into his sad but determined eyes, I knew what he was going to do.

“Dad, no! Don’t do this! Don’t leave me!No!” I screamed. I absolutely lost it. I pounded my fists into Everett’s front and back. I kicked as much as I could. I did everything I could to fight to get out of his arms. But he held on tight. The flames licked at his heels as we ran to my bedroom. Then he carried us out of my still-open window to land on the ground. I never stopped fighting and yelling for Everett to let me go even though he had an iron grip.

I only stopped as we rounded the corner to the front of the house. More attackers stood there, either having escaped from the house or waiting for us, I wasn’t sure. There had to be another twenty present. The boy from before was there among them, his weapons in his hands once again. I shivered in pure fear.

Quickly before I could fully register what was happening, Uncle Everett put me down behind him and faced the assailants. He roared, talons and fangs bared with his wings spread to make him more intimidating. The gang members pointed their weapons at him, aiming to shoot.

No… I couldn’t lose him, too. He had promised.

Suddenly, a shockwave of coral orange magic radiated out from us and hit all the assailants at once, knocking them back on their asses.

“Are you two all right?”

Uncle Everett and I turned to see a tall, white woman approach. She was gorgeous and wore an outfit that I could only describe as Stevie Nicks-chic. Her half-dyed blonde and ginger brown hair was tied back into a messy bun with her bangs spread across her forehead. She looked so familiar, but I couldn’t place her.

“Where did you come from?” Everett asked.

“It’s a very long story,” The woman replied. I felt I knew this woman, but there was something blocking me from remembering exactly how.Who was this woman?

With her arrival, though, the attackers fled, seeing they were overpowered. The boy kept looking back at me as he ran with such a rage in his eyes.Who was he? Why was he so angry at me?

After we ensured all the intruders had left, the woman got to work smothering the flames threatening to engulf the entire house. In no time at all using her magic, she managed to put the fire out so that only the second floor was scorched. But as we went back inside, we saw the damage had already been done. Well, the woman and Uncle Everett saw. They made me stay downstairs while they went to assess the damage.

Aunt Max was dead.

Everett found Pops upstairs. He had died fighting for me, to save me. Just like Mom had before. I didn’t think my heart could shatter more, but it did that day as my circle grew ever smaller. Two more funerals I never thought I would have to attend. It was another worst day of my life, another growing void threatening to swallow me whole one day. It was another person—two more people—that I would never see again outside of my dreams.

Chrysalis

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