She walked down the city streets, loud music blaring in her ears. Rain poured down from the night sky, soaking her to the bone, her sweatshirt sticking to her body, revealing the faint outline of wings.
The wings that had gotten her here, out in the rain, unable to be who she really was.
Aislynn.
A girl with special abilities, magic some would say.
Unable to be free, like all the other Mutants in this messed up world.
She took a deep breath, listening to the sound of the falling rain, the soft pitter-patter pitter-patter that the rain drops made when they hit the concrete. It gave her a faint sense of satisfaction, a small drop of joy admits the sea of anger and bitterness that she often found herself drowning in.
And there was no one there to save her from it. No friends, no family, just... her. Her and her thoughts, alone on the street like they had always been.
Aislynn watched as a car drove by, and saw the puddle along the rode too late. The car drove through it, going way too fast, splashing her in acrid, muddy water.
She stopped on the sidewalk, anger taking over her thoughts, the opposite sides of her mind screaming at each other.
Use your power, make them pay! One side yelled.
No, don't, they didn't mean to. Said the other.
Aislynn felt like she wanted to scream. Her mind was always fighting, two options always surfacing, one worse then the other.
She didn't want to hurt them, but at the same time she did. They were the ones who hated Mutants, imprisoned them, call them monsters, killers.
And yet these people have done nothing to me. Thought Aislynn as she continued down the street.
Others might have, but not these people.
Aislynn walked under a nearby awning, trying to escape the poring rain. As she looked up at the sky she felt her wings wanting to spread, to claw their way into the sky.
To fly.
She felt it in her heart as well, the urge to spread them, to rip the harness that kept them flat against her back off and disappear forever in the endless expanse of the sky... but she couldn't.
She would be captured, rounded up, put in a camp. Of course, she could use her power, but they would see her as a monster, a killer.
Lightning cracked across the sky, the forked energy branching out across the sky like a tree branch.
I want to be up there.
She reached over and repositioned the leather strap that held her wings in place. She had gotten the harness for her thirteenth birthday. It was the only present she had gotten, if you could even call it present.
Aislynn's parents had made her wear it all the time, even the house so they wouldn't be reminded that they had a Mutant as a daughter. They hadn't gotten her a new one, so now, ten years later, the harness has grown tight.
It bit into her skin and rubbed it, making red lines appear on her shoulders, chest and back, and made indents in the white feathers on her wings.
Sometimes when she had to wear it for long periods of time the spots where the harness dig into her skin would start to bleed, and Aislynn had the overwhelming urge to rip it off, end the pain and the constant reminder that she wasn't excepted.
She wanted to scream at the sky, to shout her pain to the world but all she was doing was screaming at the empty air. No one would hear, no one would listen.
No one would care.
A tear slid down her cheek, mixing with the raindrops on her face.
Why did I have to be born this way? She asked the sky.
The only answer was a low rumble of thunder.
Just then someone bumped into her, and she stumbled. The person caught her by the elbow, steadying her.
Aislynn pulled away immediately, not used to that kind of contact.
"I am so sorry." Said the man.
He couldn't have been more then 19 or 20, around the same age as her.
Aislynn looked at him for a moment longer, staring into his sky blue eyes, looking at his wind-swept and wet brown hair.
"It's fine." She said, her voice quiet.
His eyes then drifted over her soaked and disgusting hoody, the ripped, dirty jeans and sneakers she wore, and her tangled long brown hair.
"Do you need somewhere to stay?" He asked gently.
Aislynn nodded her head, not saying anything.
"Come on, follow me." He said.
Aislynn did, following close behind him, back out into the rain. She was glad that he hadn't noticed the faint outline of her wings.
At least, not yet.
She knew that she was taking a huge risk in letting this man give her a temporary home, but she needed it, now more than ever.
It was about a ten minute walk to his home, and when they got there she discovered that he didn't have a wife or children. He was alone, just him.
Good. She thought, her pounding heart slowing.
No one else to see me.
"Let's get you into some clean, dry clothes." He said, hanging his soaking wet jacket on a hook and taking off his shoes.
She did the same, revealing what used to be white socks. She put her shoes by his and followed him upstairs.
"Take your hoody off." He said when they got up to an empty bedroom.
Aislynn shook her head.
"I can't."
She didn't have a shirt on underneath. Her wings would be exposed.
"Oh come on, I have a shirt right here. You can put it on quickly." He said, handing it to her.
"No really, I can't." She said, trying to keep the desperation she felt from creeping into her voice.
"Just really quick." He said.
Aislynn shook her head.
He sighed.
"Fine, go into the bathroom." He said, pointing to the door across from the bedroom they were in.
Aislynn nodded and said a quick, soft thank you before going into the bathroom and closing the door.
She gently took off the hoody, sucking in a sharp breath as the fabric rubbed against the red lines marking her back, shoulders and chest.
"Hey, are you alright in there?" Asked the kind man.
"Yeah." Said Aislynn.
She looked at the red marks, seeing that the ones on her shoulders had started to bleed.
She unbuckled the harness, squeezing her eyes shut as the cuts on her shoulders cried out in pain, stinging pain racing up her neck and down her arms.
She took in another sharp breath and let it out, trying to ignore the pain.
"Are you sure that you're alright?" He asked again.
"Yes." She answered, a bit annoyed.
Silence, then:
"I'm coming in, I'm not sure that you're fine."
"No really, I'm..." her sentence was cut off as he opened the door.
They looked at each other for a couple long, long moments, his eyes traveling first to her white wings with grey flight feathers, the white ones stained with mud. He then shifted his gaze to the red and bleeding marks and then to the harness.
In that span of a minute the tiny drop of joy that Aislynn had felt evaporated, melting into the sea of fear, anger and bitterness that was her life.
That one tiny drop was now gone.
Her heart raced as he stared at her, not saying anything, knowing what would come next.