Silver Wings of Freedom

[Ran Yoko]

if any of you have played the game "Final Fantasy X-2", then you should remember the concert that Yuna gave. The song that she and Len were singing, "1000 Words", has been playing in my mind, and so I'm typing this as it comes to me.

 

Silver Wings of Freedom

 

She ran, branches hitting her, catching at her plain white dress and her wings. She didn't care where she went, she just had to get away. Her long white hair caught on a branch, she yanked it free.

She stumbled through the last of the trees, only to find herself on a cliff. In the distance, she could see a wide, glittering expanse of water. The sea.

"Angelica."

She spun around. The scientist stood there, three men with stun guns just behind him.

"Angelica, you need to come back with us. You don't know anything about the world. It's dangerous," the scientist said.

She had heard these words too many times before. Whenever she wanted to go out, when she had escaped that one time before. And she had believed him. But not again.

"No," she said. Her voice was very hoarse, it hurt to talk. When they had used the stun guns on her the last time she had escaped, the electricity had damaged her vocal cords. "I'm not. . .going back there. . .ever again."

"Angelica. . ."

"Why do you call me that!?" she screamed. Tears started flowing down her face, but she ignored them. "Because I remind you of an angel? I only have these wings because you implanted them!! My name was Cassana, before you kidnapped me off the streets when I was seven years old!"

"What?!" The scientist was startled. How could she remember that? The memories should have been erased.

"I know," Cassana went on. "I know that the government was funding your research. They refused to help any more, didn't they? Because my wings," she spat the word out, "haven't grown at all! They never have been big enough for me to fly! So I'm just another botched experiment! There's no sense in taking me back, because you'll just dispose of me in a few weeks!"

"O'Malley!" the scientist whispered. "That sneaky little rat! How long has he been taking the side of this experiment!? I knew that there was something odd about his behavior lately!"

Cassana took a deep breath. The scientist was rambling on to himself, and the guards seemed unsure of what to do. They wouldn't catch O'Malley. He had promised her they wouldn't.

An explosion shook the earth. The ground crumbled under her feet, and she was falling. All sounds died away.

This is it. I'm going to die, she thought.

Then something inside of her whispered, But I want to live.

She screamed in pain. Her wings were growing at an unbelievable speed, large silver feathers that flapped at the wind. For several glorious, beautiful minutes, she was flying.

Then her wings gave out. But she was smiling as she fell, her wings breaking apart and silver feathers scattering in the winds.

Good-bye.

 

The science lab was blown up. They found inside a body with a bullet hole in the head and a pistol in one hand. The body was identified as Patrick O'Malley, a guard at the former lab. Of course, the government covered up the details, especially with the evidence that O'Malley had blown up the lab.

 

Two days later, the body of a female teenager washed up on the beach. A large silver feather was stuck in her long white hair, and she appeared to be smiling. Of course, these details were covered up by the government as well.

 

She was free.

 

"Oh, a thousand words/Have never been spoken/They'll fly to you/They'll carry you home, and back into my arms/Supended on silver wings/And a thousand words/Call out through the ages/They'll cradle you/Turning all of the lonely years to only days/They'll hold you forever" ~1000 Words, from Final Fantasy X-2

 

~End~

Edited March 17, 2009 by Sora Hikari

[baxter85]

Interesting topic, but I couldn't help the feeling that your story was being rushed. I would like to see more emotion and description of your characters and more than just a lab exploding. Were the vials cracking, sirens sounding, people burining? What did the story feel like?