Vertigo
Ryder didn't know what drew him to the towering walkways that connected the upper reaches of the city like the interlocked branches of an ancient oak forest. What drove him here, night after night? Day after day? Nightmare after nightmare? Maybe it was the facination he had with watching the people, tiny points of light, moving below. Some were wandering home, some shopping for food, some shopping for lives. He'd seen four murders during his watches up here, two rapes (one was a young schoolgirl, the other victim was a handsome young lad), sixteen muggings. He'd cried five times. His tears had dripped off his face, and he watched them fall, twinkling with some inner light, and becoming a pure rain for those living below.
The only time he'd been afraid of the height was when he reached the ground and looked up up up. From the ground he saw the danger, from the ground he'd seen fear. But up here, he was above all that.
The half-celestial leaned back on his hands, his pale blue eyes following the graceful lines of the skyscrapers to their peaks. A patch of pollution tolerant birds took off from a ligthening rod, their cries ringing in the thin air.
"Hi."
Ryder blinked and looked to his right. A little girl was sitting there, in a crouch, arms encircling her legs, long black hair draped over her tiny body.
"Hi," Ryder replied. The girl's eyes were wide, and black. Her bow-like mouth smiled tightly.
"Watcha doin'?"
Ryder recognized the slang. She lived below. How far below?
"I'm watching the sky," Ryder replied simply. He tried a kind smile. The girl grimaced.
"Why are you so sad? Why? Why?" Her voice was sharp, quick. Her eyes began to blink, quickly, too quick for a normal human. Ryder watched, fascinated. The girl saw she had him. She produced a stuffed pink rabbit. It was badly worn, its botton nose was chewed off and the stuffing was coming out of the right arm. "This is Mr. Brillant."
"Hello Mr. Brillant," Ryder said, since it was the polite thing to do.
"Mr. Brillant says you are not a ningen," the girl translated. "He says that you do not belong to this world."
Ryder thought this was a strange thing for a stuffed rabbit to say, but he kept his mouth closed. One does not argued with a stuffed bunny.
"What's that? Mr. Brillant says you should leave now," the girl said. She stood. She wasn't wearing any clothes. In a daze, Ryder realized that she also had a tail, and two tiny horns protruding from her skull. He struggled to stand, but his legs felt sluggish, and he was dizzy.
"Wrong way silly head! Wrong WAY!" The girl shouted. She gave him a rough shove and Ryder's balance was tipped. His arms wheeled and his feet scrambled for solid ground but he was already falling. The walkway receded quickly, faster than he'd imagined it would, and the air that screamed past him was warm and smelled foul.
He didn't scream or call out. His eyes, however, were round as saucers, still confused about what was happening, still clouded by Mr. Brillant's spell. He expected the girl to looked down at him, maybe give him a little wave. But she didn't.
He was falling, the floors of buildings sped past, 108th floor, 107th... Winding stairways and walkways whipped past him, he caught fleeting glimpses of horrified faces as he fell past them. He wondered if he should wave. Suddenly, he wanted to stop. Panic gripped his chest, wrapping his torso in iron bands, freezing his veins.
Be a good boy and wait for my return...
Out of the blue, or green should be said, did the angel come crashing down. Swirling and spiraling towards the young lad she went, wings gripping so tightly around her bodice she was unable to be seen, and looked more like a black feathered blurr, her speed extremely fast. Her mind rushed and ticked, what was a boy doing falling down like that? Shouldn't be up so high if one were destined to suddenly fall...
Her wings ejected, flying outward and locking straight, she now appeared as the angel she truly was. Black mist engulfed her as she abruptly stopped, head cocking to the side as she watched him continue to fall. She looked up, surprised at his actual velocity, wings quickly snatching him and retracting. Without her reflex he would've most likely been dead, being that they were now next to the 30th floor. It had been so long since a deed so nice had been committed. She pulled him close, bare body trembling lightly from the force. Her lips opened as if to speak, barely visible sharp razor teeth exposed. A mere whiff of smoke protruded and disappeared into the city's polluted air, her jaws snapping shut.
He was very young, she thought to herself. He didn't seem of full human blood. She sniffed him lightly, sensing the same bit of angelic that once resided within her. With that she swooped down and began to fall again, the boy still being held tightly now within her arms, long fingernails almost cutting into his flesh as she did so. As they reached the 5th floor she abruptly stopped, now gliding to the dirt-soiled cement.
Her bare feet lightly touching the cold earth, she set the boy down and backed up a few paces, as if to give him breathing room. Curiousity struck her as she inspected the celestial lad, her wings folding onto her back to a more comfortable pose. The black mist seemed to fade, her body becoming exposed to the intense and gritty atmosphere. She coughed meekly, quickly rasing her long fingers to her mouth, as if she was holding some time of creature within. The cough obviously had released an inner disease; she swallowed loudly.
Wide eyes blinked as she watched him, waiting for him to even move.
The world was falling, and Ryder was falling with it. From his view, the buildings had taken on the texture of a watercolor, the paints dripping and gently blurring into one another. Up above, the sky spun in endless circles. The birds appeared to be frozen in their air, their beady eyes watching him, perhaps they were struck with wonder that a creature should purposely fall.
Ryder's fingers were curled in an unnatural grasping position, his face was struck dumb with fright, his young body was terrified at the idea of death.
Inertia hit him, but it was a gentle blow. His rate of fall had ceased, and he was suddenly aware that he was being cradled in someone's arms. His body was numb to him, he felt nothing but the warmth of an embrace. His cheeks heated slightly as he looked to his savior, a beautiful woman with black wings.
She caught him probably with thirty flights to go. The last few stories they very nearly floated to the ground, and when Ryder's feet touched the cold earth, his body refused to support him after his encounter with weightlessness. He fell to his knees, his arms fell to his sides, his hands were on the dirty ground, palms upwards. His eyes never left her face. He saw beyond the scars, the remnants of stitches. He had felt a sort of tearing sensation when she stepped away. Could she be...?
His lips moved, forming words that his voice did not feel up to backing up. He swallowed, hard.
"T-thank you," he said.
The buildings rounded out and took shape as she studied them quickly, unaware of the actual flight distance they had rocketed through. It amazed her for the few seconds she stood, deep in thought, until the sound of the boy falling had startled her. Quickly her head turned back as she stepped over to him, long delicate arm outreaching to him. Palm held wide as if offering to help hold himself steady. Wide eyes peered at him behind long, black lashes that gave her eyes a more dove-like appearance, vermillian shape somewhat fading as she felt the need to help him. It was odd; his energy clung to her intensely. She felt it. It was unusual for most to actually stare at her instead of turning away, ignoring her presence as if she were some type of freak.
Her lips pursed as she tried to bring breath to respond. She was so foreign to the verb of "speaking." She had just recently had her mouth sliced back open, freedom of new breath and movement of the jaws too alien for her to experiment with. It took her a minute or two to gather up the courage to try, her plump lips ever so slightly parting, a shocking pain causing them to shut again.
She nearly nodded, hoping it would satisfy as a "your welcome." Still, it did not feel right to not talk to him. He wanted it, she knew, and she would fulfill this need. Not only for himself, but for herself. Lips opened a bit wider now, breath cycle pausing as she finally spoke. Her voice was extremely soft and gentle, barely audible. It rang out to him, forcing the somewhat monotone voice to ring a lighter tune.
"R-R....Ryder?" For an extremely odd reason his name was clearly written in her thoughts. Ever since her memory had been washed away the colors of happiness had faded, the intenseness of loving your history erased. She barely had an identity, knowing not even her name. His name... it felt familiar. She fought the forgetfulness a while back to teach herself to accept her reality, but why his name? She knew the place she was in and nothing more. Once again the name was repeated, a bit louder.
"Ryder..." It now trailed off into the confusion and awkwardness that stood bluntly between them. She blinked, studying him intently, trying to remember any bit about him. Why did she know his name? A coincidence? A sign from someone....? A rememberance? It now excited her. She wanted to speak more, but didn't know what to say.
"You are... of this name?" The voice was beautiful, delicate, sincere. She waited patiently for him to take her hand, still standing in the same position as she spoke. Giant feathers fluttered to the floor about them, finally catching up. They had been cascading about them for a time, looking magnificent like large ravens from a distance. They seemed to glow with a dull grey, looking special compared to the stained flooring beneath them.
High high above the downed pair, a little girl and a pink bunny rabbit peered over a grimy handrail The child's face hid a devil's soul, and it's hatred twisted the visage of soft innocense. He had been saved, saved by a cursed one. How droll. Mr. Brillant was hardly finished. He knew this strange winged woman. He would have her suffer. No one interferred with his plans. No one.
--------------------------------------------
Ryder watched the women's face as it struggled through many emotions at once. Her energy was complicated. It was confused, burdened, yet....blessed. He could see her spirit in colors, and they were growing in intensity.
His eyes blinked in surprise when she spoke his name the first time. He leapt to his feet when she uttered it the second. The third time, he was trembling. The voice reached deep inside of him, and brought the emotions he was ashamed up to the light. He felt raw, exposed, pained.
"You are...of this name?" She asked. Ryder's eyes focused suddenly on her, for once ceasing their search within, for the body without. He saw the scars, the stitches, the pain she wore on her black wings.
He hugged himself, and backed up a few steps.
"I don't know," he said softly. His foot splashed into a puddle of something wet and smelly. He danced back several more steps. "I don't know!" He was yelling now. He shut his eyes and his hand shook in tight fists.
"You said to wait here! Wait here! I waited! I was good!" He didn't understand what he was saying, the tide of emotion within was surging in a tsunami, drowning him. What was this? Who was she? Falling, the foul wind, that pink rabbit, the black wings... he had waited. For nearly ten years he had waited in this slum, and what for? His fingers twisted themselves in his fair hair. His head hurt, and he felt terribly confused. The waves she was giving off were warm and distant at the same time. They were prodding a being within that he had hidden for a long time. It was his other half.
"I don't understand," he said. He cast one more fearful look in her direction and then his legs were carrying him splashing down the street, weaving him between beggers. His vision was fogging with tears, and his hands pushed blindly before him. Home, he need to find it, that broken cell-like room he stayed in when he wasn't watching from the walkways...
Her energy flowed rainbowicly towards him, trying to engulf his in a way to where they could connect on a further level. a more spiritual level. She felt the sense of blessing upon him as he watched her; he had obviously just discovered something that was deeply hidden inside of him. She moved closer to him to try and comfort the terrified boy, body following his. She heard his voice, saw his trembling. She felt the pain he did: they had connected but he did not know it. Confusedly she watched him run, hearing the sayings he called to her.
Wait here? Good boy... A bit of agony seemed to strike through her causing her to become winded, eyes rolling back into her head lightly as memories tore through her skull. They ripped at her sanity and flashed intensley as she moaned lightly, stumbling backwards awkwardly. She blindly looked around, the scars burning her face and the areas around her eyes. She forced them open to see him running, her body jumping up and wings expanding as she began to fly. She chased him through the alleyways, calling out his name. There was something deeper between them, and God was sending them this moment for a reason> She would not take it for granted anymore. Her pale and frail body gingerly swept about, lightly touching random pedestrians. They stared at her, baffled but also curious about the commotion> A few of them yelled for her to halt, obviously thinking that she was trying to hurt the celestial boy than help him. She dared not to look back and merely pursued him.
The boy ran, twisting and turning, finding a way that he had memorized. His mind could be somewhere else entirely, but his feet would still take him home. His blond hair streamed behind like the banner of a fleeing sentry, with his abandoned post burned to the ground. His sense of confusion turned to terror, which in turn bled into intent. Once he reached his sanctuary, all would be well.
He stole a quick glance over his shoulder, and what he saw terrified him. The winged woman seemed to floated effortlessly behind in pursuit. His senses, heightened by his fear, saw the black features flicking in the foul street currents. He was so entranced that he ran headlong into a body.
"Hey! Watch it boy!" An insulted voice said. Ryder scrambled to his feet, a concerned face bobbing before him, the questions went above and beyond him. He backed away and a door apepared behind him. His hand fumbled with the handle and then he was inside. The door closed and cut off the noise from outside. It was quiet, silent. His feet carried him several steps into the place before he realized that he could stop. And also realize were he was. The bell tower. Home. The boy smiled as he mounted the old stairs and climbed to his room.
--------------------------------------------
The air on one lonely rooftop rippled and swirled like the surface of water disturbed, and a little girl suddenly appeared. She held a worn pink rabbit close to her chest. Her grimy feet floated inches above the dirt, a simple levitation technique for someone of her rank. She floated to the edge of the roof and looked down. The winged one who had saved the boy was down there. A lip curled in distaste. Orders were orders, but her plans were of her own unique derivision. And when her plans were tampered with, she grew angry.
"I know Mr. Brillant," she whispered hatefully. "She will die. All of them will."
The dark shadows that clung to the dirty walls began to squirm, their vacant eyes focused on the winged woman. Their arms strecthed, searching for the boy. She would have patient and watch. And wait. They could not hide from the demons of this cursed city.
Eyes focused then on the crash. the boy had knocked into an irritable citizen, his body hurried up as he scrambled away. She stopped abruptly, wings flowing in front of her as she did so. She stood, hovering solemnly above the streets, a long sigh escaped her lips. She then fell to the ground, landing hard on her feet. She did not want to scare the boy; one would find it impossible to escape the fears she herself had recently encountered. With that she backed up a few steps, looking around the dark alley blindly. The visions had stopped, the fears ceased. Once again she felt the loneliness that had been her company for many years. She felt as small as the world yet as large as nothing. So odd, this place was. Life itself, including the afterlife, was not dandy in any sense.
She cringed lightly when feeling the presence of an extremely demonic force, wings wrapping around her tightly. She sat down on the alley floor, body curling up. The large feathery ball disappeared into the blackness, her trace only being that of a black feather that fell weakly onto the ground she once stood on. A few people watched it but tried to take no notice to the angelic and demonic blessings, walking past the site as if they'd seen nothing.
Of course they had seen something, but no one wanted to remembered a damned angel. If they did, they would end up like one themselves, in most cases. The area around them seemed to blur to the naked eye, a trick being played by the stuffed rabbit and small child. It would not be safe to wait there any longer.
Zaigar stared in silence at the little child and her stuffed rabbit. She could tell that this girl was mean business and have dark powers beyond her control. It was best not to interfere. She seemed as if she was targeting both the boy and the woman with black-wings.
"Great. A nice ending to a long nap," Zaigar muttered to herself as she got ready to get off the roof she was lying on. Somehow, she found that this place with dozens upon dozens of high towers seemed to be a good place for her to get some shut-eye. No worries, no hectic goings-on and best of all, the heights. The bell-tower was her fav. It seemed that gargoyles' taste for heights was in her blood. But since the commotion had wakened her from her slumberland, she might as well get down and start the rest of the hunt today.
As she spread her wings and glided down, she stole a look into the window of the boy. He seemed so sad and helpless as he curled into a ball on his bed sobbing like there was no tomorrow. She thought she heard him say something about being good and all. She leaned towards the opening of the window and peered through the gap. He looked like someone familiar. She couldn't put her finger on who. She had to see how he looks like before she make her way for the hunt.
As she tried to widen the window gap, she accidentally knocked over a glass that was on the table near the window. It fell with a crash, alerting the boy. The boy sat up and stared at her in bewilderment. Zaigar almost lost her balance when she had a good look on his face.
"Ormack...?" the last words escaped her lips in shock...
The girl ignored those around her, her black eyes were turned inwards, her thoughts churning in an ugly cauldron of revenge, hate, and hunger. Mr. Brillant spoke teasingly in her ear, offering his judgment on the woman and the boy.
"Yes, they are foolish to separate. Even the more to believe they can outrun me," the girl murmured. She raised a hand and there was a moan of wind as she flickered from this reality.
______________________________________________
Ryder awoke with a start, his face pale and bathed in sweat. His dreams had been an swirling abyss, he was being pursued by something terrible...and that bloody rabbit appeared in fleeting shadows that moved whenever he'd tried to focus on them. Large blue eyes blinked in confusion as he discovered the reason he'd been freed from the slumber. His bedside stand had been disrupted.
"Ormack...?" A voice said, it was right next to his head. Ryder let out a startled yell and lunged away from the body in the window. He began tangled in his sheets and fell off the side of the old mattresses and landed on the floor with a thud.
Ryder drew his knees to his chest and pressed his face in the sheet. He willed the stranger away, he willed himself to wake up. He took a deep breath and stole a glance over the matressess. Still there. He cleared his throat and stood, trying to gather the shreds of his dignity. He still wore his trousers, but had shed his shirt for sleep. He began painfully aware of this as he stood, shivering slightly, and crossed his arms across his thin chest.
"Hello," he said in his strangely melodic voice.
Zaigar could not believe her eyes as she made her entrance through the window, trying to make sense of it all.
'How can this be?' she thought. 'Ormack is dead! I killed him! He's dead! Why is he here to torment me again?'
"Hello." Just when she was about to lose control, she heard his melodic voice. It struck her out into reality. That wasn't Ormack's voice. Ormack's voice sounded much deeper and more mature. This was just a boy. Just a little boy. But she wasn't taking any chances.
Drawing out her dagger, she used the blunt end and supported the boy's chin with it, scrutinizing his face. Looks human, but yet too pretty for a human. Looks celestial, yet too normal for a celestial. It's like a half of each. 'Hmph, a halfie,' she thought as she replaced the dagger into her loincloth. She slowly back away and muttered half-heartedly, "I thought you were someone I knew. Forgive me for my intrusion."
Yet deep down inside, she half-wished it was Ormack...
Ryder stood still as the stranger moved towards him. He didn't flinch when she touched him with her weapon. However, when she removed the dagger, his hand lifted to his chin and rubbed it as though the skin had been irritated by the vile weapon. Now that he had overcome his initial surprise, his contemplative personality emerged.
His pale blue eyes regarded the woman with innocent curiosity. He thought to move towards her, but the thought was countered with a wave of nausea. He swayed from it, confused by it's sudden onslaught. When it faded, he decided that perhaps standing where he was was the best choice.
"You are in pain. Because of this...Ormack," he said in a slow, even monotone. "You have...once done something bad...to him...but now regret that sin."
He tipped his head to one side as he observed her, his bed-tousled locks swinging. It was a rare moment for him to say such a length sentence. But he distantly sensed her emotions, he watched their spectrum in the aura that surrounded her being. And he was curious as to what they meant.
Zaigar noticed the boy trying to come up close to him. She didn't want him to. No one comes up to her unless she allows them to. She glared sideways at him with her cold golden-yellow eyes, trying to will him away.
She never knew how she got that power. When her father realized that she had the power to ward away unwanted things with her gaze, he put her to good use by training her to use that power if she were to come across any beasts that try to attack her. When he backed away and stood where he was, she released her gaze from him.
"I never regretted anything," Zaigar replied as she shifted her gaze. "Ormack has hurt me deeply, and his death is something he had earned too easily. It could never account to the things he had done to me in the past...Hmph, why am I even telling a halfie like you about this?"
She noticed the curious look in the boy's eyes and fought from smiling. He seemed so innocent, like as if he had been touched by nothing foul of this world. Yet, her heart somehow ached at the fact that this boy resembled so much of the person she had loved and lost...and killed with cold blood. She wanted to yell at him for all the things he had done, how he could even trust a lie of another more than the truth of a best friend and why did he not accept her love, but she realized the person standing in front of her was not Ormack, but someone who looks sickeningly alike to him. She sighed inwardly.
"I believe an introduction should be in place. The name's Zaigar. What's your story?"
Ryder had the unwitting effect on people to get them to divulge information about themselves that they'd otherwise keep hidden. Perhaps it was his demeanor, he truly did want to know when he asked questions. He observed, and was slow to draw a conclusion. His solitary nature kept him ever distant from others, even when he did converse. Maybe that was the other part to it, if a secret was divulged to him, who would he tell? He had no friends, no family, and his entire life was spent waiting, and being...good. His obedience to a lost father's final words was almost obsessive.
"Hello Zaiger," Ryder said, trying to be polite. "My name is Ryder Bellden."
He blinked, his mind whirling about proper etiquette. A hand shake? A bow? Even though the last time his politeness was rewarded with a nearly fatal shove, he endeavored to try again. He gave an awkward half-bow to the hunter.
As he straightened, he realized something. She had called him something: halfie. Was this...bad? He decided it was meant as a compliment. Pale blue eyes regarded Zaiger, not at all bothered by a long silence. His soul resonated in a silent cathedral, unadorned, vacant, and lonely.
Zaigar smirked at the politeness given by the boy who was named Ryden Bellden. She nodded half-heartedly back at him. She didn't know why, but either it's the fact that he was a half-breed like her or the fact that he was in Ormack's image, her heart secretly warmed up towards him.
"No need for formalities. We're from the same kind anyway. I'm a halfie as well, a half-gargoyle."
But there was something that bothered her although she had decided not to interfere.
"So, uh, Ryden. I don't mean to pry but...I noticed someone rather weird hanging around on your roof. A little girl with a weird stuffed bunny. What's the deal with them anyway?"
Zaigar realized it was a big mistake asking him when his face became pale as a ghost
Ryder felt the hair rise on the back of his neck.
"They are not pleased with me," he said in way of explaination. He smiled slightly. "I did not die when they pushed me from the walkway."
He shrugged and looked to the window, half-expecting the Mr. Brillant to be sitting there. He was not. This was the first time he'd had a direct attempt on his life. and since then, he's experianced more run-ins with ghouls and demons then he'd care to admit. He did not know why they were suddenly so aware of his presense. He thought suddenly of the woman with blackwings...perhaps she knew...
Zaigar saw the wandering look in his eyes. The exact same look Ormack had when he was deep in his thoughts. The sight of him hurts her so bad. She really just wanted to punch his lights out there and then just to let go of her frustration but her father had taught her that she must act on her head and not her emotions.
Maybe he was thinking about the little girl with her stuffed rabbit, maybe he was thinking of someone else he met besides her. Why would they want him dead anyway? What had he done to anger them so greatly? Guess she wasn't in a place to question anything that didn't really concern her, but somehow...
"Here," Zaigar said as she quietly wound a dragon's tooth necklace around his neck. "In case you need protection. May my gargoyle ancestors watch over you...and may your father do the same."
With that, she swiftly made her way towards the window and disappeared into the dark evening sky.
Ryder touched the necklace, his fingers tracing the serated edges of the dragon teeth. he felt strength in them, a power, and a wanderlust. He lifted his head to thank Zaiger, but she was already gone.
The boy rushed to the window and stuck his head out. An incredible wind rose and pulled at his tousled blond locks. Pale blue eyes stared after the strange woman. He was troubled by her problems and wished he could help.
With a ghost of a smile, Ryder ducked back into his abode, his hands pulling his tunic over his head. He shook his hair out of his eyes and froze. A tattered pink bunny sat on his bed, black button eyes trained on him.
Comments