Broken Wings

Chapter 1: Broken

Falling.  Always, falling, through the deep and endless sky.  Her twin turquoise pigtails trailed behind her as she watched the earth rushing towards her.

A long time ago, she felt the normal fear of impending death.  Of her small child’s body being smashed against the unforgiving earth and being helpless to stop it. But now, after so many times just like this, where she knew how her journey through the sky would end, she felt not fear but… anticipation.

For as she plummeted through the air, she saw the familiar form of a blue-haired boy dive through the air, getting ahead of her fall, his long white and purple robes trailing behind him.  He reached out and grabbed her with his arms, bringing her descent to a stop.  As he drew her close to his body, she began to not fall… but fly.

The ocean spread below her, speeding past as he carried her, gently singing a song to her in a language she could not understand.  For these precious few moments, she saw the world as he did, where no distance or height stood beyond the reach of his lovely white wings.

All too soon, it came to an end.  They’d alight atop that same hill.  The boy’s melody would cease as he set her down, her feet once more rooted to solid earth.  She would get one quick look at his face – he looked maybe a few years older than her.  He’d smile at her, just once. Then his smile would fade. He would lean in next to her ear and whisper the same words every time.

Then he’d turn his back to her, and she’d watch him spread his magnificent white wings and fly away.

She reached forward, desperately trying to grab some memento of their encounter and her eyes lay on a tall white feather drifting through the air …

 

THUD.

“OW!”

Small tears came to Hatsune Miku’s eyes as she pushed herself off the floor, aching all over from her tumble out of the loft bed.  “I never hit the ground in the dream!” she whined.

She grabbed a leg on her bed and used it to pull herself back up to her feet.  She checked her alarm clock.  “Aww… it’s only 7?!  My next class isn’t until 11…” she grumbled, “I could have slept in even longer!”

Rubbing her sore backside, she decided not to waste the unintentional early start.  “I could head down to the park and get some song lyrics done before I gotta go up to the university…” she said to herself.

 

“The dazzling strobe lights and the pounding LED’s take my hand and run off, I stumbled and my eyes opened…”

Miku began to softly sing along to the recording of her own voice as she rode the elevator down the six floors of her apartment building.  As she looked at the clouds, she tugged her black pullover over her white blouse, smoothing out her pink skirt.  She admired her reflection in the metal doors, giving the feather-shaped barrette in her hair a tap.

“Move past the boring, repetitive days, today I’ll dream again!  Colorful shining sounds!”

The tealette ignored the odd stares of others around her as she kept up her practice, her ear buds blocking out the sounds of the world around her.  She had to have this song practiced and ready for Vocaloids rehearsal over the weekend.  Rin was going to chew her out if she came unprepared again.

‘Rin’s lucky… Len’s her partner, they just remind each other to practice…’

She slapped her cheek as the bell to the elevator rang and the doors opened wide.  ‘No no no, positive!’