Unnatural Instinct: Fallen

14.

It seems an eternity when all I know is pain. The last thing I knew before I became this white hot fire was my master's furious face.

Eternal torture is right.

Until it's wrong.

Despite my master's plan for me, it doesn't last forever—far from it. The first I feel is the hard floor against my hips. The next I know is the weight of my wings upon my back. Finally, I enjoy the pleasure of a world with no pain. Just like that it's gone, like a candleflame snuffed out.

I open my eyes. I'm lying on the floor of the corridor outside your room where my master set me alight with his hellfire. How am I not in pieces? How am I alive at all? I touch my chest. Not even my feathers have burned away, only my pants. I lift up my hands, turning them over in astonishment.

What's going on?

A sudden blue flash makes me look up. Squinting, I raise my hand against it. It's so bright it burns my eyes. I know that light. It's been a long time since I've seen it, since I've known its warmth against my skin, but it's not something I can ever forget.

'God?'

Just as suddenly as it appeared, it vanishes and I'm left in the cold, hard darkness of my master's castle once more.

I can almost hear my last words echoing down the corridor: Leave! In the name of God!

It's hard to believe that that was me.

Shaking my head, I stand. I can still smell the smoke of my master's hellfire and the stench of my own burning flesh. I turn, looking down the corridor in which you've both disappeared. I start to walk. I need to find you. I need to stop this before it's too late. I fall into a run. Moments later, I'm sprinting.

My master's castle is a maze but I know where you are; I can feel you like a hot, blazing beacon in the distance. I can feel my master too. You're together. Am I already too late?

Precious time drains through my fingers like sand as I twist and turn down the corridors. I do not puff. I do not tire. My feet slap against the floor. Finally, I've caught up with you. I hear my brothers' chanting first. Next, I hear your groaning. Golden light floods the corridor, pouring out from a chamber to my right. Nobody stops me as I step inside.

A dozen of my brothers stand along the walls, their wings thrust out, their hands upraised as they chant. They're unaware of my presence, lost in the ceremony, their eyes pinned on you and my master.

You're in the centre of the room, lying in a bedding of pillows. I can't see you properly, hidden behind my master as he has his way with you. He's kneeling between your legs, golden wings spread wide, revealing his thrusting backside. I can almost see every one of his muscles bunched up tightly in his back. His hair falls back as he arches his neck in ecstasy. He's close. Very close.

Too close.

I act quickly.

Rushing across the chamber, I lock my arms around my master's waist and pull him out of you. He staggers backwards with a cry, then crashes to the floor. He was so close to his goal that his poisonous seed sprays through the air in a noxious stream. It's red and clotted and when it hits the floor it hisses like acid.

I can see you now, lying on the pillows, frozen in shock. Your legs are still spread wide and I can see the dark, gaping hole of your womanhood amid your pink, wrinkled flesh. To my relief you're unharmed.

There's no time to explain. I have to get you away now while my master is indisposed. Roaring and howling and snarling, he coils and writhes and squirms on the floor. Trying to impregnate you with his powerful seed has sapped him of energy. Already, his false appearance is falling away. His wings shrink into his back. His handsome face contorts, spasms, then explodes in a long snout and a snarling mouth. The strong muscles in his limbs shrivel, then sag into loose skin.

'Quickly!' I say, holding out my hand.

My brothers are waking up. They've stopped chanting, their arms falling to their sides as they stare in a daze around the room. Some are already shaking their heads or rustling out their wings.

Sitting up, you take my hand and I haul you to your feet.

I grip your arm tightly as we run down the corridors. I look up towards the high ceiling. There's no point in trying to fly. It's slow and takes supreme effort to propel myself into the air from a stationary position, especially with your added weight in my arms. If we can make it outside, I can leap from the cliffside. Fortunately, we're on the ground floor with no slopes or stairs to climb.

You're running hard but will it be fast enough?

We both turn at the sound of my master's roar.

'Move!' I cry, yanking you ahead.

After several turns, hell's reddish light glares into the corridor, spurring us both ahead. By some miracle, the doors are open. I can't hear my brothers but I know they must be following us by now. They'll be gaining on us.

Our feet hit ashen ground. In the near distance, geysers of flame shoot into the sky. You cough and splutter as black smoke falls in a cloud around us.

'Keep running!' I cry as I drag you towards the edge of the precipice.

You yank against me and drag your heels with a horrified 'No!' when you suddenly realise where we're headed. I turn to look behind us and see three of my brothers soaring on black wings as they exit the castle.

With nothing else for it, I hoist you into my arms, crushing you to my chest so you can't squirm out of my grip as I run across the remaining distance. You scream as we reach the edge and wrap your arms tightly around my neck as we plunge. You're screaming in my ear as the ground rushes to meet us. I thrust out my wings and soon we're soaring high into the air. I angle at a steep ascent, my eyes pinned to my goal—the swirling grey sky above. My wings beat hard through the air, straining against your weight and the steepness of my climb.

A brother swoops ahead of me, black wings almost lost in the mist. There's nothing I can do to stop him, my arms full with you as he dives towards me. His arms are outstretched, his wings flat against his back. Just before he slams into me, a startling blue light zaps through the clouds like a bolt of lightning. The last thing I see of my brother is his eyes, wide with shock, as he disintegrates in a blinding flash. One moment he's there and the next he's not.

You've buried your head in my chest, clutching onto me so tightly your fingers dig into my throat. I look back. The rest of my brothers have fallen away, wary of what happened to their brother.

I cannot see my master and I'm grateful for that, at least.

We vanish into the swirling clouds of purgatory but we do not remain there for long. Shortly after, we're soaring through the clear blue skies of your world. Stretched out below us is a patchwork of farmland; cows and sheep dot the hills. I look around me in wonder and disbelief. I cannot believe it.

We've made it. We've escaped my master.

But I know it's far from over yet.