Damsel[ed]: No Rescue Required

Chapter 40: Two Kids in a Ghost Town

As I spiral to the ground, I expect to see a warp of images. My wings drag behind me, half unfurled as the stars rip past. Oh, God. We're going to die! Stupid brain! Telling me I can fly! Jaylin shrieks, it sounds low and manly, so much different than my scream. Hearing it tears me apart.

"You freaking idiot!" She clings to my chest, her body pressed against mine. Her breathing blends with my heartbeat, my ears pop, pop, popping as we lose altitude. I decide this is a sucky ending. 

I close my eye, the guilt of bringing Jaylin to her death so strong it's like my chest will burst. I don't want to hurt her. Too many people have done that already.

She wraps her legs around my waist, the thump of her heart like the tick of a time bomb against my body. I beat my wings so hard I think my shoulders will fall off. We tumble through the sky, my stomach in my throat. Voices sound off in my head, fuzzy pictures flashing in my vision. Whatever that drug is, it's powerful.

A blanket of cold rushes around me, and the impact of free fall...never happens. I'm still airborne, sailing through the air like a paper airplane. I'm flying! Freaking flying! More like being blown around, but whatever, we're not dead. 

Jaylin grips me so hard it hurts. I grin down at her. She reaches up and slaps me on the cheek, but the burst of pain is nothing compared to the high of flying. A thrill rushes through my veins, the world swirling beneath my feet. I've never felt so free and so, well, painless. The achy feeling in my chest is gone, the hurt in my wounds faded like stars caught in a sunrise. I just feel, so, I don't know, happy. For the first time in awhile. I'm free. Blinded, bleeding, a little worse for wear, but I'm not locked up in a villain HQ, and I'm...okay. It's so weird.

Not crying, not screaming, not cursing the world or swinging from mood to mood like a metaphorical Tarzan. Just okay. Deep in my jet black heart, I know I'm not. I know it hurts and I know I'll have a lot of nights curled in a fetal position trying to figure out my place and what all this means, but for now, I feel fine.

Cat drags herself up my body. Normally, I'd feel kind of uncomfortable, but what matters is that we're not two splats on pavement. She plucks her arms around my neck. My heart leaps. She likes me! She does!

"Fibbs," she says, her big brown eyes narrowing, "don't you ever try that again."

I let out a breath, kicking out my legs to give myself more momentum. My head throbs.  I can almost feel the wash of teenage hormones dribble away. Jaylin presses her nails into the back of my neck, the ache of my tender wings seeping in.

 I look at her, really study her face in a stalkery way that normally creeps me out. People like to talk about 'building walls', and if Jaylin is one of those types, hers is cement and crisscrossed with barbed wire. Am I supposed to play knight in shining armor and rescue her? From herself? That just...doesn't feel right. Nothing does. Colors spiral in front of me, and I shake my head, thoughts....coming...slower. I drop. Jaylin screams again, and I force myself to keep my wings beating.

"You idiot!" she says.

Funny. "It's your fault," I say, stifling a yawn, "you shouldn't have sprayed me."

"If you had shut up and followed me in, I wouldn't!"

"And be stuck your prisoner?" Even though I like Jaylin, I won't plop myself back in that HQ to be near her. "I don't think so."

"Yeah, well, aren't I yours now?" she asks, glaring hard enough to put Galaxy's death stare to shame. "You're kidnapping me."

I think back to when I threw myself off the roof. She grabbed my hand. This doesn't count. "No." I'm not like Jaylin. At all. I'm attracted to her because, well, we're opposites. Maybe she would kidnap me, but I wouldn't do the same. I'm the good guy of the equation—