Freefall (Short tale)

It was dark and he was flying. He could feel the fresh air in his face, in his hair, in his wings. And he wasn’t alone. He was holding someone’s hand. Her hand. He knew it was her, the only woman he ever loved, the only woman he would ever love.

He could see nothing, there wasn’t a single light, but it was better this way. The eternal calm surrounded them both as they were caressed by the wind. No word was said, there was no need of. They were a unique body now. Now and forever he wished.

Slowly a white spot appeared in front of them. A distant point that began to grow.
She hold his hand stronger.
-I…-she started to say- I don’t like it Sean.
He felt her voice quivering. He turned away, flying in the opposite direction, but wherever he faced, there was the white spot. Staring at them.
The spot became a stretching line, and it began to bright. Now he could see her silhouette.
-Sean, don’t let it touch me please.-She was about to cry. He didn’t knew why, but he didn’t wanted that light to touch her either.
The darkness moved back, pushed by the threatening brightness. She embraced him strongly as she whispered into his ear:
-Please Sean, protect me, don’t let it touch me, please.- She broke into tears.
He could feel the tears falling down his neck. He was strongly decided to protect her from whatever that could harm her. As the light shinned into their direction, he put his wings around her keeping her in cover and faced the coming light.

When it reached them, the first he could see was his wings, hit by the light. They shinned in a hundred of golden and yellow gleams. It was so beautiful. Then they began to turn darker, passing from an ochre colour to grey one. And it began to hurt.

It hurt badly. It was an indescribable pain. He could feel every and each one of those light rays sticking in his feathers. And in the middle of that pain they began to fall.
One by one the already black feathers fell off from his wings. They floated a moment into the air, before vanishing in a small cloud of dust. That vision was even worst than the physical pain. Desperately he held her stronger, knowing what was coming.

When the last feather was gone and the first sun ray hit her back she did not made a single sound. As her body slowly vanished between his arms her face stared at him, giving him the last silence look. She stayed silent until all that remained was a shadow of her presence, but he didn’t. He did shout, shouted of anger, shouted of impotence and prayed to die under the already big sun.

He woke up. Wet with sweat in his bed. With all the bedclothes on the floor. Breathing hard as the moon light got into his room by the window.
It had been 5 months since the car accident and he still had nightmares. He knew he would always have. Only if he had protected her... He lied on the bed and cried.