The Girl With A Bird For A Heart

The Girl with a Bird For a Heart

Tempest Feather

As she stretched and awoke, her alarm clock rang. Ignoring it, she buried her head in the pillow. Her dream flooded back. 

She was running heavily through the forest, her feet pounding over the molding earth, which gave way to cracked pavement. Her sneakers slapped the concrete as she ran, fleeing from them as she skidded to a stop before her local mall complex. Ducking into one of the stores, she dropped down the wall, breathing heavily. There, before her, was a police officer checking his list. Thanking her lucky stars, she scrambled up, running up to him, opening her mouth and asking-

“GET UP!” hollered her mother from downstairs, yanking her out of her dream. She dragged herself back into reality, closing her soul, her bird back into the cage around her heart. She pulled herself out of bed to turn off the alarm clock. She picked a pair of jeans and a random shirt out of her dresser. Walking out of her room and into the bathroom, she clambered into the shower. As the water hit her back, the bird slipped from the cage and-

She stood underneath a thundering waterfall, the mist spraying over her as she readied for battle. She clenched her silver sword tighter, gazing at the roaring dragon before her. It breathed blue fire at her and she brought her shield up to block the flames. As she did, she caught sight of the chain wrapped taught around the dragon’s blue scaled ankle. Poor thing! ‘Those trappers,’ she fumed as she pushed forwards, cooing to the dragon. It settled down, lowering its head defensively, baring its teeth as-

Pounding on the downstairs wall jolted her and she ran shampoo through her hair. Turning off the water, she yanked the towel off it’s hook and ran it over her body. She brushed her teeth, put in contacts, pulled on her clothes and a brush through her hair, and slipped on music. The bird flew back into its cage and she stepped out of the bathroom.

Heading downstairs, she walked into the kitchen. Her mother cracked a joke, “She emerges!” which she took. She suppressed the mild anger that arose at being teased for having to leave her worlds behind. The bird fluttered its wings, but she hushed it. She threw leftover spaghetti into the microwave, then scooped it into her mouth, threw yesterday’s homework, her computer, a book, and her lunch into her bag and hopped into her dad’s car.

He drove her to school. She stared at it for a moment before willingly stepping inside the prison of reality. She wove through the crowds of people milling about the cafeteria. No one spoke to her, no one waved or said hello. She pulled her headphones back over her ears. She headed to class, dropping down into a seat towards the back. She pulled out her laptop. As it opened, she set the bird free again, working on her story.

-opened her mouth, but he held a calloused finger to his lips then said firmly, “I must join Cat. Listen to me. We are going to go investigate the government labs here. If we do not make it back,” he paused and handed her a letter. “Here,” he continued, emotion creeping into the edges of his voice, “We have been studying the labs for years now, gathering intelligence ever since they killed Wildfire. I am sorry to turn to you now after you’ve put down the mantle, but I-we do not know where to go. Please, Lila Turner, know that I truly and deeply regret passing this letter to you, as I know that it ties you to our world. Do not open it unless I have not come to receive it in three weeks’ time.”

The bell rang and she sighed, closing the bird back into her heart. It fluttered and fought her. As the teacher began lecturing, her laptop sat open. As the teacher droned on and on, her fingers twitched, under the bird’s command. At last unable to resist its call, she snuck back to her world.

Rafe then turned and walked to the window, cracked open slightly. Lila called out softly, worriedly, “Wait, Rafe! What do you mean, ‘If I don’t come back?’”

He glanced over his shoulder at her, his sad eyes glinting in the streetlight, then, his broken English more prominent than ever, said, “This heat spell is not normal. The government’s silence is not normal. We are not normal. The puzzle pieces fall into place. Goodbye Lila. I would have liked to see you happy, but I have a feeling happiness is a long fight off.”

The next bell rang and she closed her laptop, slipping on her headphones. She put her laptop into her backpack and slipped out the door. As she passed through the crowded halls, loneliness set in on her. Her pride at her story burnt at her, but as she moved through the halls, it was as if she was a ghost. No one so much as glanced at her.

The next class passed similarly, though she had no chance to write. As soon as it was over, she headed to the cafeteria for lunch. She sat down on a small table on the outskirts. On her phone, she pulled up a Youtuber, watching him as she ate by herself, trying to ignore the sounds of students having a great time while she fell to the wayside.

As soon as lunch was over, she hurried to her next class, just enough time to write. But all too soon, the class began and she had to stop again. The last two classes ground to a close and school was over. Relieved, she put on her headphones again, shouldered her bag, and began to walk home. Alone.

As she walked home, a white van pulled up next to her. It slowed to a crawl and the shotgun passenger window rolled down. A white man with long brown hair creeping out from under a blue baseball cap leaned out slightly and said softly, “I will shoot the man I have in the back if you don’t get inside.” She turned to glance at him, saw the sincerity in his eyes, and climbed into his huge van. In the back was indeed a man, though more a teenager, about her age, and he glanced up at her with soft caramel eyes, grinning softly and brushing her fingers with his. As the car drove off, the man in the front glanced back every so often to make sure they weren’t pulling anything. This happened less and less though, and soon the young man reached over slowly, tugging on the back door metal handle. It sprung open and he grabbed her quickly, leaping for the open door-

Arriving at her house, she opened the door, dropping her bag on the floor as she headed to the kitchen to grab a snack. Her mother launched a few questions at her, “How was school?”

“Good.”

“How’s the homework load?”

“Not bad.”

Questions parried, she ate her snack slowly. The sandwich wasn't delicious, but it was a procrastination. The bird in her chest began to fight her and she reluctantly got up, resolving to do her homework before she got lost in her worlds. The homework took her a few hours, and she struggled to complete it, the bird in her chest banging against the bars. Finally it was finished, but then her parents called her to help make dinner.

She fit with an effort into their conversation as they talked about their day, then about her mother’s mother, then about her father’s mother, and then about what he had done for work. Rituals out of the way, they progressed into improvised conversation, complaining about the weather, and chatting about the upcoming holiday. Not once was her story mentioned. She didn’t bring it up either, the bird slumbered in it’s cage, exhausted from it’s three hour long struggle.

They ate dinner in front of the TV, she helped with dishes, then escaped back upstairs. She played video games for an hour, then settled in for the evening. She put her headphones on. The music sang the bird to wakefulness.

Tayce shifted worriedly on the bed, then signed with his gnarled hands, I’d like to see the letter. My son, my adopted one anyway, is in the labs right now! The very labs that they tortured him in! He’s there with countless heroes, risking his life! At Lila’s surprised look, he continued, his hands adding worried little flourishes as he signed frantically, How have you not heard? They’ve been flooding in from all over the world. No one knows how these other heroes know, but they’re all converging, right here, right in those labs! They keep everyone else out, but more and more of them are heading inside by droves, all of the nearly eight-hundred of them! Lila, something is wrong and you know it! And you have a letter to save them all!

By that point, Tayce was so worked up that he signed too furiously and wildly for Lila to keep up. She reached out and grabbed his hands to quiet him. “Okay, okay, let’s go take a look. Just looking can’t hurt, can it?” she asked, more for herself than for Tayce.

Lila stood up shakily and paced over to her bedroom dresser, pulling out the letter with shaking hands. She took it back over to where Tayce was sitting on the bed, wiping at his eyes furiously, tears just starting to fall despite his attempts to hide them. She passed him the envelope and he opened it. He looked through it, then passed it to Lila, hands shaking too much to sign. It read in scrawling script:

To whoever this is passed to,

None of us envy you now. At the time of writing, “us” includes Bastien Morales, Deene and Phedra Greenway, Devante Roca, Cypress, Colt, and Coral Holland, and Cat and Rafe Santiago. We have been called the American Heroes Coalition, but right now, I don’t think any of us feel like heroes. We just raided the government’s lab here in Portland, and we found three empty cells. We assume they were holding people. We looked around but were quickly ambushed.

We were outnumbered, and we didn’t want to cause a fuss, in case we were endangering the lives of the poor souls that had been trapped here. We also surrounded Bastien, but he had grown enough that we don’t believe they recognized him. We surrendered and the head of the FBI made us sign a treaty that prevented us from speaking out about what we had seen. We all agreed, all but Wildfire, poor dear. She tried to resist, but she was shot down where she stood. I give her credit for trying to take a hostage and not just flat-out killing the soldiers, as we thought she would. We are now hiding, planning our next move.

-Vigilance

There was an additional letter on the back. It had no letter of address and was scribbled hastily, with a frantic hand that went back and scratched out words as it went.

We have been watching the laboratories here for the past couple of years. We are sure that the children we went in to save originally are now dead. With Vigilance shot and with the recent reappearance of Calypso and Stoneskin but without their abilities, we believe we must act now. This letter will be passed to Lila with the intention of safekeeping. We have also called in all of the superheroes. This evil must be stopped, whatever we must pay. If we all fall, then the world will be without a light. We must not lose hope.

-Rafe Santiago

She became suddenly aware of the time. It was two, and she’d written long into the evening. She let the music carry the bird inside her as she danced over to the drawers, pulling out her PJs and clinging to the feeling she’d had while writing. She changed quickly, taking out her contacts and brushing her teeth before she slipped out of the bathroom. Back in her room, she reluctantly turned off her headphones. She climbed into bed, and the bird took over as she played a mobile game on her phone.

One night, she fell asleep, and when she awoke, she was with three other teenagers as they sat on a hill.  Two slept with their heads together, one was slumped against a rock, his dark hair falling into his eyes. There was no one in sight, though there wasn’t much moonlight to see by. As she glanced about, the others awoke one by one, scared and anxious as to why they weren’t in their beds. As they, by degrees, calmed down, she searched for something to ground her. In her hand something was clenched. A single piece of paper telling her to, ‘SURVIVE’. Determination washed over her-

She put her phone down, reveling in the story-

-and she rose, resolute. Fear wouldn’t get them home. “Come on, on your feet!” she said firmly, “We’re getting off this hill and to a city if it kills us.”

The scruffy, lanky teenager with dark hair was on his feet at her words, nodding. The other two gripped each other’s hands for support before they too rose, the female brushing her long, dyed hair from her eyes. The male seemed to be almost leaning on her, even as he pulled her close to protect her. Now that all were standing, she directed them to start walking, to see if they could find anything. They obeyed, happy to have a leader. Before long, they stepped off the hill into the forest around it, and pitch blackness set in. Suddenly, she tripped over something, catching herself before she fell to the forest floor. Turning back, she found it to be a box, small and narrow, half buried in the grass that waved gently around their ankles. She never would have found it but for tripping over it-

Sleep settled over her, and she began to dream, the bird flying free from it’s cage to ride the night-time air.

She flew, over the waving trees and hilltops brushed with faint traces of snow. She knew instinctively she could be anywhere she wished, doing anything she wished. She was free again, and she was happy. Her outstretched wings gripped the wind and she banked, dropping down into the forest. She wove gracefully through the tall pines, over a doe sleeping with her fawns. One woke, raising it’s head to blink at her as she swooped by, then her tawny form shot out from the trees and over a stream dotted with smooth stones. The rushing water lapped in her ears, the forest came alive with crickets chirping and mice scuttling along. As she flew low over the stream, the sudden urge to throw up water filled her. She skated her wingtips over it, first one side then the other as she zig-zagged back and forth down the stream. Water sprayed up about her and she burst through the drops, creating a soft mist that fell away behind her. Ahead, another barn owl burst out of the woods, eyeing her before turning and racing for the stars. She followed, angling her wings to catch the updraft, adjusting her primaries to fly silently. Now she snuck up on and over him, before cooing loudly. He hooted back, nearly dropping from the sky with surprise, but he soon recovered. She dropped back and underneath him, rolling over to fly below him, though this caused her to fall. To her surprise and delight, he copied, tucking his wings in and following her as she hurtled down through the cool air. The two plummeted back down towards the stream, which now joined a river right by its massive waterfall, and the pair fell beside it, mist encircling them as they spun about each other, spreading their wings so the edges brushed against each other and the dew caught on their feather-tips. At the last second they pulled out, rocketing over the dark, tumultuous water before they rose again, up into a tree to settle upon one of its highest branches bathed in moonlight. As she adjusted her wings, he nuzzled her, and happiness, freedom, flooded through her. The cage was far behind her, at least for now.