Under the Wing

“In the ire of shattered lives. 

How many fellows will deprive?

Is it one or is it five?

In the ire of shattered lives.

Who's a fool to contrive,

With their knives, who survives.

Is it one or is it five?

In the ire of shattered lives.”

A siren song caressed the midnight air. It’s tune, once a somber reminder to pirates of old, now a forgotten myth in a sea of doubt. Elija hummed quietly with the songstress, still swept with torpor. A sudden screech broke him from his hypnosis. He brushed slumber from his eyes as he looked bitterly upon the waters framed by his window sill.

The ocean brushed along the sand with thick waves as the moon embodied the water. They moved in chaos, immovable, unstoppable, and irrevocable. Before the death of his marriage, he lived like the crashing waves but now he wished the waters would swallow him. 

At least without a wife, I save on toilet paper, he scribbled the manic thought on a sticky note. The noise that woke him, forgotten. It wasn’t uncommon for Elija to wake at midnight. Often he woke for the water, he called inspiration, to scribble neurotic and meaningless phrases.

A glimmer along the waves caught the eye of Elija. A large splash caused luminescent waters to glint against sea foam filled waves. Intrigued, he waited for a moment, it seemed to be too close to the shoreline for a dolphin or shark. He held his breath. What was that?

 Instead of that brilliant fin, a body surfaced. Through his window it appeared to move slowly onto the sand like a serpent, the body appeared malformed. Won’t a dead body lower my property value? I can’t sell this place even if I wanted to. There are too many memories in these precious walls, he thought. Curiosity drove him from the safety of his home. 

From a short distance, he could see a figure, an epitome of womanhood, laying in the sand. He approached cautiously, Elija could see movement along the sand, it was feathers. It looked like a down comforter exploded and dispersed in the wind. Feathers twirled in the wind and covered the woman's body loosely. Most of them seemed to rest around her arms that spread like a cross.

“Help me stranger,” a child-like voice called from the full figured woman. Her hair wrapped her neck and face. Elija moved quietly away. He didn’t want to entangle himself with a woman in such a desperate shape. She could get me into trouble. It would be better to leave her here and let someone else find her, he scolded himself. 

The wind anticipated his dissent and swiftly churned the air. Feathers fluttered into a quiet tumble taking ocean mist with it. Elija rubbed the salt from his lips and looked toward the woman. Her face, now uncovered, looked pale and weak. A heavy thud pounded in his chest. The woman, her appearance and features, they are almost identical.

“Trinity?” The name left a weight on his chest. The woman had fallen unconscious, there was no answer. Elija approached, instinct told him it wasn’t the same woman he expected to spend a lifetime with. But that face. It's uncanny. He placed his arms around her and carried her home.

 Feathers swirled in the air as they lifted from her body. Elija placed her on his couch and covered her openness with a blanket. He couldn't seem to stop himself from staring, the face he’d once captured in matrimony, only to find his woman broken from the cage that bound her. She ran into the arms of another man. That despicable woman.

Will she be alright, my Trinity, you’ve come home. He caressed her dew drop face, she felt bitter in his hand. I knew you’d be back. You said it was my fault but you're here. He smiled brightly as he placed a hand around her neck. It is easier this time. The world will be better. I will be better. I can keep you, unlike the others no one will miss you.

He tightened his grip on the innocent creature under a vermilion gaze. Her vocal cords hummed against his hands. Will this deplorable woman beg for her life? He leaned in closer, and loosened his grip. Suddenly her eyes flew open while under his weight. Their golden intensity threw Elija backward.

The woman shook the blanket from her body and exposed massive wings in the place of human arms. Fine white down covered most of her bosom along with long flowing white hair and fell wildly around her face. Her predatory features rocked the confidence Elija held when he squeezed life from her moments ago. She hasn’t come back to be with me. I see the malice behind those innocent eyes, you vicious woman. I am doomed.

“Trinity, I didn’t mean to. It’s a misunderstanding,” he pleaded. His calm demeanor shredded as if he were about to be thrown in a wood chipper. The creature tilted her head like an owl, the predatory response sent Elija groveling at her feet. It began to look less human with every passing moment. 

“My Trinity, I only wanted to keep you with me forever. You-. You just didn't want to stay with me so I tried to make you stay. I didn’t mean it. W-we can go back but you have to stay where you belong, with me,” He coerced. She raised her heavy wings above her head, silence descended in the room. Her wingspan in itself was intimidating. 

Elija raised his hands in an attempt to pacify the fallen angel. The atmosphere moved around them in slow motion. It was the stillness before a predator strikes it’s prey. He tried to think of something that would pacify the monster he willingly let into his home. Realization dawned as the bird-like creature turned her gaze toward the western wall.

“I- I know why you have come for me, my wife.” He tried again, with the sole intention of preserving his life from the vengeful angel stirring his living room. He crawled along the ground to a small inconspicuous hamper door used for dirty laundry. He opened it to reveal a timid figure stuffed in the fetal position, she was bound in blood stained ropes and forced into darkness after meeting her end.

Her head was tilted back and mouth agape. Dried blood crusted the young wife’s face. Trinity’s body was grey and stiff as Elja pulled her from the hamper. Her body fell to the side under the weight of itself exposing a large knife lodged in the back of her neck. The creature looked over the unpleasant scene, and the unwavering smell of death. Elija’s heart tred like an elephant in his chest, he couldn’t identify the rising anger in the beast. 

She swept the body in her great wings, like an infant in a cradle, she rocked it for a moment. Elija noted the despair on the creature’s face as it removed the six inch blade using its transformed talon. The knife dropped to the ground with a loud clatter. In a single blink of a second the body lifted away into millions of down feathers. The moment was quiet and peaceful for the fallen Trinity. I have atoned this great sin and delivered her body. There are more to take her place. Even if I lose this one trophy, my sweet Trinity, I will miss you.

The creature turned its amber eyes on Elija. Filled with ire the creature struck swiftly and grabbed him with massive talons. Fear cascaded across his skin as the bird dragged him with extreme force through one of the large windows in his home. Glass shards dug into his eyes and midsection. The shards blinded him as he was carried higher and higher into the atmosphere.

 He fought against talons foolishly, unable to see how far he’d been taken, the bird gave him what he wanted. He was released from her grip. The wind left little to no resistance as he crashed into high ocean waves. Swallowed by the waters, he sank, the pirates of old greeted him at his grave. They too met the siren in the form of a woman they possessed. That familiar song from within their dreams sang along the ocean. Forever.