Wings

Abscission of leaves and terror masked in facetious disguises colored the once calm neighborhood. The full moon and stars hid behind puffs of fuliginous clouds as gnarls from gremlin-like creatures lingered within the curb-lined bushes and spontaneous flickers of trembling bright light ignited anxious fright.

She walked down the middle as a grueling chill plowed through the street, depressing a sharp shiver between the blades of her shoulders. The bone-chilling ache pounded against her spine, creating a perpetual miss of an enigma that creeped up into her mind, nestling as a curious black cat.

She was the only one draped in ghastly white with a luminous ring on top of her glittered hair, grazing the dark streets alone.

“Aw, what a cute ghost,” an old witch said as she dropped a handful of nuts and berries into the little girl’s pumpkin-shaped cauldron.

“I’m an angel.” A small voice whispered.

“Well, aren’t you two scary.” The witch turned to drop heaps of granola into a werewolf and ghoul’s pillow sacks.

A devilish snarl came from the reddened horned face ghoul and chased the exposed fear in her down the driveway and out onto the street where a grotesque group of characters hankered in the vulnerable innocence squealing within their reach. She took a sharp detour just before their spiky skins could shred her gown, but they followed after her with chicken feed and cherry bits spewing from their over-filled sacks into handful catapults.

Hagridden by the mischief, she dropped her cauldron, dodged stinging pellets, and funneled between two houses into the beginnings of dark, wooded trails. A downpour of hail halted the ghoulish mob from chasing her any further as she retreated underneath a fog-filled bridge overstretching a creek that was quickly becoming more like a river with vicious spikes of waves from incoming acorn-sized hail missiles.

Sudden shards of electricity from the dark sky pierced the ground around her, causing her to cover her ears and squeal at every jolt as sheets of screaming rain trapped her inside the fog. The only subtle hint of calm was the water, hiding like her, underneath the shallow bridge, but even that subtlety became a threat as it crept and crawled, reaching for her sparkling toes.

While she witnessed the rising current, speckles of brightly-colored fish darted by the water's edge in a fury, heading downstream as fast as they could. Her eyes followed their quick descent until they disappeared through the clouded mist into the raging storm. A wave of emotions drenched in fear washed over her.

What if I can't get out of here? What if I try to escape and get electrocuted? What if I drown? What if a gator gets me? What if...

Just like it wasn't uncommon for gremlins, werewolves, and devilish ghouls to be roaming the streets on a night like this, it wasn't uncommon for gators to be lurking in the waterways, and a surge of rainfall made the perfect wave-riding vehicle in search of fresh fleeing prey.

Torment from every direction brewed raging fear that bubbled into agonizing pops of murderous threats as swirling thoughts of defeat drowned out the light and hope within her.

The little wingless angel shivered in her mud-splattered dress as the stunned cat within her mind deployed its claws, raising its hairs to stiffen hers. She didn't belong here - not in this dark, devoid-of-love-and-light world.

Incessant strikes of lightning continued, followed by ground-shaking pounds and pelts of relentless rain that shifted its target capabilities, angling beyond the bridge's coverage, mixing in with her tears. She watched as the water level rose up to her stocking-sleeved shins to swallow her golden-shimmer shoes, nearing the end of her days.

A rushing wave pushed upstream through the fog and swooped into the bunker, but it wasn't exactly water...

Twinkling in a wave pattern formation was a neon light electrifying a stream of fluid that flapped with the rippling water it connected with. Its powerful distinction was crystal clear with fractured bits of light detaching and re-attaching themselves in sporadic bursts against the current.

Unusually, her uncanny fear of the unknown was replaced with wild wonderment as the being thrusted through ridges of liquid force, its elegant spirit unwavering against the raging roar engulfing it.

"What... is... that?" She said aloud to herself but as soon as she did, the creature jolted, curved, and took off back downstream through the fog, leaving a long trailing tail of electric light. Before she could think her next thought, the little angel subconsciously dove into the water, grabbing ahold the silky ribbon of neon light. Its forceful power pulled her through opposing currents as it rode rhythmic waves through a thunderous medium.

The neon being dove deeper as an electrical current surged down its spine, injecting its pulse into her fingertips, seeking her sympathetic nervous system to shock her heartrate, seize the blood rush, and combine her dissipating oxygen with its explosive hydrogen - a flash of frightening reality replaced by a peace not-of-this-world.

Her once closed eyes opened to discover the darkened world around her had illuminated with a vibrancy that filled her sockets with deviant dreams, eradicating worry and flooding fear with restoring faith in the invisible electricity connecting her to the unknown, the out of place.

The bone-chilling ache that once resided between her shoulder blades had warmed to a wisping breeze as translucent neon wings flapped against her sheer, interconnected skin.

The intertwining synchronization of buoyancy and gravity had her flying underwater, flowing with rhythmic waves down river into the beginnings of dark, wonderous seas. But this time she wasn't alone, or surrounded by unlike-minded frequencies.

Other neon beings of similar electrical frequency flapped their resiliency against the vast darkness, shining an attractive pulsing energy in the form of a traverse wave. The inescapable electromagnetism lured her in to connect with another, using her past to create anew.

She wasn't a ghost after all, but an angel of the sea, in a place she needed to be to produce the future vibrancy.