Safe Haven

THE CRASH WAS IMPOSSIBLY LOUD! Mo shook awake, but she wasn’t sure why, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Something told her to hop out of bed — and she padded softly towards the window. There was a light frost covering the fields outside. And there was a light, like a blazing trail across the sky.

Out in the cold there was a boy with dark hair. His hair was so black that it almost appeared blue in the winter midnight. He wrapped his arms around himself. He was shivering. There were lights blinking behind him. He was running from the lights, looking for shelter. His eyes quickly adjusted to the night. There was something wrong with his pupils.

Mo was instinctively curious about the light and the way it streaked across the sky in orange, red, and pink. It looked like it landed straight into one of her daddy’s fields! With nothing but a nightgown on she crept down the creaky stairs to the first floor. She held her breath, hoping not to wake her parents. Daddy was a light sleeper. Besides, it probably wasn’t far from the time he’d be getting up to tend to the farm. He always woke with the final descent of the moon.

The little boy stalked through tall plants, carefully pushing them aside, always reaching as far as his hearing could go for anything alive. Once or twice, shivering, he looked back towards the lights from whence he came. There didn’t seem to be anything pursuing him. The snow gathering upon the plants’ stalks and leaves froze the tips of his fingers.

He pierced the sea of tall grasses into an open space where a flood light beamed on. He covered his eyes, blinded by the flare. He heard himself release a shriek of pain. It wasn’t good for his eyes to look into light that bright unprepared. The skin upon his arms reflected the light as if they were covered in something metallic.

Mo was standing at the doorway, her mouth slightly agape. The boy was nearly as bright as the light that he was flooded with. He stood like a deer in the headlights, his eyes covered by his arms. He curled into the fetal position on the snowy grass. She could tell from where she was standing that he was shivering. Who would be out here without any clothes!?

The boy sensed life. His basic instincts sent him running across the vast expanse and towards the structures that were painted red with their simple sloped roofs. He practically threw himself at the wooded side of the building. He scrambled frantically to find a way in! A door! He opened the way and slipped inside into the darkness. He huddled in the corner wrapping his arms around his knees. He was heaving now, trying to catch his breath — and some warmth.

Mo caught the boy ducking into one of the barns. She walked carefully through the stones of the driveway. Even the slightest unexpected noise could send her father investigating. But he would turn the lights on. She kept looking back up at the second floor of their large country home. Daddy hadn’t roused yet. Her over-sized boots crunched through the snow. She laid an unsteady hand on the doorknob to the barn where she swore she’d seen the boy hide.

The boy was rubbing his legs to keep warm. His back ached. Shivers were rocking up and down his spine and his arms. He heard the barn door open, but he was too frozen to move or make to defend himself. The girl he found staring at him was close to his age. He wasn’t sure how he knew this, but he was certain. He parted his lips to speak, but there was no way that the girl would understand him.

Mo was frozen in place! He was a boy — but he was also so different from any boy that she’d ever seen! Daddy was always weary of any boys that spoke to Mo. Daddy always told her that boys were trouble. Mo would always giggle and remind daddy that he was a boy. Daddy would always get very serious when she said this. He would look her dead in her eyes, she could feel him touching her soul, “I am a man.” He would always say. And that was that.

The boy pressed himself closer to the wall behind him. He was reviewing his possible exits. He wasn’t sure if he could muster up the strength to run. He’d fallen from so high! He shivered, wanting to say something to the girl. His teeth were chattering too much, it just came out like a pitiful squeak.

Mo stepped carefully towards the boy. “Are you okay?” She couldn’t believe what she was seeing! The boy’s skin seemed to glow in whatever light met it. It was as if he were made of metallic gold. She pointed the flashlight she’d brought with her towards the floor so that some of the light softly illuminated the boy’s knees. The boy made a strange chattering sound. He was freezing. “What’s your name?”

The boy didn’t understand the girl’s language. He just stared at her quizzically. He at least understood that she didn’t mean him harm. He still stayed pressed against the wall behind him. His back was hurting even more. His true form wanted to release and get him away from potential danger. He was certain that he was too weak to make it far.

Mo couldn’t look away from the boy’s eyes. They reflected like his skin, like a cat’s. His pupil was a thin vertical slit, like a snake’s. Where had this strange boy come from? She inched closer — and then paused when the boy muttered something. It sounded throaty, like he was trying to cough up a loogie. “Hi,” she said, crouching down to be eye level with the boy.

“Mo!” A voice hollered from behind them. The boy’s wings that had been itching to breach the flesh in his back burst from their holding pouches! Blood splattered on the wall behind him. His basic instincts told him to fly — but the floor fell out from beneath both of them. The girl screamed.

Mo landed hard on her knees. She heard one of them crack — but the pain didn’t bleed into her awareness until after her father looked over the edge of the pit down at them. “I caught one!” He hooted. Mo began wailing in pain as her body realized its trauma! “I’m going to be rich!”

The boy took flight, leaving the girl sprawled on the floor beneath him. But a net made of laser lights flung over top of them. He ricocheted off the barrier. He knew this man was the girl’s father — or relative, the resemblance was unmistakable. He could smell the scent of his own flesh burning from the laser net.

“I never thought…!” Daddy was exclaiming.

“Daddy, let me out.” Mo cried. She couldn’t stand up and it was scaring her. Her knee was doubling in size. Daddy ignored her. “Daddy!?”

“The hunters can’t ignore me now!” Daddy cheered. He pressed a button on the wall of the barn. Everything seemed to transform! Tractors twisted and reshaped into space-age machines! The rustic wooden-sandy floor flipped each tile to reveal sterile white and silver tiles. A monitor appeared upon the wall like some sort of science fiction hologram. A face appeared. “Mission complete captain.”

The face that appeared on the screen made the boy hiss. The boy knew the creature to be cold-blooded, both in physiology and in manner. They were an enemy race to his own kind. He stood, realizing that the girl was on his side, as her own blood was in no hurry to release her. He stood before her, his wings unfurling on either side of him.

“Stand down boy! There is nothing you can do now.” Mo’s father said.

“Daddy?” Mo cried again. Daddy continued to ignore her. His eyes were only for the strange alien that she shared a cell with.

“I see that you have caught the bounty. Unfortunately, it is just a juvenile.”

“The bounty wasn’t specific to age. I want my money!” Mo’s father sneered.

“And you’ll have it you insufferable pig.” The holographic face growled. “You humans, so simple-minded.” The scaled humanoid face on the screen sighed. “A clean up team will be there shortly.”

“Thank you, sir.” Mo’s father sounded oddly subservient.

“Thank your hard work, pig.” The hologram cleared its throat, “Oh and — make sure your wife doesn’t see anything. Or we’ll have to kill her too.” Mo’s father nodded.

Mo knew that it meant that she was going to be killed. She was full on crying now. She couldn’t even form the words to question her father. She was daddy’s little girl! What had changed? The pain in her knee was making her eyes see fog on the edges. The strange winged boy had her hand in his. She felt safe in his hand. She’d never seen a winged boy before. She was slipping into shock.

The boy could feel her grip weakening. He knew how to help her, but he was too weak and he couldn’t do what he needed to locked in this cage. He would never forget the scent of his burnt flesh. His people had to know where he was. He’d sent out a distress call on the pod before he crash landed. He just needed to hold on until then. Knowing he wasn’t alone was the greatest strength.

So he knelt next to Mo. Her eyes were rolling in the back of her head. His eyes were so strange with their vertical slits, a ball ending on each side, like a barbell laying on its side. His skin was so golden, his hair so dark. She felt him squeeze her hand tighter for a pulse, she tried to respond to him by squeezing his. She was too weak. Her senses didn’t make any sense. Her whole being was filled with the pain from her knee. It coated her body like a numbing agent.

Then, the boy’s free hand, hovering over her broken knee — began glowing green! “Are you an — angel…?” Mo tried to whisper. She felt the pain seeping out of her like he were literally sucking it out of her through the palm of his hand! And to some extent, he was. Mo watched as one pair of his wings began turning from their platinum white, to gray and then to black. The more and more that her knee heeled, the more and more the boy’s wings began to deteriorate. She could feel her leg flexing. She never thought she’d be able to do that again. The boy’s wings began losing feathers — and then began to appear frail, kinda like how birds that don’t have waterproof feathers look when they bathe. “No!” She cried, but was still too weak to form many words.

The boy smiled down at the girl. Through this healing he was seeing her life, her memories. She loved her father. The hunter was her father. He worked for the Scaled Ones. He felt her essence pulling into him. It was black and red with pain and hurt. He felt his wings break down into their most base parts until they eventually blew in the wind as sooty dust.

“I’m so sorry…” Mo cried. But she knew she could stand now. She could feel it! It was as if nothing had happened to her knee at all. But she felt so bad for the alien boy losing his wings. He still had four left — and she was going to do whatever she could to make sure that he didn’t need to use those wings on her!

Then, the clean up crew raided the barn…!