» Hauntings & Healings

Zahra & Ilham

It was pride that turned angels into devils

Even as she beat her wings, thrusting backwards and forwards with all the vigour she could assert mid air, those twisting souls - the animated shadows - slithered nearer without heed of gravity’s foul boundary. Friends she’d once known (and for a long time forgotten), emerged from the heart of that darkness with impossible precision; were they real? There was one among them, a grown mare, who seemed to beckon to the golden-bellied girl with a retiring (almost shy), smile and… she only had one wing! Pastel eyes widen in the deceptive breath of constant twilight, uncertain, but all the same drawn by that soft, mesmerising warmth of expression; fire glow too, extended down from flaming mottled locks and altogether, the unstable arachnophile could scarcely resist. 

"Da…?" she whispered breathlessly, inaudible against the tempest’s hideous song. 

Already her wings were slowing, compelled to preserve the oncoming vision as she wracked frantically, spellbound, through the reservoir of old, unremembered faces; others were there (crawling slowly, smoothly behind the illuminated grey), a foal with pink accents, a horned chestnut, a one winged colt… "Zero?" she murmured, both confused and startled, distressed… There was a strained pinch through pale features and Zahra’s thumping wingspan dipped so she might close the distance sooner. "Bird! Where have you, how…?" Her dear sister stepped panting between the lanky legs of her long-lost friend and a tear rolled down the gullible, forlorn watcher’s cheek.

The mare’s plush lips seemed to move; what was she trying to say? There was a calm smile rising across them, the suggestion of longing in those strange amber eyes.

There were others gathering across the misted earth beneath, fools (perhaps no more than she), who felt the temptation to throw a challenge to the rebelling spirits; but Zahra didn’t see them, she was oblivious to all but those souls. Closer and closer they licked, walked… walked? Brimming pupils pinned suddenly as clarity of the situation seemed to descend, these creatures were walking to meet her? "Not REAL," her voice cracked suddenly, angrily as the sting of betrayal penetrated the wonder. Apparitions wavered in the wind of her pumping, driving wings and she fought with reconciled energy to force those conniving shadows from her front; chest sobbed bitterly, lashes meshed as hot tears gathered amongst them. "Da, they, they're lying…!"

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