Feathers

Instructions

*Bl00d and indications of vi0lence* I wake up in darkness, feeling the brush of feathers around me. I think I'm in the void, and the only thing I can feel, as far as I can reach, is the feathers. It's an eerie feeling, not having ground under me, but I'm not falling. I float, and as my eyes adjust to the darkness I see hundreds of purple strings wrapping around my body, disappearing in all directions, holding me up. Feathers, of all colors, are caught in them. A jolt of terror shoots through me, but I'm not sure why. I reach through my mind, but there's nothing there. I know there was something there, and I could tell you facts, but I can't tell you anything about me. I look down at myself, but there's nothing there but strings. If it weren't for them, I would be like a ghost. Another jolt. A ghost, am I a ghost? Xelqua. The voice appears suddenly in my mind, and I feel, more than hear, as it says to me that strange word, Xelqua. Is my name Xelqua? I put it in one of the blank catches of my mind, but it doesn't fit. A mask appears before me, its smooth white surface contrasting with the dark void. On it is a symbol. It’s a square, with the corners separated, and some sort of light emanates from it, silvery, and bright. A singsongy voice comes from the void, different from before. Lose your sight, if you might. Lose your hearing, Or lose your voice, it's your choice None of these options sound good, but what do I have to lose? I reach for the mask and put it on. Pain. Bright searing pain that seems to go into me, melding with my face. I try my hardest to take it off, but it won't budge. I open my eyes. Do I even have eyes? And see the strings have shifted. Instead of binding me, they now go straight into me. My fingers, or where they're supposed to be my arms, and as I look around, I see I have wings around the edges of my vision. Feeling around my face, they seem to have replaced my ears. Long white wings, with purple highlights, also sprout from my back. The pain is fading, and I can see it must have originated from them. That is not the only change. Through the mask, which makes everything look liquid, I see eyes. They float all around me, these unbound purple eyes, occasionally blinking. Wings and feathers line the area behind them, like a backdrop. These are covered in blood. That terror, that seems to come from nowhere, comes again, but now, I see why. Watchers. I remember standing in a circle with unfamiliar people, who might have once been friends, around the strange symbol. Blood and wars and death and feuds. All because of the watchers' puppet strings. With that memory, another one arises. Just like this one, the mask, the eyes, the pain, the voice, but in that memory, the walls were simply obsidian. Since then, whatever had happened, hundreds of wings have been torn off and hung on the walls. Hung among them, out of place in the brown blood-covered feathers, are a pair of bright red moth wings. That familiar jolt. A face. Like me, a girl in a red hood, covered in puppet strings, the strings born from anger, fear, and rejection. Her standing alone as a boy with blue hair exploded, and they both died, connected by strings. The boy with blue hair as lightning struck and the moon rose. A boy in soaked clothing covered in seaweed and strings, alone. A boy in a dark hood is standing under a large statue with a similar symbol, holding up a scroll. A boy with a red sweater and parrot wings, who felt familiar somehow, alone on a desert plateau, standing over a body. The strings were there too. I fell to my knees, as much as I could while floating, as memories pounded through my head. Pearl, Scott, Martyn, Scar. Not Scar. But the last boy, the last one was me. After the first time that I stood in the middle of the dark void. I folded my wings around me, cocooning myself in the feathers. Hiding, from the things I have done, that I might yet do again. I wonder if my other wings are hanging somewhere, or if they were tossed to the void. I wonder what darkness those bright feathers held. I wonder what the feathers have to do with this.