Frozen Embers by D. S. Novis (books to improve english .txt) 📕

It must be something else. He paced his room, allowing his mind to wonder back to that day. He had been running up the stairs, burst through the doors and onto the roof. Then he’d made eye contact with that, thing.

The image of the man’s cold, deep eyes suddenly was thrown to the forefront of Gabriel’s mind and he was forced to the floor in pain. The pain was coming from his shoulder blades. He shook his head and he was snapped out of it.

Gabriel climbed back up to his feet. So that was it. The wings were a reaction to those men. Something in Gabriel’s mind must have known what they were. Like an subconscious instinct in his head had sensed danger. It was like fight or flight. The flight part being more literal now than it had ever been. 

Gabriel began to focus on the image of the two men and almost at once the pain came back to his shoulder blades. This time he forced himself to keep going.

He looked over to the mirror again. He could see the skins on both his shoulder blades were being sliced open. Something white, thin and sharp came from both. They forced their way out of the wound and feathers sprouted unnaturally fast. Eventually the two new limbs became recognizable as wings.

Gabriel’s wings both stretched until they were at least three times the length of outstretched arms. The skin on his shoulders seemed to mould into the flesh on his wings until they were indistinguishable from one another, almost like they’d always been there.

Gabriel stood staring at his wings. A boyish smile spread across his face. They were beautiful.

How was this possible? He reached up and stroked the feathers. They were soft and smooth. He had to try them out, right now. A rush of excitement shot through his veins.

Deciding he should test their strength first, Gabriel moved the wings downwards gently. He was thrust upwards with incredible force, smashing into the ceiling, then falling back down to the floor in a heap. Shakily he got upright.

“Gabriel, what was that?” yelled Ms. Clark from the other side of his bedroom door. He jumped to his feet and dashed to the door, locking it just as Ms. Clark tried to turn the handle to come in.

“Nothing, nothing, I just dropped some books.” Gabriel said in the calmest voice he could muster. There was a silence for what seemed like minutes before she replied.

“Okay then. Most of the food in the apartment has expired. I need to go get some more from the shops. Do you want to come with me?”

"No I'm tired I think I'm going to go get a nap." Gabriel said in reply.

"That's fine. I'll be back in a few hours."

Gabriel waited till the footsteps had died away before moving from the door. Right okay so maybe it was a stupid idea to test them whilst inside.

He moved over to his window. Big flakes of snow were falling gracefully from the sky, adding more layers to that which already covered the streets below.

Gabriel slid the window open and was hit hard in the face by the cold air. He took in a deep, chilling breath and climbed out to the window ledge. His mind stupidly thought of a documentary Molly had watched once. Where adult birds will kick their chicks out of the nest when they're old enough to fly. They would sink or float.

He tried not to think about just how idiotic what he was doing was as he counted to three and then jumped.

For several, heart wrenching moments he fell speedily towards the white ground. Gabriel spiralled downwards through the air wishing to every god he could think of to save him from his impending death. Why had he jumped out of his bedroom window before testing his wings on a lower ground first?

Then, it was as though Gabriel’s natural instinct had kicked in. His wings began to flap fiercely and he started to level out. Gradually his acceleration towards the ground decreased. His fall slowed until eventually he found he was level with a window about seven floors from the floor.

Gabriel looked from left to right in utter amazement. His wings were sweeping powerfully up and down. This was effortless, he thought. It was as easy as walking, as instinctual as breathing. He was flying, actually flying.

As he hovered on the seventh floor he looked into the window he was currently floating next to. Illuminated by the television they had been glued to seconds earlier were the astounded faces of an old couple sitting on a sofa, fixed eyes on the miraculously airborne Gabriel. Food from the dinner they'd been eating dangled stupidly from their mouths.

Gabriel gave them an awkward wave and then pushed his wings against his weight and was rising mightily into the air. The building, he’d just been falling from, ran across his vision as if he were running up the side of it. He pushed hard against the cold winter air and was then soaring high above the roof tops of the London.

London’s lights, far below Gabriel, glowed like fallen stars. The buildings stretched off far into the horizon, blending into the white and cloudy sky so subtly that not even the most skilled of artist couldn't imitate its majestic beauty. It was a metropolitan wonderland. Gabriel rocketed over the tops of sky scrapers. He felt he could fly like this forever and never tire. He could go anywhere, anywhere in the world.

Gabriel slowed down until he was hovering again. The snow gently hit his bare chest and as he got an idea. He turned his head to the heavens. It was a ceiling of white and grey clouds.

Gabriel began to bolt upwards, climbing higher and higher. The snow fall seemed to intensify, as if determined to stop him. He hurtled upwards until eventually he broke through the layer of cloud and was through to the other side. It was a different world.

The clouds stretched off into the horizon. Gabriel was cold but didn’t care. It had only just occurred to him once he was up there that his body shouldn’t have been able to cope with this altitude and lack of oxygen. It seems, fortunately, his body could cope. That could have been bad, he thought as he looked down.

He flew between the clouds, reaching out to touch one. It made his hand wet. He smiled and then soared off. Rising and diving. Swirling so much he momentarily lost track of up and down. This was the most incredible feeling he’d ever had. He watched the sun dive into the cloud. The reds and oranges were replaced by dark blues. Gabriel had never seen so many stars in his life. Free of light pollution he could now see them all. Scattered about the sky like twinkling diamonds. There was an enormous full moon tonight that took up most of the sky. The moon lit a silver floor beneath his now useless, dangling feet. He had to be dreaming. After several intense pinches however he had to conclude that this was real.

Gabriel stayed in his paradise for what must have been hours before he realised his eyes lids were getting heavy. He took one last look at his newly found heaven before diving below the clouds again.

His heart sank as he realized he’d strayed away from the London. All that lay below him were snowy fields. He took out his mobile phone and turned on the navigational application. The map of roads on his phone matched perfectly the ones below his feet. The arrow on the screen pointed him to a road. He followed the navigation along winding streets until he spotted a large amount of light that lit a big portion of the sky along the horizon. That must be London he thought and began to fly as fast as he could towards it, feeling sleepy now. He wondered how fast he was flying.

Once he’d gotten back over London it wasn’t hard to navigate himself back to his apartment. He knew London streets very well.

Gabriel aimed for his window and touched down with a less than graceful landing. He was smiling ecstatically. He closed the window that he’d left open. Snow had been trickling through the window in his absence and had turned to a wet patch below. He couldn’t believe what he’d just done. He was just about to put back on his top when he realised his wings were still out. He thought about it for a second. He resolved to just try and relax. After several moments the wings began to go back inside him. It was even more painful than when they had come out. When it was finished he was standing hunched over and sweating. There were feathers everywhere. He hadn’t noticed the feathers fall off last time.

Gabriel started to pick up the feathers when a smell invaded his nostrils. Almost unknowingly his whole body stiffened and his jaw contracted. He had no idea why he felt like this. The smell resembled that of lit matches. He looked over at match he'd lit earlier. It had long since died out and he shouldn't still be able to smell it. He didn’t know what about the smell made him realize but he knew beyond all doubt that there was someone in the apartment and it was not Ms Clark.

5

Greyside

    Kevin sat bouncing a ball against the wall of his ten by six foot, grey concrete cell.  He’d throw it and then catch it. Throw it and catch it. Throw it. Catch it. His eyes not focused on anything in particular, and he thought. He thought a lot. He was a convict in Greyside High Security Prison located on the outskirts of London. It was one of the top security prisons in the whole of England. Currently the prison was even playing host to the highest rated terrorist attackers in British history, the London Underground Bombers.

However, all Kevin was concerned about at that very moment was his ball and his thoughts. For most of the day this was all he had to do to pass the time. He let his mind wonder out through the bars, out of the dozen locked doors of Greyside and over the barb wired, heavily guarded fences. Off into the bright free world he had so taken for granted, leaving behind the shackles that was his physical body.

Kevin knew exactly where he’d go if he could leave. He'd envisioned it close to a thousand times. He’d go straight to the cosy warm home of the Stevenson’s. Kevin’s jaw muscles clenched as he thought and he threw the ball with more force than before. This subject monopolised almost all of his thought time. Each time a fire would ignite inside of his chest.

Countless times he had pictured himself walking up to the Stevenson’s front door. But he wouldn’t knock. No, why alert them