The Winged Guardian

Sweat burned my eyes.

But I was not supposed to be sweating, a thunderstorm was roaring outside the window and it was a bit chilly in this room.

A white streak of lightning struck with a muffled grumble and another drop of salty sweat slipped in. My eyelids folded up and down rapidly like a high-speed windshield as I tried to blink the water and the brightness out. My arms were tightly cramped against my body in this tiny space to be of any help, and if I moved he would hear, and I would be dead.

I was quite sure that I would be dead. Maybe that was why I was sweating.

Five minutes in this fetid box felt forever. I waited…and waited…and waited. Fear completely paralyzed my thoughts and my nervous system, slowing down the nose muscle.

Shit! Not moving doesn't mean I can't breathe!

I took in a big gasp of air by mouth making up for the portion I missedShit! it's too loud! He turned…!

—only a fraction toward me, or the locker in his case. The breath caught in my chest stocking up tension in my sinuses. As the air begged to be released, I thought piteously to myself again that I was going to die, either by him or by not being able to breathe out when needles started running up my legs. Gosh…It was only a matter of time before this pair of stiff calves give up, and I would tumble out of the locker and he would see me and sadly…I would be dead.

I should think of something fun! A crazily terrific idea came right off from pure madness created by fright. I could guess what would kill me, the numb knees, the breathing, or the guy.

The numb knees…

The breathing…

The guy…

The breathing…

The guessing took my mind off the stress and I was able to breathe normally once again. But the rain suddenly stopped and the room became deadly quiet. I had to lightened breath in order not to be discovered.

There was a saying about 'Blue sky after the rain' which I had once heard and started to think was not true. Well, first the sky was still dark out there; and second, the guy was still here, yet to disappear, unlike the feelings on my lower part.

I'm going die!

Of course, I will die! Think, what kind of people would have a pair of wings on their back?

X-Men? Bird-man? Alien? Cosplay? Angel?but the wings were black.

Dark creature? Black means dark and evil.

Yes, a dark creature! A monster! And a dark creature would kill me without a second thought even if we were classmates.

My knees had finally come loose. I held onto a stickprobably an unclean mop kept in this lockerand looked out again in my final moment with fright.

But the winged man was climbing up the window, and with a single blow, he flew away into the mystery of the moist night sky.

I fell over the cold hard metal door and it bursted open in clanking and clacking. I rolled down among the clattering mops and brooms, was hit with a corner of a chair when suddenly my forehead burned. Bright blue light was shining everywhere.

When the pain and the weird light subsided, I scrambled over the scattered cleaning equipment to the window where the reflection of me with a circular Celtic-like symbol on my forehead freaked me out of my mind.

Is this some kind of curse? I will die in a torturing way because I know too much about them?!

I felt like shit! The curse's shit! The rain's shit! Dinner's shit! Everything's SHIT!

And while I was moaning and rubbing desperately with my wild hair at the fresh curse on my forehead, someone was bending over me.

"Leigh?"

My tears rolled back at the voice. I looked through the all messy hair on my face at the one who called my name. All the pain and panic vaporized, my head was just—shit!

"What are you doing here? Are you alright?"

SHIT! It's CONNER RIDER!!!!

I uttered shit one more time in my head before shooting out of the room. I ran and fell, ran and fell, ran and fell.

Damn! School at night wasn't fun at all.