"Fly" by C. L. Corbin

You feel the wind on your skin and it kind of burns, the cold, but it also tickles. You feel your hair whipping around your face and you taste icicles melting on your tongue. Maybe this darkness will be different. Maybe things will change. But you don’t know. All you can do is move, hope to get somewhere.

Your wings lift you off the ground. Only when you are flying can you truly feel how heavy your body really is. Up here the ground is blurred at the edges, you can just barely see it. The feeling of nothing beneath your feet makes you laugh. No matter how many times you fly, you will never stop enjoying that strange feeling. You aren’t scared at all. No, why would you be scared? This night, this perfect, velvety dark night is all you need. You can feel the power in you. But what if this night isn’t different? What then? You don’t know. You just laugh because all the people below you, they don’t know, they can never know how it feels to fly.

Your friends, the birds, see you before you see them. They come towards you, fly around you, teasing you to chase them. One lands on your shoulder and its weight reassures you, reminds you that this isn’t a dream, that this is your life, that this night could maybe be different. But maybe not.

The stars lead you in the way they want you to go. You don’t lead yourself. Your wings are a part of you but maybe they aren’t. Maybe you are imagining this. Maybe this night will be like last night. Maybe. But it’s so dark and your eyes feel heavy and it’s nice to be led by your wings. A snowflake lands on your nose, melting quickly, and you realize you are high up, maybe too high. How high is too high? How can you know? You can’t know until it’s too late. You’ve never been this high. Breaths come in short and you don’t know why. But still you fly up and up because remember, your wings control you now. The birds are warning you- they are down below, warning you of where you are going.

“I know.” You whisper, but your voice is lost in the wind. Fly up, it whispers. Come and meet the stars. What do the stars know? Are you still flying or are you down in your bed asleep? Is the wind whipping your face or are you warm under cotton sheets? Is there snow on your face or is that sweat? Is this a dream or a nightmare?