Cracks
There, in Talia's face, were cracks.
In the mirror, they looked so innocent and so unreal.
The cracks stemmed from around her eyes, branched off too many times, like the roots of a tree. It felt like she might fall apart at any moment, collapse into a pile of rubbish.
Talia couldn't remember how she'd gotten here, in front of this mirror. She stood up and looked around.
She was in a cathedral, which in itself was odd, but this was horrifying.
The cathedral was packed full with people in pews all sitting up straight looking at her. Looking at her with eyes smoldering with ash. She could see now they were dead.
She stared for a moment, then sat back down and turned on her phone, tears streaming down her face.
Talia blinked in shock, mind reeling. The date on her phone was two whole months later than the last day she remembered, at home.
That last day at home… she was cooking herself some dinner at eight o' clock, after working hard all day, and thought something seemed a little off. She glanced down at the air vent by her feet and saw wisps of black smoke curling up from it. She was starting to yell ,"Damn it, Owen! Smoking again?" But as soon as she opened her mouth, the thought was gone. All thoughts were gone, disappearing with the black smoke that was there just a moment before. She walked out the apartment door.
As she was recalling what had happened, her fingers had tapped out 9, 1, 1, and the voice was asking her something, telling her something, but she didn't care. Talia might have whispered something in response, something barely recognizable, but her mind was on other things.
There was another memory there, barely hanging on.
Later, another time, her body twitched and flinched as a war raged on. And then she sat still, a white light streaming around her. Anything to get rid of the black darkness inside her, controlling her. Anything to be free.
The wings snapped outward, the cathedral beckoned.
As she had been thinking, police officers had silenly crept up around her, or maybe her ears had broken, and now she was walking toward a car with ever flashing lights.
What monsters, what cruel, unnatural forces were these? What really happened there? Are even these officers human? Thoughts whipped through her head in a whirlwind and she could hardly stay still, glancing everywhere.
As the police car reached its destination, Talia saw two FBI agents talking to the officers turn to look at her, and the taller one gave a knowing look to the other.