I walk out of the bar and turn right, my date left already but I needed a drink so I stayed. I'm not drunk, not even close and that is good because my mom is coming to visit tomorrow. I pull my phone out of my pocket and see that I don't have any messages, I put it back in my pocket and start walking to my apartment. It's not a long walk. When I walk past an alley I think I hear something, so I stop and listen close. It sounds like someone is crying, 'weird' I think. The sounds break my hart and I can't help myself as I walk into the alley, looking for the person that is crying.

A woman is sitting in the far end of the alley, my hart skips a beat when I see that she is covered in blood. I carefully walk closer, trying not to scare the woman. "hey" I say softly, she looks up at me with the most beautiful blue eyes I have ever seen. I pull out my phone and say "I'm going to call an ambulance okay"

"no" she says "no ambulance" I ignore her and bring the phone up to my ear when I feel something flying past my face taking my phone with it. My ear hurts, when I reach for it I can feel blood dripping down on my shirt. I turn around to see where my phone is and I see it stuck to the wall with a knife stabbed trough it. I face the woman again, now slightly terrified. The woman looks just as terrified as me, she says "I'm sorry, please don't come near me. I might hurt you, again" she turns around and starts to walk out of the alley. I can see that her blouse is ripped open and her skin is cut open behind it, "wait!" I call after her. She stops and turns around, "let me clean your wounds, I promise I won't do anything". "I'm not afraid that you'll do anything, I'm afraid that I will" she says. I can see that the woman is genuinely afraid of herself, so I try again "you can't go on the street looking like that, let me take care of you. After that you can walk away and never look back. Besides, you own me a new phone" I smirk. "how big is your apartment?" she asks, I'm not sure how that's relevant but I answer "it's pretty big". She nods and says "okay, I'll come with you". I mention for her to come with me and she walks after me, she doesn't come close to me though.

We walk the rest of the way in silence and I can see she zoned out, so when I stop in front of my door she bumps into me. I realise that I haven't even told her my name. "I'm Alex by the way" I say, "piper" she says. I open the door and let Piper go inside first, "do you have a garden?" she asks. "yeah, through that door" I point at a door and Piper walks through it. I walk after her and I can see Piper looking around my garden as if she is measuring it. Piper turns around to face me and says "please don't hate me", she sits down on her knees and I can see something coming from her back. I realise that she is growing wings, angel wings. Although they look like they are made of metal. The wings grow bigger and bigger, until they are almost 2,5 meter wide, both of them. Piper stands up and folds the wings on her back, "please don't hate me" she says again. "why would I hate you? Come inside, I'll clean the cuts on your back." I mention for her to come inside again and sit on the couch, "can you pull of your shirt? I'll just go grab the first aid kit". Piper nods and I walk to the bathroom, grab the box and walk back as fast as I can. Piper is standing in front of the couch, shirtless. "I didn't want to get blood all over the place", I grab one of the wooden chairs "smart thinking, here sit on this one". I grab another chair and place it behind the one Piper is sitting on, I open the box and start cleaning the wounds on her arms and neck. I can't help myself as I keep looking at her wings, Piper can feel me looking. She says "the used to be made of feathers, the wings I mean". "what happened" I ask, "it's a long story" she says "we have time" I answer. So Piper begins "I grew up in a waspy family, the image of the family was more important for my parents than anything. They didn't love us, they didn't even love each other. My father cheated on my mother and my mother was a drunk, I had to be the perfect daughter but they were never happy with me. I always felt like I had to do better, until when I was 15 years old and my wings started to grow. I loved them, they were so beautiful and literally made me look like an angel. My parents saw them as a disgrace for the family and wanted me to take them away, I didn't listen to them. So they threw me out of the house and cut me off, I was no longer a Chapman in their eyes.

I was angry, at the world for being so cruel, at my parents for not loving me, even at myself for being me. I didn't want to be around people anymore so I flew to the woods in Sweden and learned how to survive in the forest. I lived there for almost 3 years when a man came to me, he told me he could help me get stronger if I helped him. I said yes, that was the biggest mistake of my live but I was desperate. He turned my wings into metal and I had to kill someone, that was the deal we made. I did it, I killed the president of America without getting caught. After that my feathers were sharp as knives but I cut myself with them, by accident of course. I am able to throw my feathers like I did with your phone, but I haven't done it in a while. Before my wings changed, I was able to hide them pretty well, even inside my body. But now it hurts a lot and I can't do it longer than a day, after that I just faint or you start seeing the cuts on the outside like you saw them. It was a mistake coming back to the city, I'm gonna go back to the woods as soon as I can."

While listening to Pipers story Alex cleans the wounds and wraps Pipers entire upper body in bandages. Pipers story is filled with emotions and I can feel them, I don't want Piper to go but I says "I'm sorry this happened to you, I cleaned the cuts…" . Piper tries to stand up but fails to do so, I say "you can sleep here tonight if you want to, you can't even walk". Piper shakes her head, "I can't walk" she smiles "but I can fly". "yeah okay, listen if your ever in town feel free to visit. My door is always open for you!" I say, I'm desperate to see Piper again. Piper nods and walks to the front door, I follow, she opens the door, walks out and stands still in the middle of the street. I stand there and watch her "goodbye Alex" she says, "till next time Piper" I say. Piper spreads her wings and I watch her fly away.

I'm not sure if I'll ever see her again but I am sure I will never forget her.