On Broken Wings

by Gakorogirl

Tamara, a blind girl living in Ninjago City, reads the wind. Charlotte is the daughter of the Nightmare King, and the darkness is consuming her from inside. Aurora ran away three times. Cindy's parents say she's perfect, if only she would smile. When there's a shadow in your heart and a laugh on your lips, you feel like you are drowning.

1. Dreams and Darkness

My name is Tamara.

People feel sorry for me because I live in a dark world and my eyes shine like frost, but do not see. It's not so bad, I say.

My hands see. My fingers sing.

In my dreams I can see. Not long before my life changed forever, I had a very vivid dream.

I was walking on green moss in the spring sun, and birds sang around me. Green. Suddenly, I came across a little pool. Even though it was warm, the pool was frozen, and it turned into a mirror so I could see my own reflection. I named colors in my reflection: light blue ragged jeans, storm-grey hoodie, sunlight-blond hair in a long plait down my back-

But I could not see the true color of my eyes, for they were misted over with a grey frost. Something moved behind me and I turned to see who it was, but then my real, sightless eyes opened and the darkness came crashing in.

For once, I missed my sight.

Remember when I said my life changed forever the next day? It started when I walked past the Ninjago City Bank a few days after my 14th birthday. I had just escaped my "Auntie" (not really my aunt) Minerva and was hurrying down the street to get away from her. It's not so hard for me to move around as you think. Everything moving makes ripples in the wind, even if it is otherwise silent. I could hear Minerva calling behind me.

"Darling Tami, I know you must be very scared but Auntie will come and get you if you just stay still and then we can have treats!"

I probably shouldn't have told my doctor about hearing people's voices through the wind. I probably shouldn't have told him that every night, I dream I can fly. Every night I leave the world behind.

He didn't believe that the wind had broken through my window one night last year when I had a fever, spraying me with shards of glass. He didn't believe that I was asleep when I climbed onto the roof of our apartment in a hurricane and woke up on the very edge of falling.

He wouldn't believe me if I said I knew he didn't believe me, if I said that I could read his face from the way the air ran over it and I heard speaking behind locked doors.

I dodged into an alley behind the bank and pulled my hood up all the way over my head. By running my fingers through the air, I was able to find a spot between the wall and a sheet of corrugated metal to squeeze into while Aunt Minerva hurried past. About then I heard the voices.