Michael looked up with a start at the rustling noise, a shadow appeared at the opened window shook its wings and said
"Don't be afraid come with me there is someone I want you to meet"
Michael smiled "Skellig!"
The figure made no reply, a sense of ice ricocheted through Michael's body and in an instant he was sure that this wasn't Skellig. Michael moved his head to try and see the figure's face in the light, but it was no use, the curtains were only letting a bare minimum filter through them. The creature hadn't moved once and Michael looked back up at it, the sense of fear prickled at his skin again. Moving with a sense of purpose he clambered out of bed, the cold air whipping at his skin as he adjusted to the temperature.
The figure made no noise and as he reached and made a grab for Michael. Then darkness filled his eyes, he still had all his senses except for his vision. Vision disabled, Michael paid close attention to what was happening around him. The rhythmical beat of wings, the smell of the wild and the cold stinging his extremities. The creature flew on making no conversation, the only noise he made was from his heavy breathing. All the while Michael had been still paralyzed with fear, he could no longer feel the parts of his body that were exposed to the nights air.
Michael didn't know how long they flew for as it was hard to judge time when your surroundings are not visible. Finally after what seem like days Michael heard an indicator of what hour it was, the early morning birds were giving their call, their familiar voices giving Michael a small sense of security and hope.
Rushes of air moved across Michael as the creature began it's descent, soon the air stopped rushing past and he felt a thump as his captor landed. There was no skidding to a stop but instead a smooth landing indicating that this creature was an experienced flyer.
The blackness receded and Michael still found that he was blind to the world, he felt that the fog hadn't fully cleared from his mind when he was pushed unawares into a world full of clear pictures, it was dizzying after being sightless for so long. He took a glance behind him at his abductor and stifled a yelp. The captor was dressed in black its hair in need of a good trim was falling across his forehead. His majestic wings reaching out behind him in a perfect arch of feathers, black and glistening as the light caught them. Michael could sense the tension in his body from the set of his shoulders and his fists clenched.
He felt a sweeping sensation, then he looked down and realised that he was being swept along by the dark angel's wings, (rather like a small piece of dirt on the floor he thought).
"I told you that you had someone to meet" the angel's voice said, Michael clutched at his head, it felt like all his senses had been heightened, he felt as if his head had been plunged into an ice pool of black water, and only when the stranger stopped talking, he felt like he could breathe again.
A dark mass of birds surrounded him making it impossible for him to run anywhere, he could just see it now: them, pushing him to the edge of a rocky cliff before he had to make the decision – jump or complete an impossible deed.
His pulse hammered in his chest, and his breathing seemed to seize up, and he had the sensation of being plunged into icy darkness yet again, then the images came.
Images of Skellig being set free, he and Mina waving a wistful goodbye, then images of Skellig sitting down hunched in a dark room coughing something that was more than blood and the dark stranger leaning over him crying silver tears.
And when he looked up, the look on his face just screamed blame, the hunch of the dark angel's wings somehow looked deadly when paired with that face.
And it was at that moment that Michael realised he had failed, Skellig was dying or worse dead.
As soon as he came to realisation with the reality of it all, the whole world was pulled viciously from under his feet and all he saw was black, darkness, then nothing more.
