A/N This is my first post, it's just a prologue, but please review anyway. Tell me if you want to hear more!
Nari Streeter
Prologue: Prayers of a Jailbird
"Dear Lord, send your angels through the night, to keep me safe 'till morning light. Amen."
Nari leaned back against the slats of her wooden dog crate, knotting her fingers through the chicken wire set between each board. With help from the razor thin strand of light spilling from the vent shaft above her, she could just barely see the crate next to her.
The little girl couldn't have been any older than seven. Her gnarled red hair spilled down her back like a curtain of blood, easily overlapping the dark wings between her shoulder blades. Her gnawed down fingers were folded reverently across her lap, her head bowed to face the cement floor as she carefully muttered one prayer after another.
"Dear Lord, please look after Pan. They took her to the white rooms today, and I'd really appreciate it if she came back to me. Amen."
The little girl paused, as if sensing someone was watching her, and slowly twisted around her in too-small crate.
Nari Streeter turned away, brushing her dark-yellow hair streaked with brown away from her speckled gold eyes. She hugged her knees closer to her chest and carefully began to count the slats of her crate. She was fourteen now. Much too old to believe in God. Still, she wouldn't ruin it for the little girl.
Let her believe. She wasn't hurting anyone.
After several minute of silence, the little girl started muttering prayers to herself again. Quieter this time, her small body rocking back and forth like a grandfather clock.
Closing her eyes, Nari rustled her gold, white, and brown-flecked wings, feeling tiny tremors of anticipation bristle her feathers. The white-coats had taken three bird-kids from their cages today. And that had been several hours ago.
They hadn't come back yet.
Pan. That was whom the little girl was praying for. Pan must have been one of the ones taken. Nari filtered through her mental list of names she'd collected over the years. Made-up names, of course.
Pan wasn't one she remembered.
Big deal.
Nari flicked a pebble on the bottom of her crate. Bird-kids went missing all the time. It didn't matter how doe-eyed, or longhaired, or strikingly handsome they were. Looks weren't enough too keep you at the mercy of the white-coats. You had to be better then good-looking. Better then strong.
You had to be perfect.
Somewhere along the endless lines of silent crates, a scratchy voice began to sob. Nari dug her fingernails into her arm, biting back tears of her own.
Don't cry.
That was the first rule. Never cry. Never let them see how afraid you were. Make them think you hadn't been broken yet. Make them wish they'd never chosen you.
Nari tilted her head slightly to fend off the sudden burst of light that streamed into the crate room as the door burst open. She gritted her teeth and dug her nails in harder, drawing thin moon-shaped lines of blood on the back of her wrist.
Make them wish they'd never chosen you.
Make them suffer.
Make them pay.
The silhouette of a white-coat blocked out the light from the doorway momentarily, like a ghost flicking against the sun. Nari screwed her eyes shut as the footsteps echoed against the cement walls. The white-coat paced slowly, a clipboard held behind his back.
Examining the livestock.
The little girl in the next crate shrunk back against the far wall as the white-coat ran his spindly fingers along her lock, slowly removing a key from his coat pocket. The lock clicked open and fell to the floor, rattling unpleasantly in the cold.
She screamed when he pulled her out, his perfectly manicured nails gripping locks of her dirty red hair. She beat her wings uselessly, throwing poorly aimed punches into the white-coats abdomen.
Nari shut her eyes so tight that it hurt. She fought against her better instinct to help the little girl. Don't draw attention to yourself. That was the second rule. Duck low. Keep hidden. Turn away. Ignore the screams…
The white-coat fastened his steely fingers around the little bird-kid's upper arm, dragging her carelessly across the cement. She turned her wet green eyes back to Nari, stretching her other arm out as far as she could reach.
"Help!" she screamed, tears pouring freely.
Nari turned away, biting her nails harder into her skin.
"Help me! Help me! Help…"
Her words were cut off as the door slammed shut.
Nari sucked in a shuddering breath, slowly drawing her nails away from her skin. A tiny bead of blood snaked down her fingers, dropping silently to the crate floor where the wood soaked it up. Nari stared at the pink spot numbly, listening to the horrified silence that surrounded her.
The little girls prayers echoed in her head.
"…send your angels through the night, to keep me safe 'till morning light."
"…send your angels through the night…"
"…keep me safe…"
"…send your angels…"
"…angels…"
Drained, Nari slowly slid down and curled up on the floor of the crate, the slivers of wood pricking her skin.
"Dear Lord," she whispered, brushing away hollow tears, "please look after her. They took her to the white rooms today, and I'd really appreciate it if she came back to me."
Somewhere in the distance, a door slammed, reverberating among the crates.
"Amen."