CHAPTER FOUR

It was on my mind the whole rest of the damn trip. Brian's face lingered in my head, only with those pale eyes and messy longish hair. That smile that wasn't Brian's at all. A completely normal body save for the wings- no tail, no claws, no fangs or anything like that. Just those gorgeous golden wings. I didn't know what the fuck to make of it.

Was it Brian? He was human enough, with his face and body and grace just like Bri's- but his expression was nothing like Brian's.

Was it Maxwell? He had wings, and he was unreal enough, but Maxwell had never been able to fade away like that. Or walk in front of the public eye and not be noticed.

…or had anyone noticed? Was it possible maybe that they had seen and accepted it as a miracle, or didn't want to mention what they'd seen because people would call them crazy? This is what my thoughts had turned to on the plane, and I finally got up the nerve to ask Trey, the officer.

After thinking real hard over how to phrase it without making it sound like I'd seen anything, or anyone, wrong, I turned to him and asked, "Did anything about that whole burial thing kinda strike you as… weird?"

He shrugged. "No. Not particularly. Seemed like all the other I've been to."

"Oh."

And I shut up. Said no more about it, last thing I need was these guys poking around for something new to experiment on.

And that was all that really happened for a while. Significant things, anyway. The next real event would be months away. Occasionally I would catch a glimpse of him, this winged Brian, in a dream. Once something that could have been his shadow went past my window, but that could have been a bird, too. Or a cloud, some trick of light. Nothing to raise a fuss about, at that point at least.

I had no reason to think anything more would happen. I lived my life in my confinement, watched TV, wrote a song or two out of sheer boredom, read, just trying to pass the time for the rest of my house arrest.

And eventually it ended. The guards finally packed up and left, and I was alone again. Back to the "what to do with myself" dilemma. I mean, really, if you think about it, there's not a whole fuckin' lot for one guy to do, alone. I went to some movie previews and all, bars and clubs, cruised around the streets. That's when I started to see him again.

At first it was still just glimpses: the first time I saw him sitting atop a taxi in the middle of traffic, watching me. Next he'd pass by me as I turned the corner. I'd see him step onto and off of buses. I caught him in the crowd at a concert. All the sort of things where you'd see him one moment and he'd be gone the next, replaced by some other face in the crowd. Parades, marches, those sort of things where it would leave me wondering if I'd actually seen him or not because of all the faces.

Then he started being people. Like, he would take their place and suddenly a shoe shiner would just fuckin' up and have shed his shirt and sprouted wings. Nobody else would even notice that the policeman or the hot dog vendor or the sales clerk or construction worker or cab driver or bum on the street was suddenly performing his duties half-naked with a pair of wide, feathery wings coming out from his shoulders.

It drove me fuckin' crazy. He was always right there, yet no one ever saw him but me. And I knew he saw me; occasionally he would look up and smile at me, and I never could get close enough to try and talk. Anytime I got close, he'd be gone.

SHOUTOUTS:
Alexandria Queen of Dreams - ha, don't worry, I'm still a wee bit confused, too. But love? Yes yes yes I love the new character! Hehe… and naturally I've got a chapter I'm dying to do… but you'll just have to wait and see
tea rose dreams - thankies! Hopefully this one is living up to BoCaM standards… I'm kind've afraid I won't be able to match the original…