Chapter 1
And there she was, an angel amidst the bedlam, moonlight caressing her graceful form tenderly. She stood with her back to him, facing the ominous sphere of the full moon, a brilliant orb that ripped the infinite blankness of the sky in two, threatening to swallow everything into it's mily luminescence. She was, as always, a temptation. The heaven he had always strived to achieve that somehow always slipped through his fingers like cupped morning dew, leaving him only to long more for her and contemplate his faults. And now, despite the tumult that ensnared everything around, they were alone.
He had struggled against physics, and the strain that had consumed him, the screaming pain that had torn at his muscles for so long now he had displaced as irrelevant. She was all that mattered to him now. She was the one thing preventing his death...or perphaps, driving him to it. He struggled to walk closer, but found himself collapsed once more. Whether he had been stricken down by fatigue or overcome by her beauty was anyone's guess. But he rose once more, pushing with all his might to overcome the sweat, the blood that now streamed freely from his wounds, salty, on his lip. However much he squinted he could not see her wings, couldn't feel the phantom winds that raced along the crater-littered, blackened landscape pull one of her feathers accross his face, though he knew somewhere above her haunting silhouette was a halo. Or at least, one would be there soon.
She turned her head to him, an ironic smile on her face defying the shining tears that were slipping down her face to meet her perfect lips. She knew, as he did now. His eyes widened with fear and realization. Oh God, no...God...no. That isn't the moon, he told himself. That isn't the moon! He reached for her and called her name...
"THORN!" A shrill cry forced the world around to shatter and fall deferred into nothingness. In response, he bolted upright, opening his eyes while his mind screamed in protest from the sudden contrast of the blinding afternoon classroom to his bleak dreams, which he quickly forgot on sight of a rather irritated teacher approaching him and pronouncing for all within a few blocks his poor listening skills.
Quite used to his own antagonization by now, Thorn sighed and cast his eyes far beyond the confines of the broad window in the classroom, letting banter of his inferiority richot away from his consciousness. Another day's loneliness had driven him to sleep. But today he did not wake to the scornful laughter of his peers.
Because today the entirety of his class was at the World Martial Arts Tournament. Of course, he hadn't been informed of the event, or welcomed to go with them, so naturally he was left behind to wallow in the dim cacophony of his High School. He was lonely when they were there anyway, constantly assaulted by the thoughts of his own worthlessness thanks to the fact that they didn't bother to speak to him, and often drifted into sleep like he had today. But now he felt even more detached, even more isolated, because even though they had never cared about his existence before...now they weren't even aware of it.
Thorn smirked, spiting his sorrow, turning back and drawing in the empty classroom and the teacher facing him. Just an ordinary day.
And there she was, an angel amidst the bedlam, moonlight caressing her graceful form tenderly. She stood with her back to him, facing the ominous sphere of the full moon, a brilliant orb that ripped the infinite blankness of the sky in two, threatening to swallow everything into it's mily luminescence. She was, as always, a temptation. The heaven he had always strived to achieve that somehow always slipped through his fingers like cupped morning dew, leaving him only to long more for her and contemplate his faults. And now, despite the tumult that ensnared everything around, they were alone.
He had struggled against physics, and the strain that had consumed him, the screaming pain that had torn at his muscles for so long now he had displaced as irrelevant. She was all that mattered to him now. She was the one thing preventing his death...or perphaps, driving him to it. He struggled to walk closer, but found himself collapsed once more. Whether he had been stricken down by fatigue or overcome by her beauty was anyone's guess. But he rose once more, pushing with all his might to overcome the sweat, the blood that now streamed freely from his wounds, salty, on his lip. However much he squinted he could not see her wings, couldn't feel the phantom winds that raced along the crater-littered, blackened landscape pull one of her feathers accross his face, though he knew somewhere above her haunting silhouette was a halo. Or at least, one would be there soon.
She turned her head to him, an ironic smile on her face defying the shining tears that were slipping down her face to meet her perfect lips. She knew, as he did now. His eyes widened with fear and realization. Oh God, no...God...no. That isn't the moon, he told himself. That isn't the moon! He reached for her and called her name...
"THORN!" A shrill cry forced the world around to shatter and fall deferred into nothingness. In response, he bolted upright, opening his eyes while his mind screamed in protest from the sudden contrast of the blinding afternoon classroom to his bleak dreams, which he quickly forgot on sight of a rather irritated teacher approaching him and pronouncing for all within a few blocks his poor listening skills.
Quite used to his own antagonization by now, Thorn sighed and cast his eyes far beyond the confines of the broad window in the classroom, letting banter of his inferiority richot away from his consciousness. Another day's loneliness had driven him to sleep. But today he did not wake to the scornful laughter of his peers.
Because today the entirety of his class was at the World Martial Arts Tournament. Of course, he hadn't been informed of the event, or welcomed to go with them, so naturally he was left behind to wallow in the dim cacophony of his High School. He was lonely when they were there anyway, constantly assaulted by the thoughts of his own worthlessness thanks to the fact that they didn't bother to speak to him, and often drifted into sleep like he had today. But now he felt even more detached, even more isolated, because even though they had never cared about his existence before...now they weren't even aware of it.
Thorn smirked, spiting his sorrow, turning back and drawing in the empty classroom and the teacher facing him. Just an ordinary day.