HAIBANE RENMEI:

DER

AUSFALL

DES

FLUGES

A fanfiction.

By

Micheal Gioe

(This is a Fanfiction, so I claim no ownership of the Haibane Renmei Title or any of it's original characters or names, except my own)

Note: This chapter is a flashback. Be patient, and more shall come. Thanks for reading so far!

5-- Watch

Incident

Hole in the Wall

The snow was coming down hard now. Gusts and volleys of white blew every which way and assaulted the walls of The Old House. Every Haibane inside could hear the howls and screams of winter pounding outside, and were not taking for granted their given shelter. Inside the upper common room, Essen and Trunk were busy tending to a New Born who was currently fast asleep. He was a cute little boy, whom Trunk had mistaken for a girl, and ceremoniously watched sleep for a few hours before realizing this fact. Essen kept shooting him knowing glances as she brushed the boy's wings.

"You know what I thought." Trunk declared, crossing his arms.

"You better watch." Essen giggled. "One day you might become sinbound."

"I just watch 'em to make sure they don't stop breathing in their sleep, that's all."

"Right."

As Essen continued, she noticed a strange smell. Kind of like lemon and cinammon, mixed together. She looked towards the little kitchen of the room. It was dark, and empty. Trunk was looking around now too.

"Do you...?" Essen motioned to her nose.

"Yeah." Trunk nodded. "I have a nose too."

"No, I mean, can you smell that?" Essen grumbled.

"Sure do."

"What do you-" Essen started.

"Whoa." Trunk grabbed her arm. "Look."

Essen looked down at the boy's wings she was brushing. Under her brush was a pitch black wing. She could assume the other one was black as well.

"Essen...what did you do?" Trunk quietly murmered.

"I didn't do anything, I just...I just..." She gulped.

"Well, what's wrong with him, then?" Trunk stood up quickly.

"I don't know. He might be...sick...uh.." Essen shook her head.

"Might be sick..." Trunk repeated. "We should get the Haibane Renmei, they'll know..." He trailed.

Just then, another weird smell was introduced into the air. This time, it was the smell of burning rubber. A tremendous rumble grew from outside the window. Trunk walked to the window, slight vibrations causing him to make a few misteps.

"Wow, this is good." He laughed. "'Cause this house is soooo stable anyway."

As soon as he had finished his statement, the building lurched violently, and Trunk was thrown on his back. The window panes rattled loudly, and the lights burned brightly, then went out, throwingthe entire house into darkness.

"Wow."

"That was pretty strange. Pretty strange."

"Where's my candle?"

"Pretty Stranger, you're-"

"Shut up."

"Sorry."

"Okay, I found one."

Essen lit a candle and found the room in extreme disarray. Everything seemed to be shifted towards the front wall.

"What the Hell was that?" Trunk's hands shook.

"I dunno. Come on, let's check on everyone." Essen headed for the door.

They hustled down the hallway, and it appeared the same thing had happened to everyone else. Heads were protruding out of doorways, hushed whispers floated about, and scared glances filled the hallways and corridors of the Old House. Eventually they reached the front door, and cautiously tugged it open, followed by a throng of wide-eyed Haibane.

A gargantuan ugly black cloud smothered the dim gray evening sky. Tiny fletchets of bright blue swam in the torrent of ash and smoke. Even though it was far off, Essen could tell it was coming from the wall, somewhere close to the town.

As the parade of spooked Haibane made their way to the town, a frazzled Laufen joined them. She had grass stains on her loafers and a miniscule twig caught in her dark hair.

"Are you okay?" Essen frowned as Laufen came puffing up to her.

"Yes. I was out in the courtyard when everything shook, and I got caught in the branches of some trees." She mumbled as they hustled down the road.

"Or maybe you were out with that guy you like, who was it, Stiegen?" Trunk grinned.

"No." Laufen looked away and shook her head.

A small blush appeared over her nose, and she studied her feet dilligently.

"Okay, busy lady, I know the signs of-" Trunk started.

"Oh my god..." Essen cut them off.

The Haibane crowd had stopped on a hill just a bit from town. Beyond the bright lights and maze of buildings before them, they saw the wall, completely lit up. Hundreds of lanterns and little fires dotted the sides, and many people clambered around it. The Haibane pushed through town, and eventually reached the wall. Directly to the right of the big iron gate, there was a long, large gash, from which clouds of ash and mixed dust milled. The strange odor from before was almost overwhelming here. The Haibane wanted to get closer and see the hole, to find out what happened, when a very grim looking community watchman strolled up to them. He was accompanied by two toga. Beyond them, the Haibane could see the communicator speaking with a thin man in a large black over-coat.

The man wore a mask, like the communicator, but his was different. It was a mask that more closely resembled a human face. The mask only went up to his nose, so his eyes could be seen. His eyes were a cold grey, almost white, and they darted about incredibly fast, and any Haibane that the eyes decided to land on squirmed. He wore wooden wings on his back, like the communicator, but his wings were longer and more spread out, like a crow's. His hair, black, was long on the sides, and trimmed around the front. He carried with him a staff. The staff was silver and had 3 rings locked to it's side. What was the most perplexing however, was that the communicator motioned good-night to the man, and from behind the man walked a toga. The communicator walked right past the man, holding his head in his hand. He hadn't seen him at all. No one did, except the Haibane.

A few hours after all the commotion died down, and the Haibane were shuttled back to their house with the promise of information later. Essen and Trunk wearily dragged themselves towards the common room. Essen wanted to check on the New Born, and then head to her room, and make an effort to sleep.

However, when Essen opened the door, she was greeted with an intense feeling of disgust and decay. The room did not smell, however it was a sensation that ran deeper than any sense. It was the gripping, mortal fear of walking into an open grave, and being grappled by a long deceased corpse. The undead aura filled the room, and Essen literally had to take a step back.

"What's going on!" Trunk yelled at Essen, incredibly loudly.

"Why are you yelling!" Essen yelled back.

"Can't you hear that!" Trunk lowered his voice.

"Hear what?"

But she got no reply, so she decided to venture her way into the room. What she was greeted with was a sight that explained her sudden urge to vomit and then flee. On the bed, the New Boy lay, just as they had left him. However, his wings, or what she supposed were still wings, were caked in deep goo, and a bridge of blood was stratched between them. What littered the floor and bed must have been a pound of feathers, all black and mangled.

"Trunk! Get some towels!" Essen called back as she ran into the room.

The boy was breathing, however it was shallow and raspy. He was trying to speak, but it was to no avail, except a minute scrap of whisper.

"He...Hen...Hee...Henh...Hennh..."

"Hen what?" Essen gripped the side of the bed.

The boy was fully concious, in fact he was staring straight at Essen, his eyes bouncing with pain.

"Here." Trunk shoved a towel in front of Essen's face.

"Can't you do it..." She trailed off, staring into the boy's eyes.

"I...I'm not good with blood."

"Come on, you-" Essen turned to confront Trunk, but he had his back turned, and he was rubbing his mouth vigorously. A small reflective prick was running down his face, and it patted softly on the ground.

"Okay, hold still, kid." Essen forced a smile and then proceeded to try to scrub the goop and blood off. She was horrified to find what was underneath.

Bone. Skinny, grey, hard bone. Clumps of the goo glistened in the glow of the white torrents outside.

"Enough, I am finished." The boy monotonely mumbled.

"What?" Essen scooted back a bit.

The boy shot up out of bed, his head cocked at a dead angle.

"Hey! Lay back down!" Essen cried at the boy.

The boy bounded out of the room and tore down the hallway, his horrible bones bouncing like spikes on the back of a running dragon. He kept making grotesque noises and grunts all the way down the hallway as he hurried towards the back sections of the house.

"Is he...gone?" Trunk turned around.

"Yeah, he's gone." Essen lowered her head.

"What the Hell is going on?" Trunk's voice cracked.

"I don't know, we'll go look for him in the morni-"

"No, I mean, us too."

"Huh?"

"Look at our wings." Trunk flipped on a light.

"Black. Black like tar."

Essen slumped on the bed, effectively collecting some goo and feathers on her legs. She stared off at the wall, which eventually blurred, and she tasted salt.

--Know who blew a hole in the wall yet? I do. Of course, I probably should. Don't worry about it, though, It should be revealed soon enough, although if you can figure it out before then, I'll be your best friend. (It wont be hard, I'm not good at making things hard to figure out.) More to come, Please read on when the updates come!--

Thank you for reading, and have a nice day!