The next morning Ty investigated the scratches and found that they had a meaning. They read out as a message, or at least from what Ty could see.
'You can't fly away little dove, for you have no wings left.
How can such a beautiful creature give up such a gift?
Your wings were what made you, you.
How can you be you without them?'
He read them, memorized them, tried with all his knowledge to find a meaning or another message in them. But he couldn't. So he left it and, with an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach, took Ian's delivery from yesterday downstairs along with the dead bird.
He entered the kitchen and smiled slightly at the scene in front of him. Sky, Jerome, and Brice were passed out and sitting in chairs around the kitchen table. He walked to the sink put the dishes in. He took a plastic bag and put the bird in it.
Once he had returned from putting the plastic bag in the bin outside he sighed and got himself a glass of water to drink. Throwing the bird away had nauseated him. All he could think about was that creature's sickening smile and the dead dove. He felt even more guilty for just throwing it in the bin, but he just couldn't bring himself to give it a proper burial. Finally, after days, the stress of it all got to him. He crumpled to the floor and let silent tears pour from his eyes. Everything, from getting Songbird, to his close encounter with death, to the creature, to the scratches. Everything just pushed down on top of him and his walls crumbled as he just let himself cry. All he could think about as he let wracked sobs break free from his sore throat, was 'Why me? Why is all this happening to me?'.
When Ty had finally come to the realization that he had been crying on the floor, back against the cabinet, hands clasped over his mouth to drown his whimpers and sobs, it was already nearly noon. With fumbling hands and shaking legs, he stood and made his way to the backyard. He sat on the stone bench the group had put in the corner of two fences, under an arch of yellow roses, Sky's favorite color of the flower. A wavering smile came to Ty's face as he recalled the fond memories. He chuckled a bit as he remembered Mitch and Sky fighting about what flowers to put on the arch. Mitch wanted red roses, Sky wanted yellow. They had broken up their argument when the Ty started laughing as hard as the others. Sky had won, so Mitch got to choose which flowers were planted in the flower beds on the opposite side of the backyard. He remembered when they got the bench. It was a reminder of finally getting a house together. A reminder of their friendship. A reminder of their love and happiness together.
He sat down and listened to the world as it began to wake.