clouds break.

white wings spiral.

feathers flutter.

a broken angel cries.

what goes down but never comes up again?

ONE

Amie M. was what they called the girl with the hair like pearls. Nobody seemed to know her last name. Nobody seemed to care.

They said she was a witch - an orphan - a sorceress - a thief - a demon. But she never seemed to stay long in people's mortal memories.

All the village girls teased her, and all the boys laughed and threw stones. She never retaliated, never said a word. Her ruby eyes saw all but revealed nothing.

They gave her a nickname - the Quiet One.

She lived in a broken down grey house with closed shutters and an unlocked door, since nobody bothered to come in and she had lost the keys a while ago. She brushed her matted white hair as best as she could each morning, but the long strands were always filthy by the end of the day. Nobody knew why.

She decided to cut them off.

She didn't know how to wield scissors.

When she came into school with blood staining her mussed white frock, nobody questioned it.

Amie M. sat down and picked up her pen.

escaping fire

crawling up

whoops, scraped my knees

bandages made from human flesh

the covetous man pines in plenty, like Tantalus up to the chin in water, yet still thirsty.

TWO

Charlie Sellers loved the sky.

Blue, black, red, gold, pink, silver, clouds of every shape and size imaginable - the heavens had all the freedom she could never, ever obtain.

Happiness can't be bought with money.

Slender fingers rose to fondle the sterling silver chain around a pale throat, then dropped back down.

risen again

leeching the pain away

rapunzel's song

can heal me no more

than a god's curse

I am the dark and the light is afraid of me.

THREE

Zoe's thin hands tugged at the fabric, the stiff collar of her dress hot against her pale throat. Mascara that wasn't there pooled under her eyes. She could hear the whispers, telling the children at church to stay away from the zombie girl.

Zoe stayed silent and observed the people filing past, like souls into Hades's underworld realm.

"Hi, Zo! Next time, I'll help you with make-up~ Oh, here, have this, my little sister wanted to get rid of it because it was cracked and ugly. She said it reminded her of you." Giggles spewed forth from the amassed.

The ivory doll's broken smile wormed into Zoe's soul as she stroked a finger over the fissures in its cheek.

Her fingers itched for skin, her hands craved for blood.

made from the earth

born of the wind

scorched by the flames

just to rise again

we are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell.

FOUR

James's sigh reverberated through the house, startling awake the cat dozing by his feet. Lukas jumped off the bed and gave James a blue-eyed glare, then trotted out of the room, white tail waving in the air proudly behind him.

James shrugged off the comforter around his shoulders and walked towards the window, pulling out a chair and resting himself upon it.

The stars were bright that night.

He remembers that he saw something falling.

A comet, perhaps.

James whispered a wish under his breath.

gold and blue

mixed together

the stars fought to

outshine each other

the day thunder

killed the lightning

and took its place.

lightning streaks like gunfire through the clouds, volleys of thunder shake the air.

FIVE: THUNDERE

Her head rumbled with the beginnings of an oncoming storm. She heaved a great sigh, a whisper of wind rolling across the plain. The grass rustled. The sky darkened. She sat down on the ground.

A raindrop fell. She raised her hand, and thunder rumbled. Satisfied, she laid back on the grass.

There was never lightning in Rake's storms. Only thunder.

Only Thundere.

She closed her eyes and felt rain caress her cheeks, slipping off her face without a trace of water.

Thunder rumbled.

Feathers fall.

SIX: AMIE

She trotted down the road, with her newly cut white hair glistening like pearls in the sunlight. She felt a smile blossom on her face, not caring that her hair was lopsided and tangled, not caring that her face was pale and caked with dust. She felt happy.

Suddenly, a rock appeared in front of her and her toes hooked under it, sending her sprawling face-first onto the hard ground.

Suddenly, she wasn't that happy anymore.

Tears threatened to leak as the children ran away, screaming with laughter on how the stupid quiet girl had tripped and fell and they did it! it was all them.

She gave a sob.

"H-Hello? Excuse me?"

She looked up.

"H-Hey, uh, my name is Charles Max- I mean," a pause, "Charlie. Everyone calls me Charles, and I don't like that name because Charles is a boy name, and I'm pretty obviously a girl, and - Oh, are you alright? I'm sorry, I talk too much..."

"I-I'm fine. Thanks," she whispered, staring up at this child with black hair and black eyes, the complete opposite of her.

Charlie eyed the scrape on her knee, which was bleeding furiously. "Uh, you don't look like you're okay. Do you want to come over to my house, so I can patch you up? You can't bleed to death here on this road." How funny.

"O-Okay," she said, accepting Charlie's hand and standing, wincing a little as she felt the scrape. "I-I haven't seen you around much."

"Nah, my parents don't let me hang out with the other kids." Charlie touched a black earring, then continued, "My house is the really extravagant white one down the block from Widder Samuel's, you'll see it. My parents aren't going to be home till the weekend - it's Tuesday today, right?" She gave a small nod. Charlie went on, "I have a cat, too, name's Lucy. She's kind of a demon at first, but once she knows you're nice she'll be the perfect little angel to you."

She nodded, unsure of what to say.

"Oh, your name is...?"

"... Amie M."

"could I call you Amie?"

"... Yes, please. Amie."

Amie gripped Charlie's hand tightly as the other walked them to the bright marble mansion down the road. She thought of how her life had changed so, so much since the day, the day of the dreaded f

...

...

She woke in Charlie's house under thick black blankets.