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P.S. Don't be dismayed, it does have a redemptive ending!
"When she awoke the first thing she noticed was the stillness that enveloped her. A peaceful quiet crept slowly over her and wrapped her in its loving arms. For a few moments, Elle lay suspended in this dream like state of peace and calm. Then suddenly, a dull ache shot through the stillness and shattered the fantasy and once more Elle remembered where she was; why she hurt. Once more, tears sprang to her eyes as soft sobs rang from her heart. Yet still she had not the strength to move. And so poor Elle went on in this fashion for many days. Sleeping, waking into a fantasy, then being thrust back into the cruel reality of pain and hopelessness. As the days went on the fantasies became shorter and shorter, and the dull reality grew longer, till the point where Elle no longer woke up to a false sense of hopefulness but rather the dull bite of life sinking it’s vicious claws into her lungs and heart, stopping her breath; stopping her heart.
It was after a particularly long slumber that Elle awoke and beheld two shoes. They were black and shone as ebony. Attached to the boots were a pair of legs, and to those legs a torso, and to that torso a head. To the head was attached a face, and in that face lay the deepest, largest, greyest eyes Elle had ever beheld. These two eyes starred down at her, and out of the creature’s mouth came a crisp “tut-tut.”
I do so hate to see such a young pretty thing in such distress. If only there was a way I could help the pathetic thing.
Elle grimaced at the voice. It was not a harsh or cruel voice. But it was icy and gave her chills; chills that did not throw themselves upon her, but rather slowly wrapped their fingers around her legs, pulling up her body till it reached her soul. The tall creature continued to stare down at her, and she, unmoving, starred right back at him. Suddenly, the large grey eyes lit up in such an extraordinary way that Elle wasn’t sure if she wanted to cringe or laugh.
I know what I’ll do! I’ll give the little thing a gift. After all it’s the least I can do.
The creature stepped back and instructed Elle to rise. Elle lay dumbfounded, and stared stupidly up into the man’s face. The eyes slowly began turning from grey to coal. It growled again at her to get up, and still she lay cemented to the ground, to weary to move. With a burst of shocking force, the man’s boot found it’s way to her ribs. Crying out Elle sprung to her knees and held her aching side. The man’s grimace turned slowly upwards to cruel smile. Reaching into his bag he pulled out a small vile. Throwing it at her he commanded her to drink it, assuring her that she would feel better afterwards. Elle was so stunned by the blow that she acquiesced and drank the contents of the vile in its entirety. Elle gasped as the liquid rushed through to her lungs and flew straight to her heart. At first, afraid that he had given her poison, Elle’s hand flew to her heart as if to stop the liquid from working, but no sooner had she done so when she noticed that suddenly, the ache in her heart, and the pressure in her lungs had subsided. Shocked, Elle looked to the man with big inquisitive eyes.
The man, quite satisfied with her obedience, nodded in approval.
Now comes the best part.
He chuckled gleefully as he once more reached into his bag and pulled out a beautiful set of wings. Elle gasped. These wings were even larger than her own, though a good deal darker. She reached her hand out as if to take them, but the tall man in the black boots with the black eyes merely laughed and pulled them out of reach. Elle, confused, shrank back and held her knees to her chest waiting for the man to make the next move.
Now, my sweet, the man cooed in a deceptively sweet voice these wings are not just
Ordinary wings. They’ll allow you to fly higher than you have ever flown, and faster too.
But they only work for a certain time. You understand?
Elle didn’t but she nodded just the same. If only she could get those safely on her back she could fly away from this man, and this forest, and everything she had ever known. The man smiled and threw her the wings, instructing her to have fun. Then with a few steps he vanished into the woods. Elle greedily grasped at the wings and clutched them to her heart. She then gingerly and with great pain attached them to the raw braces where her old wings had formerly been lodged. She stretched her new wings out wide; flexed the muscles in her back to test them. They seemed to work perfectly; almost. They were a good deal heavier than the ones she had had before, and were much harder to manage, but Elle blocked this out and forced herself to only focus on flying out of the forest as fast as she could.
This proved to be more difficult than she had anticipated, for, no sooner had her feet made it off the ground, when the wings would suddenly pull her down again. Still she persevered only to fall down again and again. Finally she decided to just give up and bring the wings back to the man. However, when she tried to remove the wings they suddenly took on a life of their own. Now terrified, Elle tugged and tugged at the wings in a desperate attempt to rip them off, but the harder she tugged, the deeper they sank into her back. It was not especially painful, only terrifying. She sobbed in desperation, as she tried to rip the wings off. Suddenly, an idea sprang into her mind. Reaching up to the tip of the wing, she broke off a small piece. Delighted, she began breaking more and more off, until (as earlier) only the stumps were left. No sooner had she done this, when suddenly the wing grew back; stronger and heavier than it had been at first. Elle screamed in anger and desperately at the wings as best she could, but it was to no avail. The wings continued to grow back, stronger and stronger each time.
Elle groaned and fell to the ground. She tried to breathe deeply; tried to calm herself. But it was no use. Looking up her eye caught a small pool nearby. She awkwardly hobbled over and sank down beside it, burying her muddy bruised arms and cut hands in the cooling water, but as she did so she happened to catch a glance at her face and she nearly cried in terror. As she bent over the pool, she saw, starring back at her, a face unlike any she had seen. The once bright sparkling eyes were dull and sunken. The once soft full cheeks were nothing but bones and covered in grime. And the wings! Oh the wings that had once allowed her to soar high above everything else (she could hardly remember the time now). The new wings were ugly, horrid, menacing, and vile atop her shoulders. As she looked into the creature that she had become, all hope for rescue slowly dripped out of her. Standing up she wandered out of the small clearing. No more than ten feet from the clearing, the ground simply dropped hundreds and hundreds of feet down. Elle shuffled to the edge of the rocky cliff, and slowly sat down. Forlornly she stared into the deep abyss. Closing her eyes she took a deep breath. Then exhaled.
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