Chapter 1

A small village was sitting outside the city of London. The sky was full of black clouds that poured out from massive factories that blocked out the horizon. Street lights could only do so much as the streets of the village had a cold fog filling the air.

A young woman was quickly making her way down the sidewalk. Her hard heels were in her hand as she made her way as quickly as she could. Her dark green and brown dress was tight around her torso before stretching out into a wide silhouette that went as wide as her wingspan. She looked over her shoulder quickly as she kept running down the sidewalk, clutching her shoes even harder.

She ran past an alleyway, but was then suddenly grabbed and pull hard. Her dress tore to reveal her shoulder as she tried to scream, but her mouth was covered by a dirty hand that smelled horrible.

Throughout all of the screaming, none of them could hear the sounds of loud wind that suddenly disappeared. They felt the gust and looked around, but the rest of the alleyway was covered in darkness.

“Ignore that…now get the dress up.”

Two men were holding the woman against the wall, pulling and ripping her dress as a third stood a few feet in front of them, laughing and smoking a cigar. Once they got her dress ripped enough to expose her legs, the third man smirked and threw the cigar over his shoulder. He dropped his pants…but all three of the people in front of him were frozen as they stared with wide eyes.

Behind the man standing with his pants down to his ankles, two massive wings stretched out from the shadows. They resembled bat wings, but were each the size of a human being. With the angle they were standing, it appeared as if the wings were coming from his own back, stretching from the darkness and into the light.

“Yeah, big one ain’t…” He started, but then he felt the cigar get thrown over his shoulder right next to his face. He looked down at it confused, but was then violently grabbed by the back of his shirt and thrown nearly twenty feet to the side in a flash.

The two other thugs quickly let go of the girl, one of them pulling out a very well crafted knife.

They both ran towards the shadows, but both were quickly pulled in and the sounds of loud punches and bones breaking filled the air.

The woman was still leaning against the wall, staring into the shadows as she could only see glimpses of humanity.

One of the thugs suddenly dropped down from the shadows, his head covered in his own blood as he clawed the ground.

“Please…” He muttered while spitting out blood.

He was suddenly pulled back into the darkness as his nails broke as he tried to claw the ground.

The woman was still frozen in fear when she dropped her shoes, where they bounced and rolled towards the edge of the shadow. They sat on the line of darkness and light.

She went to reach out, but the man who had pulled his pants down had made his way back over, grabbing her and holding his own knife to her throat.

Her eyes were wide as she looked forward into the darkness.

The man and woman were unable to see anything in the shadows.

Until a hand emerged, close to the ground and grabbing the heels off the dirty ground. The hand was human shaped, wrapped in what looked like dark brown fabric. The figure stepped forward to reveal the entire body covered in the black fabric that was tight to the body, a leather belt with a copper buckle wrapped around the waist. The face had goggles wrapped around the head and covering their eyes.

“Let her go.” The voice was deep, but not naturally. The person seemed to be making their voice deeper as they held a heel in each hand. The wings slowly retracted into the figure’s back as they kept staring.

“What the **** are you?” The thug asked, his pants still down to his ankles.

“Let her go…and you won’t have to find out.” The figure replied.

The thug smirked and grabbed the woman by her hair.

“You really want to do this? Alright.” The figure shrugged.

The thug was confused until the wings suddenly shot back out, scaring the thug and making him drop his knife. The girl immediately ran off as the figure handed her the heels. He then punched the thug hard in the face, followed by hitting him in the gut with his knee and then using his elbow to hit the thug in the back of his head. The thug dropped down to the ground as the figure kicked him hard in the ribs, sending him flying out of the alleyway and into the street. He was groaning loudly as the figure emerged into the light, the wings casting massive shadows that covered the thug.

The thug quickly covered his face, but a massive gust of wind went over him. He uncovered his face to see the alleyway empty. The two thugs slowly crawled out from the darkness holding each other, covered in blood and bruises while there were parts of the body uneven due to the bones broken inside.

“What…now?” One of them asked while holding their dislocated arm.

“We get the boss.” The thug in the street replied, rubbing their ribs.

The winged figure was flying through the dark night sky, away from the village as they flew over miles and miles of nothing but empty fields. The dark clouds became less frequent until the sky was empty, the only sight the full moon illuminating the ground below as they continued to fly. The air was quiet, the only noise coming every so often as the figure had to flap their large wings to stay high in the air. Whenever they flapped, for the next while the wings would stay flat and let the figure glide through the air. Whenever he was gliding, there was nothing. Not even the air was busy enough to create too much noise as it rushed past them.

The figure tilted forward as the wings retracted closer to the torso, making the body more aerodynamic as they began to race quickly towards the ground. After a while, the wings went back to suddenly slow them down before they landed on the ground with a small amount of force, the wings fully retracting back.

The figure was standing behind a large wooden barn that sat a mile away from a large home. The figure grabbed a few of the wooden boards that moved quite easily to the side. The figure stepped in before putting the boards back. The barn was pitch black darkness until the figure reached out, tapping the wall before finding a small chord and pulling hard.

The entire barn was instantly filled with warm and soft orange light that came from the walls and ceiling. Small light bulbs all attached on long pieces of wire stretching out along the walls, and a chandelier like pattern made on the ceiling created a large blanket of illumination.

On the floor of the barn were tables and tables covered in pieces of metal in all shapes and sizes. Gears, nuts and bolts, chains, practically any piece of machinery that could be found scattered all over the place. Papers covered in crossed out and messy drawings and writings were thrown all over the place, creating a nearly four inch tall ocean that had to be walked through.

The figure sighed and made their way over to one of the lesser packed tables, removing the goggles and placing them down quite hard. They then pulled off the gloves and their belt, placing them hard next to the googles.

Afterwards, they reached up and pulled off the mask covering their head, revealing straight, dark brown hair with shaved sides. The man’s face was roughly handsome, a well defined jawline partially obscured by short facial hair. His eyes were a faded brown color as he sighed, pulling his arms inside of the tight fabric sleeves in order to mess around with the top of his outfit, removing it like it was a thick shirt. After that, he removed the bottoms to show very small underwear that stuck to his form.

The man reached over and grabbed his belt, biting down on the leather as he grabbed his undergarments. He quickly pulled, the sound of skin and hair ripping off followed by his muffled scream as he bit down harder.

He had to pull every inch off of his body before he could slowly and carefully slide it down his legs. His waist was now covered in raw red patches as he took the belt out of his mouth.

“Fucking hell.” He muttered.

His accent was thick and in the middle of posh and cockney, not identifiable as either class. He groaned and folded all of the clothing up very nicely, making his way over to a far off, dark corner that had a few piles of hay. He pushed some of the hay away very easily to reveal a hole in the ground that he carefully placed the clothing inside, pulling out fresh and new clothing from the same hole. He unfolded it and dressed himself in the undergarments, dark brown dress pants, a faded white shirt followed by a matching brown vest. He then grabbed some dirt, splashing it onto his face and rubbing it with his hands before throwing more all over his clothing. He then walked slowly to the other side of the barn. Sitting on a small chair was a thick dark brown and green jacket that he slipped on, buttoning all fourteen buttons up before then going back, unbuttoning them and letting the jacket flow open and messy. Next to the chair was a dark black top hat that he flapped around, covered in dust. He then took a deep breath and pulled another cord by the barn doors, all of the lights quickly turning off. He opened the door, stepped through, and quickly shut it again as he yawned. He rubbed his eyes with his still dirty hands as he began to walk to the large home in the distance.

The home stretched out with the front door right in the middle, a second floor with a mirror perfectly centered. Each side had two more large windows, the home being perfectly symmetrical. The was made of white painted wood as it stretched out with a small front porch surrounding the entrance.

The man slowly walked up and opened the front door, hanging his jacket and hat on a small coat stand just inside the door. As he made his way across the floor and to a staircase, he slowly unbuttoned his vest. He slowly climbed up with the open vest still on his torso as he carefully unbuttoned his pants.

He made it to the top of the stairs and turned, walking as quietly as he could through an open doorway into a spacious bedroom. He continued to move slowly and quietly on the wooden floor while removing his pants as he walked. He nicely folded the pants and vest before placing them by a large queen sized bed with a wooden frame. There was another figure already asleep as the man very slowly and quietly tried his best to lift the blanket up just enough to slide in.

He fully got onto the bed and carefully pulled the blanket over his body, but then the figure slowly turned over.

“You work too late.”

A feminine voice with an equally thick but much more posh accent than his spoke. Her hair was long and straight, the same color as his as she pushed it out of her face. Her face was incredibly clean and smooth, no blemishes of any kind. The man sighed and put his arm around her to pull her close.

“Yeah yeah…you say that every night.” He responded.

“I don’t see you for nearly twenty hours a day.” She replied, clearly tired.

“You have to teach the kids and I have to work.” He replied.

“You go into a barn to mess around with things that I don’t understand.” She replied, wrapping her arm over his chest.

They both softly chuckled as he took her hand, moving it up to his mouth and kissing it softly.

“Don’t use that cute charm of yours.” She said, rubbing his face and feeling the dirt.

“Did you get in our bed without cleaning yourself?” She asked in a joking but still serious sounding tone.

“I didn’t want to wake you.” He replied.

“Go to the bath. I’ll help.” She said.

They both sat up in their bed, the blanket moving off. She was wearing a very loose white nightgown with two very thin straps over her shoulders as she then moved her legs to sit on his lap.

“What are you doing?” He asked her.

“I’m tired. I want you to carry me to the bathroom.” She replied with a playful smile.

They both softly chuckled as he repositioned her on his lap before lifting her up with ease, standing up and slowly making his way across the wooden floor. He carried her carefully through the doorway and went straight across the small hallway to another door, the woman pushing it open before pulling on a cord, lighting a few very small light bulbs that filled the room with a warm orange hue while still leaving plenty of room for shadow.

He carefully let her down to her feet and shut the door quietly before they both undressed. They went to a large bathtub sitting on the floor before he twisted a knob attached to the wall, hot water slowly pouring out.

“I’m going to have to fix that.” He said to himself.

His wife’s hands went over his chest to calm him down.

“Don’t worry about work now…now is resting time.” She whispered right into his ear.

She kept massaging his front and kissed his cheek softly a few times as all of the stress and tension in his body melted away.

“Thank you honey.” He said.

His wife moved her head back and stared at his upper back. His upper back was rough with two large scars just on either side of his spine, stretching from his shoulders to nearly the halfway point of his torso. She stared at them as her hands continued to massage his lower chest.

“Is everything okay?” He asked.

“Yeah…everything is fine.” She smiled and gave his cheek another kiss as the tub was full enough of water. He turned the knob off and very slowly climbed in, the water hot and filling the room with steam, making the room hazy and foggy through the faint lights. He leaned back as the water began to turn his skin shades of red and pink. The woman reached across him to grab a small rag, dunking it into the water, ringing it out, then scrubbed his face. They were both smiling as he turned to look at her.

“I love you darling.” He said.

“I love you too.” She replied before they shared a deep kiss.

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