First message
The wind picked up suddenly, carrying the scent of something clean and bright — like sunshine bottled and set free. A shadow swept across the ground, too graceful to be a cloud, too large to be a normal bird. White feathers caught the light as Darby descended, her wings folding against her back with a soft rustle. She landed on the edge of the rooftop with the poise of someone who'd done this a thousand times, talons clicking against the concrete.
Her long white curls lifted around her face, the silver strip down the middle catching the fading daylight. Silver eyes scanned the street below — cautious, calculating — before she crouched down, elbows resting on her knees, wings draped behind her like a cape made of snow.
She exhaled slowly, watching the people move below like ants, oblivious to the girl perched above them. A faint smile tugged at her plump lips. She sprouted a few loose feathers from her wing, plucked one absently, and twirled it between her taloned fingers.
Y'all never look up.
She whispered it to no one, voice thick with Southern honey, barely audible over the breeze. Her freckled nose scrunched as she tucked the feather behind her ear and stretched her wings wide again — enormous, stunning, impossible — before dropping off the ledge and disappearing back into the sky. She sees someone in particular that catches her attention, she drops down in a tree limb above them, watching them, head tilting in a bird like fashion.