Present Day (2015)

Hell's Kitchen

      • · ─────────── ·𖥸· ─────────── ·

It felt like a competition all of the time for Sam as she learned to control the wings that had been stuck inside of her for a long time. They hadn't seen the light of day since that night 5 years ago. She didn't mind the tingles they gave her every now and then when they shifted, and sometimes she wondered what they looked like inside.

She learned that it may be a good thing if she learned how to fight if it ever came to a point where she could use her "gift" to do something good, and in that time she discovered she had other Angel-like abilities. Which, to say the least, could come in handy if needed.

Questions grew every day in the days that followed after her wings first appeared, usually towards her parents. Around that time, she looked up when mutants had died off, and it had been the year prior to her birth. More questions.

Could she be a mutant? Possibly. Could she ask her parents? No. Why? Because they weren't alive.

To say it was an easy thing to talk about was an understatement. Sam never met her parents. She was practically thrown at the doorsteps of a catholic orphanage, so if she went to her caretakers and asked if the wings meant anything, they'd probably scream, or see her as an Angel until they died.

Sometimes Sam would go to church when no one was there just to ask God why he did it. Why she had to be the last one standing. If she even was the last one standing. We're there other mutants out there? Hiding in the shadows so they wouldn't be killed? She didn't want to know. Not now. Maybe not ever.

Sam sighed quietly, looking up to the large cross that held the man she believed to have once existed. She prayed for the wings to go away, to be broken down by her body as if it were a parasite, or a horrible sickness.

She hadn't been to this church before, but she discovered it was closer to her apartment than the one she used to live in as a child.

Memories flooded into her brain as she remembered her first adoption. Which then lead to her "parents" taking her back when they realized she was too independent, too naive at times and far too cocky for a nine year old.

Memories of watching a blind man walk down to the room where a blind boy had been in. She forgot his name a long time ago. She wondered if she'd see him again.

Remembering the time where one of the sisters slapped her for saying she didn't believe in God. And she still didn't, yet prayed to him whenever she had the damn chance.

Her first kiss was with that blind boy when they were 15, still living in that orphanage because no one wanted a blind boy or an independent girl that wanted nothing to do with parental figures.

Still, Sam couldn't remember his name. But she remembered that kiss. His voice. His dorky glasses that hid his beautiful eyes. His cockiness that he got from her.

She remembered that old man. He went straight for that boy. Yet abandoned him as fast as her ex-parents had. Because that boy refused to lose his feelings for everything and anything. Because he had a heart.

Sam remembered so much about that boy, but she just couldn't remember his name. She found it funny.

"It's ridiculous." She whispered to herself with a chuckle, looking down at her fingers and proceeding to pick at a hangnail.

And then it hit her. Like a speeding train the name flashed into her head before it was gone just as fast.

"Murdock." She mumbled, looking back up at the cross. "Matt. Holy shit that's his name." She scoffed, letting out a dumbfounded laugh.

A name so simple yet so easy to forget all the same. She found it funny that he was so easy to remember.

Her wings twitched inside, letting out a soft groan at how uncomfortable that single movement had been. Like they were itching to escape. They practically were.

Just for a moment. The voice in her head begged like it always had. Fly away for a bit. Let the nerves go. All that stress can vanish.

Sam shook her head and she grabbed her purse, standing up and walking out of the church.

The world paused for a moment as an arm grabbed her wrist and she yelped, slamming her palm into the man's nose.

"Jesus!" He yelled, glaring at Sam before grabbing both of her arms. "Now you'll really get it!"

"Fuck off!" She yelled, kneeing the man in his dick only to yell out in pain as her knee clanged with metal. The man laughed as he dragged her out of the street in broad daylight, muffling her screams with his hand.

"Come on, don't be a fuss. I just want your bag." He pinned her against the brick as she shook her head, gripping her purse like it carried her life savings.

The man tried to yank it away, but Sam just held it tightly, her wings now twitching even more to be let free.

"C'mon lady! Give me the damn purse!"

"Why the fuck would I do that?!" There was a sudden click and Sam froze with wide eyes as something cold pressed against her neck. "Oh..." she mumbled as the man nodded.

"Now give me the pu—" Sam shoved the man away as her shirt ripped in two places, her wings suddenly emerging with such a great pain, but Sam only winced as they were set free. "Holy shit!" The man yelled in horror as he scrambled to get up, aiming his gun at her.

The wings didn't have a single drop of blood on them, flapping to scare the man as if they had a mind of their own. "Put that damn gun down." Sam ordered as a single wing flapped at him and he dropped the gun, raising his hands defensively. Sam walked forward, kneeling down to pick up the gun and emptied it, tossing the bullets around.

Before she could do anything else, her wings flapped a little faster, flinging herself into the air and out of the alleyway. "SHIT SHIT SHIT—"

Sam wobbled as the wings stopped, slowly flapping and keeping her high in the sky. Now she was really praying no one could see her.

For a moment, Sam felt like she was back at that night. Standing on the roof, staring down at that pool. Adrenaline, fear, and excitement fueling her to her wits end. As a child she could only dream of flying with a pair of white wings.

And now, she could.

Sam looked down into the alleyway as a siren blared, seeing the man that tried to mug her run the opposite direction as a cop chased after him.

She looked behind her to see the damaged the wings had done to her shirt before ripping more off, covering her face quickly before diving down in front of the man. He skidded to a halt, turning to see the cop stop as well, aiming his gun at him.

"Freeze! Both of you!" The coo yelled, though he sounded slightly frightened seeing Sam. She only shoved the mugger towards the cop, waving goodbye as she disappeared back into the sky, gripping her purse shut so it's contents wouldn't fly away.

So much happened so fast. Almost getting mugged. Her wings finally being set free, then a cop. Now she was flying away and back to her apartment.

"Shit." She laughed to herself, taking off the shirt she tied around her face and letting it fall from the sky as she grew closer to her apartment, landing off balance on her balcony and falling into a plant holder. "Shit—"

She watched as the plant fell off the balcony and onto the pavement below with a crash, quickly rushing into her living room as she tried to imagine the wings going back into her body.

Sam shivered as she watched them slip back into their creases and zip up like a jacket, scars now covering where her wings once were.

Sam slowly took off her shirt, turning to see the scars on her back, hoping that if her healing ability worked on others scars, then it would work on hers. Obviously that wasn't the case since the scare were there for a reason.

And, if she were being honest with herself, she didn't mind them now. Maybe she'd get used to them eventually.