[hr][h2][center][color=goldenrod][b]Aquila[/b][/color]
Journey Into Night, Track 2
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The sky above the tower was the color of midnight, bathing Sarah in rays of moonlight. The Bauer Building had been abandoned for almost a decade. Lack of structural integrity the city engineers had claimed when they shut it down. Sarah knew they were lying. The building has been stripped of anything valuable, and it was an ugly skeletal thing. A reminder of a Santa Celia that would never be. That could never be. Squatters were all that remained inside. Pathetic desperate creatures hiding in the darkness, protected only by an endless amount of bureaucratic tape, and pending lawsuits. Sarah did not hate them, but she hated their weakness. There was no place in the world for the weak. Nature did not deal in mercy.

Sarah could hear their fearful whispers from the 57th floor. They no longer dared to climb the crumbling stairs past the 40th floor. She heard them whispering her name. The [i]Angel[/i] they whispered, the [i]dreadful Angel[/i] had arrived, had driven off the scavengers, and the vultures that remained.

Dressed in tatters, scraps of clothing she had found, she crouched on the cold, barren concrete, wrapping her great wings around her to keep warm. A dagger cut into her head, she could feel the threads they had woven through her head. Up-hyped reflexes sending tremors through her arms. Her fingers shivered, opening and closing, digging into the bare skin of her arms. She could feel the razor blades beneath her finger nails quiver, ice cold steel finding purchase.

[i]"You wanted to live," the familiar voice smirked. Feminine. American. Midwestern accent. She couldn't remember the face. She couldn't remember the name. But she could remember the anger. The anger that had kept her alive. The anger was all she had. She had nursed it. Kept it alive with the lost parts of hers, the parts she knew she'd never get back. "Be careful what you wish for."

"Don't look so angry. There was never a way for us to escape, Hamilton understood that, I'm sure a part of you does too. Just lay still and accept it. It will soon be over, one way or another."[/i]

Clawing at her skin, Sarah opened her eyes in burst of motion. She felt calm. She felt right. She felt strong. The memories were not important. They never were. She did not need the anger. Not anymore. She was stronger now. Better now. She was a predator. She was a bird of prey. And she could hear the vermin scurrying, scratching, and digging through the city. Filthy creatures. Weak creatures. She would not allow it. Not anymore. Not ever again. 

She had prey to hunt.

With a bound, Sarah threw herself off the rooftop. She felt the wind rush past her, and pulled her wings tight against the body. She smiled, seeing the ground approaching at an maddening speed. At the last moment, she enveloped her great wings, and soared into the night sky.

The Hills were hers. They were her territory. Her hunting ground. Full of prey. Full of vice. Full of evil. She would cull the herd. She would restore order. She would make things right. She would kill, she knew. Some evils could not be forgotten, they could not be forgiven, and she would not forget. Not this time. 

She knew her purpose. She could taste the certainty on the edge of her tongue. She could taste the blood, she could feel it, warm, and slick against her fingers.

The night was young, and she was a bird of prey.