Chapter 3: False Hope

The next morning when Hyde woke up he reached for the jar but found only empty space in his hooves. He quickly stood up and scanned the room, finding Jekyll sitting on the floor sipping a cup of hot Earl Gray tea as he read the writing on the scroll as his magic levitated the piece of paper in front of him.

"What is this?" Jekyll glared at Hyde over the paper as he waited for an answer.

"A spell to put my wings back together."

"Why would I destroy all of my hard work and reward you for bad behavior?"

"I want my wings back."

Jekyll had skimmed through the spell and knew that it wouldn't work but he wanted to see what it would actually do. He looked up across the room where Hyde was giving him puppy dog eyes. Jekyll sighed.

"Alright."

Hyde's eyes lit up and ran across the room and hugged him tightly. The doctor was so surprised that he almost lost his balance and dropped the tea he was levitating. He pushed Hyde away.

"Bring me your feathers."

Hyde did as he was told, bringing the jar from across the room and placing it down in front of his hooves.

"I need you to sit down and open your wings for me."

Hyde did so, looking back at Jekyll with enthusiasm, awaiting what would happen next.

Jekyll knew that he had to say the spell incantation exactly as it was written so the spell would work properly. Before he started the spell, he drank the rest of his tea and put the empty teacup behind him. He placed the scroll on the floor and used some books from a nearby bookcase as paperweights. Taking a deep breath, he levitated all of the bloodied feathers and organized them as closely as he could to the shape of Pegasus wings. He then recited the spell:

Severed apart and unable to mend

I bind you together to become whole again

Hyde's feathers glowed with a bright golden light which then subsided. Even though he didn't show it, Jekyll was exhausted and was breathing quickly through his nose.

He looked back at his mended wings. He was so happy that he got his wings back that he flapped his wings and flew a couple feet from the ground for a few seconds before he fell. Jekyll was nice enough to catch him before he met the ground. Hyde relaxed when he realized that he wasn't falling anymore and that Jekyll had saved his life.

"Thank you."

Jekyll had changed his mind on lowering Hyde safely to the floor and let him fall on his face instead.

Hyde got back onto his hooves and sadly noticed the some of his feathers were on the floor. He ran to the only mirror in the room and looked at his wings. Most of the feathers had fallen off and the few that were left dangling. He flapped his wings causing the rest of the remaining feathers to fall off and onto the floor. Hyde had his boney wings again.

"The spell didn't work."

"I knew it wouldn't."

"Then why did you do it?"

"I wanted to see what it would actually do."

"You mean I was your guinea pig again?"

"You were so eager to have your wings back."

"Why did you give me false hope?"

"Because murders don't deserve to fly."

With that statement Jekyll stormed out the laboratory door, slamming it behind him with his magic.

Left alone, Hyde gathered his feathers back into the jar and lay down by the fire once more, the cold truth of what Jekyll had said repeated in his mind.

He was a murderer but did that mean that he really didn't deserve to fly at all?