.- Canary Feathers -.

..--..

Yellow feathers
Bright blue eyes
Gracefully soaring
Into the skies
..--..

I found myself in a strange place.

The horizon was slashed across the sky; highlighted by the bleak, gray land with no civilization in sight. I kept my eyes glued to the horizon. It looked like a dagger wound, freshly marked on a grey animal, so innocently naive about pain until it felt some upon it's flesh. The animal had humps. Some hills, mounded across the horizon were barely visible.

I kept walking.

"Are you lost?" Came a calm voice.

I whirled around. There, toppled onto the horizon, was a tree, upon it's spindly branches sat a young boy about my age. It was disturbing. He looked exactly like me... Apart from his hair, which was cinnamon, ragged and spiky like the grey animal's teeth, his eyes an adept reflection of mine. He was sitting with his slender back against the tree trunk; one leg dangling towards the ground in a perfect right angle, wearing nothing but a black fedora and a pair of ebony pants. The legs trailed halfway down the tree, deep gashes that scarred the backdrop.

He looked at me.

"I said, are you lost?"

I walked a little bit closer to him. He studied me, and I studied him, until I opened my mouth and searched for a meaningless sentence.

"A little."

He grinned, then. His teeth were sharp and I felt just a little bit wary.

"I have something to show you."

He raised his hands, cupped them, and closed his eyes. I was standing there for at least thirty seconds, before he opened his palms again; and out bloomed a startlingly yellow creature, a canary bird, sat there chirping in his hands.

"Pretty, isn't it?" He mused, stroking the bird on it's smooth, rounded head. "It reminds me of you."

..--..

You're my canary;
More beautiful than peacock, sparrow, dove
And this I know
You're my one true love
..--..

I blinked. He continued to stroke the bird, who chirped softly, before opening his mouth again.

"He's the same colour as your hair... And his eyes, see?"

I looked a little closer. The bird and me did share the same hair color, the burnt yellow orange, and the cerulean optics.

"It's feathers are beautiful. Just like you, Roxas. See, here..."

I looked. He pinched his forefinger and thumb to one of it's feathers, and started to pull. The bird twitched and chirped a little louder, trying to fly away, but the boy held him tightly in his grasp. He plucked the object away from it's home.

Almost immedietly, I felt a searing pain in my arm.

"Ah!"

"Yes, it hurts, doesn't it?" The boy grinned in amusement.

It felt like he'd plucked the feather from my arm. The pain was burning, a hot stab just below my shoulder, and the wound split open to pour with scarlet blood, spurting towards my elbow in a caustic trickle. My blood was burning me. I screamed and clutched the opening, falling to my knees with a harsh whimper, as the blood pattered to the ground in heavy drips.

I could hear him laughing, and the bird screaming, just like me.

"Would you like another?"

I opened one eye. My vision was hazy. I tried to shout 'no', but I caught sight of him plucking a few more feathers.

Another section of my flesh burst open by it's own accord; showering the area with blood, splintering pain erupting in my arms, like he'd plunged a few searing hot daggers into my body, and I was feeling dizzy from the blood loss, but he pulled out more, and more, and more, until my legs started to explode with pulsating wounds that I almost could not feel. My own liquid soaked through my clothes, splattering down onto the grey ground and dying the dirt a slovenly brown.

"Oh, look at you!" He laughed, tipping his fedora to get a better look at me, still clutching the bird. "Feel a bit helpless, now? It's okay. It'll be over soon."

I didn't like those words.

..--..

But when you fly away
Away from here
You distraught my world
You confirm my fear
..--..

When he pulled another feather, I felt something exploding from my chest, acidic burning making my entire body crumple with overwhelming malaise. I reached up to feel a gaping, gored hole right above my stomach. I whimpered again. I also retched, once, twice, and vomited in front of myself, spewing liquids away, and it burned my throat, so, so much, until it was over. I leant forward. I clutched my stomach. I became entranced with a single string of saliva that was hanging from my mouth.

"There, there. That's enough of that."

I felt my hopes rising.

There was a pause. I breathed heavily, feeling the blood still flowing from my wounds, closing my eyes and trying to imagine something else. Anything else. Anything that would take me away from here...

But then, another searing pain in my upper face; and I looked up towards the tree. He was holding his fingers up to the canary's eye.

"What are you doing?" I managed to choke out.

He looked down at me, shadowed features twisting into a cat-like grin. "Your eyes are pretty, but we're too much alike, don't you think?"

Before I could reply, he rammed his finger into the canary's eye socket, and once again, pain detonated in my own pupil, and I felt the eyeball breaking and separating just like an egg, almost at once my hands shot up to my face, trying to stop the unpluggable gush of blood that was streaming down my cheek. I was screaming, and the canary was screaming, and our screams meshed together in some sort of bizarre, sadistic rhythm.

I wanted to shriek at him to stop. I tried to get the words out, but I was trembling so badly that all I could do was sit there and shake in front of him. Half of my vision was missing.

"That's better." Came his voice. It sounded distant; far away, and muffled. "You're still beautiful, Roxas, don't worry."

Silence. My breaths were still coming heavy.

"But jealousy can be murder, can't it?"

I could smell my insides.

I could also hear the canary screaming again, which meant I'd be screaming again soon, and sure enough, a herrendous pain sensation let off in my arm like a firework, and I could feel a strange force pulling my shoulder away from me, like somebody was tugging my hand with incredible strength. I felt my joint dislocating, popping from it's place and my flesh was straining, tugging and tugging, more, more, more, until it started to break, and tear apart, and the canary was chirping insanely, and I was shrieking insanely, until my arm was stretched too much, and he ripped it right away from my body with a showering fountain of blood, and a loud, splintering snap that just couldn't be real.

I was in too much pain to faint. He'd obviously just ripped the canary's wing off, and in the process, ripped my arm off too, and now I could feel the same terrible tugging in my jaw... The beak, now.

I felt it becoming jarred, and a sudden crack told me what I needed to know.

"Remember, you're still beautiful." I heard the distant voice say.

My vision was hazing.

"Sort of."

..--..

Let me rip your feathers
I'll pierce your eye
Tear your wings

Now, can you fly?
..--..