Thunderheads gradually obscured the entire sky, smothering out the burning sun indefinitely. With a few deep rumbles within the abundant clouds, rain began to pour down from the heaven and washed the roads far away from the battered apartment.

The air cooled down, and freezing wind howled through the cracks and holes in the walls that were surrounding me.

The bitter smell of rain with a mix of acid floated into my nose as I sat on the half-rotted wooden floor in a small and gloomy room. It was completely bare. There was nothing that I could do. I sat there, staring, confused, annoyed, and most of all, enraged. My head was completely numb. My mind was literally shattered. I huddled my knees close to my chest as I gazed out in no particular direction.

Over the past six months, I had tried all sorts of ways to kill myself. Broken bottles, piercing splinters, water in the sink... I had attempted to end my miserable life. Yet, all of them had failed. One way or another, John and Rohene had guarded me through day and night. They could always jump in to stop my "foolish" actions, which were what they had called them. Rohene Wei... that was her name. John had told me as soon as I called her a stupid person that didn't have any idea of what she was doing to me, tying me up like a sack.

She had decided to stay with John and I for a while before she could find somewhere else to live. She didn't have any parents because she was an orphan. She was sixteen years old, same as I was.

The night of my first effort of committing suicide, John came back and heard the news. He was frustrated and surprised that I would even consider doing such a thing. He had stomped into my confined area, where I was literally tied up with a long coil of rope by Rohene to prohibit me from continuing on with my dangerous operations. She had told him that she had no choice. The moment that she had left, I would do something reckless immediately. John had berated me for an extensive time. I didn't say anything as I stared at my legs.

Another day, probably a week later, I had tried to strangle myself to death by using a rough leather belt that I had found in one of the dark corners. Of course, even if no one came to stop me, I couldn't succeed. I was too weak to begin with. The belt hung loosely around my neck like a collar. Rohene had came in just in time with another set of meal and stopped the horrendous incident from happening, which it wouldn't anyway. She slapped me in the face and scolded me. At first, I was stunned. Then, I retaliated. I didn't hit her back. I couldn't. I could only use the limited amount of profanities in my brain to try and hurt her back. Those words didn't affect her. She shrugged them off as if they were just some pesky pests.

I had tried to drown myself three more weeks later while I was washing up in a dirty bathroom. John had busted in through the door easily and pulled my head out of the cold, browny water. He shouted at me, pointing his meaty fingers at my nose and screamed: "Don't you ever do that again!"

I looked ahead. The chamber, the cell, was stripped completely naked. Everything was moved out of the area to prevent me from killing myself. No sharp objects could be found. Nothing could hurt me now. The walls, ancient, stained, and rough, were like an eternal obstruction to my life.

Lightening flashed quite a few times, bringing the dim place to brightness for a short amount of period.

Zombie-like state... That was what I was in. The confidence and the desire to fight were entirely absent. The fire in my heart and the light in my soul... all of them, gone. For six months, it was hell. Hurting day and night, yet you couldn't even escape from it. It was a torture. Why would John and Rohene must make my existence so full of agony, pain, and suffering? Why couldn't they just let me go? Releasing me? Allowing me to reborn into some other person or creature where this kind of life wouldn't exist anymore? Why wouldn't they grant me freedom, away from all this?

The torment of feeling those broken bones shifting within a pile of muscles was... unbearable. Each night, I could cry myself to sleep. Even if I did go to sleep, sooner or later, I would still be wakening up by a series of intense aching sensation and nausea. Six months. Six whole freaking months of barely eating anything, barely moving at all, barely talking.

Without a shirt on, both John and Rohene could see that I had gotten skinnier. Way skinnier.

In one way or another, most of my injuries had healed. Now came the hardest part: gaining my faith back and starting a whole new array of exercises to bring some life back into the joints and muscle fibers.

I scoffed as I thought about them. I wouldn't do it. No way in hell. My wings were behind me, as usual. These cursed things had turned my life upside-down. I hated them. I flapped them angrily. They had healed and it was a wonder. Bird bones knitted quickly than human bones perhaps? I wanted them gone. I sighed as I buried my head in my arms. Tears dripped out from my green eyes. I wanted my old life back. I wanted my family back. I wanted my friends back. I wanted my best buddy back. I wanted to be a normal teenage boy. I didn't want to be like this.

With the world today, there was no place for me to hide. There was no safety. Basically, there was no hope. None. Zero. Zip.

She reached out with her right hand and touched the feathers. I flinched. Folding the blasted wings back to where they were, I grumbled unhappily.

"Well... I think it's time to jolt the memory of happiness out of you," Rohene clicked her tongue as she stared at me. "If you keep on thinking that everything is going against you, then you will have no hope of becoming better. Tobieaz, you are in a state of extreme depression right now. I don't want you to be like this. Heck, I would do anything to make you come up from the bottom of the well."

"Look, you don't know what you are talking about!" I snapped.

"Oh yeah? Well, how do you answer this?"

Without warning, she leaned forward and kissed me on the mouth. Surprised and dazed, my eyes were wide. I didn't know how to react. I didn't know what to do. Feeling her soft lips against mine... It was unsettling. Hundreds of strange feelings were swelling up from the bottom of my heart. Sensations that I had not felt before were emerging out of nowhere.

I tried to back away from her, but something inside of me was holding onto her, asking her for help. She was like a lighthouse in a dark and stormy night. Her face blocked my vision. The light perfume of hers was wrapping around me, soothing my wounds both physically and mentally.