Sam hadn’t been asleep very long when a noise woke him up. Koji was next to him, snoring softly, sprawled out in what looked like an uncomfortable position. Oh well, whatever worked for him. For a moment, Sam thought that the noise had been the building settling around them. After all, the place was made of metal and was old. Then, he heard it again. Sitting up, he realized it sounded alive.

“Koji,” Sam whispered, placing a hand on Koji’s shoulder. “Wake up.”

Koji moaned, but woke up. “Wha…what?”

“Somethin’s wrong. I feel it.”

And that was right, he did feel it more than hear it. That was strange.

Koji sat up, suddenly completely awake. “I don’t hear anything.”

“No voices?”

“Um…no. Well, maybe.”

So was someone really there or not? Sam looked around. There it was again, near the door. And this time he saw it, a shadow lurking just inside the door. Sam jumped up, grabbing Koji’s hand. As he did that, the shadow moved. Another shadow behind them came forward. Oh hell, they were surrounded. Was it Wellhaven? Or was it just some random people who thought they could jump the sleeping men.

“This way.” When first scouting out the place, Sam had noticed a ladder along the left hand wall. His instinct said to seek higher ground. At the moment, he wasn’t questioning instinct. Koji glanced behind them.

“I see at least three of them. Maybe more.”

“Don’t look behind, just move.”

Sam pushed Koji up the ladder first.

“We’ll be trapped up there,” Koji protested, hesitating.

“Just go.”

Maybe Koji made sense, but all of Sam’s instincts screamed to get up on the roof. He needed to get high, up in the open.

Once on the roof, they began to run. At least one of the shadows from inside had followed them up the ladder.

“Sam!” Koji yelled.

“I know, keep runnin’.

The next building was within jumping distance, so they ran across the roof to the next roof. They could do this for several buildings, but eventually they’d run out of roofs. Sam could feel Koji panicking behind him. So, what had trusting his instincts gotten him?

Suddenly his back began to hurt. It hurt really badly. It hurt so badly he had to stop running.

“Sam?” Koji asked. Koji looked down at Sam, then behind them where their pursuer was gaining. “Sam? Oh…my…god!”

Sam’s scream was caught in his throat. He didn’t know exactly what was happening to him, but he just barely managed to tear off his sweatshirt before it was ruined by the wings that tore out of his back. His black eyes went blank, as if he didn’t see anything around him. Beside him, Koji was shaking. Instincts took over.

Turning, Sam touched the wood of the roof they were now on. As soon as he did that, it began to rot away. Beside him, Koji choked. Now he noticed Koji. He scooped the frightened young man into his arms. Koji hugged the sweatshirt to his chest, vaguely wondering if he’d just had a psychotic break.

Powerful wings beat the air, taking them into the sky just as their pursuer leapt across. Apparently the guy hadn’t realized that the wood had been rotted away. He landed, scrambled for purchase, then fell through the roof.

“Sam…?” Koji asked tentavely.

“M’ name is Sariel,” He replied in a distant voice, before flying away from the building.

Koji tried hard not to scream, but he couldn’t help the little yelping noise he made. He was not a huge fan of heights, and this was all too much of a strange dream.

After a while, he realized they were losing altitude. The look on…Sam’s? Sariel’s?....face was becoming confused. Koji looked down at the ground. This was not going to end well, was it?

Suddenly, Sariel’s wings gave out on him. They fell, crashing towards an alley. Koji braced himself. Luckily, Sariel turned himself so he took the brunt of the collision. The other lucky thing was they landed in a pile of garbage.

Koji opened his eyes to see the wings slowly disappearing and his friend’s skin fading back to the pale sun starved shade.

“Sam?”

Sam groaned. “What just happened? How’d we get here?”

“Uh…you are not going to believe this.”

~~*~~

Rhayne woke up with a start right after the winged man faded into a thin looking guy.

“Whoa,” she muttered at the ceiling.

Why had those two men seemed so familiar? Even as they ran she felt like she knew them. Wait a second. Had she seen them somewhere? Oh geez, this was getting complicated. At least now she had an idea that they were probably in town. She had to find them. They needed help.

Rhayne started to get out of bed, then she noticed the clock. Okay, so it was not even four in the morning yet. They needed help, but it would have to wait until it was light outside.

~~*~~

“Y’re kiddin’ me, right?” Sam asked. They were in the alley where they had crash landed. Koji was surprised no one had noticed, but he counted it as a blessing. At least he’d managed to move Sam out of the garbage and into the far shadows of the alley.

“No. Not kidding at all. I swear, you grew wings.” Koji was grateful he was able to keep his voice steady. “You grew wings and flew us away from there. And that thing you did to the roof too.”

“I don’t really remember. It’s all far away, like a dream ‘r somethin’.”

“If we weren’t here right now, I’d just say I’d gone crazy. It’d be easy to say, but I know what I saw. Oh, here.” Koji handed Sam the hooded sweatshirt. “You took it off right before the wings showed up.”

“Wait. Y’ said wings, and black skin?” Sam slipped the sweatshirt on, he was suddenly very cold.

“That’s right.”

“That…that’s right out o’ m’ dreams.”

They stared at each other for a long silent moment. Sam’s brain was definitely trying to refuse what Koji had told him.

“So…th’ dreams are about me,” Sam finally said in a low voice. His stomach lurched. Even though he’d always somewhat suspected it, suspecting and having some kind of proof were two different things.

“Memories?” Koji asked.

“I…I still don’t know.” Sam put his head in his hands. “It’s…hard to…”

“Don’t worry about it. Just rest.”