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To cope. That was all I’d ever been doing. Coping. Coping with not knowing what I was doing. Coping with the expectations of my mother. Coping with the trauma that got passed down.
“Mother tried to get rid of you.”
“Your mother thinks ignoring her problems will make them go away.”
My wings slowed their frantic pace. We were so high up, the oxygen was getting low, and I was tired.
But I didn’t want to return to earth. Even angry, scared, and frustrated, I was so… free. Alive. My shadows had been formed into wings, and I was reluctant to ever contain them again.
“But, my little wildebeest, you’ve always run toward your demons, not away from them. You were always chasing non-humans. Bugs, plants, animals, even demons. That camera of yours was just an excuse. The weird, the occult, has always drawn you to it.”
His wings slowed to beat in sync with mine. “Why didn’t I tell you Reaper has a starborn? Because I always knew it was you.”
I froze. My wings stopped beating, and I free-fell at least a hundred feet.
Gaksi caught me mid-cloud. I was soaked with water, and he was laughing.
“You know who also always knew it was you?”
I swallowed a lump in my throat. Yes.
“Demons chose soulmates based on cunning, loyalty, and valor,” he said, wings flapping hard enough to keep both of us elevated.
“You are the most brilliant Deokhye in generations. The wisest.” Praise shined out of his red eyes.
“You are the most loyal to your family, even when it puts you in danger. Your sincerity of devotion knows no bounds.” He released me, and I regathered my wings to stay adrift.
“You give no heed to what others think of you, flying above campus with your shadow wings out. The most dauntless.”
The clouds cleared beneath, but I kept my wings out high above.
I pondered what he said when I flew to my first home that night. In my heart, I knew he was right, but there were some old demons of mine I had to control first.
It was time to face the most fearsome of them all.
* * *
My childhood homeno longer felt like the colorful escape it used to be. Dad said that was common when you went to college. That you felt in-between places, with people making you feel at home, not buildings. Perched atop a hill, the glass-domed roof of my family’s house served as a testament to my Dad’s love of stargazing. That was where my name came from: Dad’s love of astronomy and the night sky. I inherited my fondness for darkness from him.
Mother had a conniption when he took out the roof for glass, but it was more beautiful this way, so she let it stay.
The entire house resembled Mother, save the ceiling. The rooms were perfectly tidy. My siblings were obediently behaved. Even my dad mostly kept to himself unless he needed something.
A part of me would always miss the orderly place of my childhood.
But I was grown now.
I peered through the telescope of the main living room. It was night now, and twinkling stars and planets beamed at me. I remembered looking up at the night sky and wanting to fly up there someday. To fly among the shadows and live to tell the tale.
That dream of mine came true.
“Daughter.”
I flinched. Not even a first-name basis, then. Mother sat on the couch like a stone, adding a heavy tension to the already thick air.
“It took you long enough.” Mother rose and smoothed my hair over my shoulder, exposing my neck. “You’ve learned that mother knows best, after all. You have removed that hideous mark.”
“Actually, Mother, Reaper is a permanent fixture of my life now.”
