Pursuit

They flew for a couple of hours before the storm hit.

Eliza saw it in the distance; a huge mountain of grey, swirling clouds dominating the horizon. But there was nowhere to go. Below them, as far as her eyes could see, was steely grey water. She had no idea where land was, if there was any land this way before the Arctic, but the clouds wrapped around them too fast for a change of course.

And now they were trapped.

Eliza gripped at sodden hunks of Ava’s fur, her fingers numb, and she leant in as close as she could. Rain lashed, wind buffeted, and lightning forked overhead like they were stuck in some sort of possessed washing machine.

BOOM.

Thunder crashed through her skull. For a moment, she couldn’t hear a thing, not even the roaring wind, but then a tiny voice panted in her mind.

Eliza – I – can’t!

She squeezed her eyes shut against a face of frigid water. This was all his fault. Never in her life had she thought she’d be riding her dog across the North Sea, but Magnus Reynolds, playing at being some sort of grotesque god, had locked her in a cell in his laboratory and sewn seagull wings onto her best friend.

But then she was the one sat here, squashing Ava with her weight, making it worse.

Eliza screwed up her face into Ava’s shoulder, full of soaking fur and hard muscle that strained to keep the monstrous wings beating. Just a bit longer, Ava, I’ll think of something, I promise…

But there was nothing to do. No way out.Every inch of her burned with cold. Her hands were locked into place on Ava’s fur, her legs shivering uncontrollably. After all this time, all this running, the two of them were going to drown in the middle of nowhere. Her family would never even know what happened. All of that pain and suffering and ruin for nothing.

A blast of hail ripped across the two of them. The wings started to falter.

Eliza – I – I’m sorry.

Her voice ebbed through her mind, the only thing in the world other than the deafening wind. At least she wouldn’t be alone.

It’s okay.

And, she found herself thinking with a grim smile, Reynolds had lost. If the two of them were gone, he could never experiment on her. They would never have to endure that again. It was over.

Ava managed one more wingbeat before they plummeted towards the boiling waters below.