Turning from the light, he drifts back into the shadows. Moving like a crowd of shadows himself across the darkened stone walls. Wandering almost aimlessly, he finds a corner deep in an alley. Looking up at the building across from him, he takes some comfort in the light raining through a stained glass window. Set high in the wall of the church, the multi-colored light pours down the wall that makes up half the corner he's chosen, finishing on the far wall. Fitting somehow, he thinks. He pauses to look up at the night sky,...a storm is coming.
He smiles slightly at the thought, and looks down at the gleaming blade in his hand, 'StormSinger', and the name that encircles his wrist. With a single thrust, the blade is driven inches into the stone, where it will stay until he awakens. He takes a seat on the cold, damp stone,...which he does not feel.
He whispers once more into the open air, "I love you." The words hanging before him like the wispy traces of his breath. Tilting his head back, he draws in a long, deep breath. The night air is cold and stinging,...but he doesn't notice. Reaching out, he wraps his arms around his knees, pulling them up tight to his chest. His wings stretch powerfully, quivering, one final time before they enshroud him. Shielded against the world, he drops his head, closes his eyes softly, and falls back into the endless darkness he knows so well. A blood-red orchid falls gently from his hand. Heart rate slowing with each passing beat. Every breath farther and farther apart, until he sits silent, and still as a stone gargoyle. No movement, no signs of life.
His return to darkness is complete, but it will end with the return of the light, just after the full moon,...as he's promised.
