Sarah had been here for the past week, in this vent. At first she thought it was just a dream, she was cleaning sector four when it happened she started nose bleeding and her head started banging in excruciating pain and suddenly everything around her was gigantic. She tried screaming for help but no one replied to her, then she saw something that made her blood run cold. A group of soldiers the size of ants getting ripped apart by a cat. That shook her to her core but not as much as when she heard the speaker in sector 4 play the harrowing truth that the entire world was experiencing some slow shrinking and everyday millions were shrinking.
The reports stopped coming after the first three days, so she guessed everyone had shrunk by now. "Hahhh!", she sighed slumping on the floor, she had been eating a piece of moldy biscuit which was thrice her size and surviving on the morning dew that formed on the vent bristles.
"BANGG!", she was rudely pulled out of her bleak thoughts by the loud sound of someone or something crashing against the vent wall, she shuffled her self up her hair falling on her face but she could care less as her heart was pounding through her ribs. "what was it this time" she thought as she tiptoed toward the sound.
"What the fuc" she choked out, freezing mid-step as she came face to face with another person, no she wasn't even sure he was a person, he had long slick black feathery wings the moved gracefully he stared at her, his hands hovering mid-air. Like a fallen angel.
"What the fuck, who are you", she screamed at him.
His mouth was agape like he had never seen someone else before. He flew closer and Sarah scrambled back, her heels skidding on the cold metal of the duct. Her heart felt like a trapped bird beating against her ribs.
"You're… you're a person," he said, his voice deep and vibrating through the floor. He sounded stunned, like he was seeing a ghost.
"Yes I'm a person, what the fuck does that even mean", she exclaimed.
"I thought…. I thought I was the only one", he replied.
"A person? Look at yourself! You have wings, you freak!", she retorted.
He winced at the word, a flicker of pain crossing his face. Making her feel a pang of guilt.
"I'm sorry I didn't mean it to come out like that", she told him as he descended, " what… what are you exactly", she said raising her eyebrows.
"I'm Thomas," he replied grudgingly, his wings fluttering once before tucking tightly against his back. "And that's all."
"Okay Thomas, I'm Sarah… you aren't going to eat me are you", she said wearily.
"of course I'm not going to eat you", he replied like it was obvious.
"Like he didn't have fucking wings coming out of his back", she thought to herself.
She slumped slightly, the adrenaline leaving her weak.
Thomas took a tentative step forward. The metal beneath his feet groaned under his weight "is the whole world? … the cities… is everyone like this?", he asked wearily like he already knew what she was going to say, and he hoped he was wrong.
"Yeah more or less, the last broadcast two days ago said millions were turning everyday so I suppose by now everyone is small", she replied to him, watching as the color drain from his face.
Her eyes darting to the massive black wings that twitched with his agitation. "And a lot less lucky than you", she scoffed.
His wings shrank as if noticing her gaze. "we should stick together", Thomas said, his voice hardening as he regained his footing. He reached out a hand.
She looked around at the moldy biscuit she had been eating the past week, then at where she had been sleeping on the dust bunnies, then at Thomas, at his beautiful black wings and his tall and wide frame and realized she had no choice but to take this stranger's hand.
"Hahhh! Yeah okay, not like I have a choice anyway", she sighed as she took his hand