With Broken Wings Solo

Interacting with: N/A Mentioning: N/A Date: Summer 2026

Word Count: 1103

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There was something about the old house that enchanted Avery. The creak of the floorboards beneath her feet, the howl of the wind just outside the walls, the scent of cinnamon mixed with stale air filled the halls. This place had been her home once upon a time. It was the home where she had been born. A relic of a past that disappeared long before she could remember. She had only been three on the fateful day that her parents had made the decision to abandon the home and move to London where they now resided. Avery walked those hallways as she had years prior. Running her fingers along the cracked wallpaper, she could feel the weight of memories beneath her skin. She still could not imagine that it had been a decade since she had last stepped foot into this old house. It was a memory in itself of good times she no longer remembered. Good times that were buried along with the rest of her dark and winding past. Her father had been the reason she was there standing before her childhood home. Something deep within her told her that something bad had brought this meeting. Something was stirring within the old walls of her grandparents' house. That something she feared would be the downfall of her family legacy. Not that it wasn't already falling. It had been far too long since she had last heard or seen her parents keep their good name by attending the pure blood balls she knew happened many times per week. Avery took the leap of face and placed one foot in front of the other. As far as she knew, no human had stepped foot within the house in over a decade. The floorboards creaked beneath her feet as the sound of her footsteps alone filled the still residence. She took the unfamiliar yet so familiar unbeaten path to the place she had once called her room. Avery stood before the stairs as they loomed ominously before her. Were they safe? Was it worth risking her own health and well being just to relive a piece of her past that she desperately wanted to remember? The answer was simple. Yes. She had to know the truth of what it was like before everything had turned to the darker shades of grey. Maybe the key to her past lay within the house that had been untouched. It was a preservation of a past that ceased to exist, but yearned to see the light again. And today? Well, today Avery was going to let that light shine in. Without a second thought, Avery took the first step up the winding stairs that led to the second floor of the estate. The wood was covered in a layer of dust, but beneath the dust and grime of years of no upkeep lay beautiful mahogany wood. It was a rich reddish brown that stole Avery's breath away. How could something so beautiful have gone to waste for so many years? Photographs of a family Avery didn't recognize flooded the walls of the narrow hallway leading to her room. So this was what her family was like before everything had gone downhill. There was one photograph in particular that caught her eye. It was a family photo. One Avery had never seen before. Probably because it was still in the house along with the rest of her buried memories. It was a photo from a Christmas Avery had no recollection of. Her parents were holding her in their arms and beaming at the camera with bright smiles. They looked like a happy family. That alone was something Avery had forgotten as time went on. The smiles and joy from that time were long gone now. All that was left was the ghost of the smiles and joy of a Christmas spent surrounded by a loving family. Avery couldn't remember the last Christmas she had actually had the chance to spend with her family together as one. Avery turned away from the photograph that was worn with age. She couldn't bear to see it and remember a time when her mother actually loved her and her father cared enough to spend time with her and tuck her into bed every night. It was then that Avery recognized the closed door that led to a room she hadn't stepped foot in since the fateful day that her life had been ripped apart. The doorknob was cool beneath her fingers as she gently turned it. The hinges whined in protest as the door opened. Avery gripped the rough wood beneath her fingers as she took a step in. She held her breath. It was as if she had walked into the memory of someone else's life. Peeling light purple wallpaper covered the walls with photos and drawings clearly made by a toddler littered the walls. A small bed stripped of its sheets sat in the corner near a window covered by dark curtains. A small dresser sat beside the bed, but it was empty except for a lamp. A closet sat across the room, but it was empty as well. As if whoever had lived there before had taken everything of worth away and left it as a shell. So this had once been her room. It was nothing that she had expected. What had she been like back then? Clearly she wasn't the same sweet and innocent child that she once was. If anything, Avery at nearly fourteen felt like an adult. She had been through more than most adults had anyway, and she believed experience always made a person feel, and sometimes look, older. Avery collapsed onto the empty bed and felt herself sagging into it. She closed her eyes and let out a breath she had forgotten she had been holding. Tears welled in her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. She was home again. This was the place that left a gaping hole in her heart. It was the missing piece to the mess of a puzzle that her life had been ever since she had abandoned her old self and embraced the new. The only question now was pressing deeply into her soul. What had actually happened to cause her family's departure from the beautiful estate? A deeper reason far below the surface begged to be released. Avery knew that what her parents had told her about moving to have better access to their jobs was a lie. So, what was the real truth? There was only one way to find out.

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