The town hall plunged into darkness. Gasps and anxious excitement filled the heavy summer air.

Amelia grasped around in the midnight sea of fabric and heads, frantically searching for a beacon of hope. She felt the soft, silk texture of Cassir's suit and hung onto it for dear life.

Cassir gently patted Amelia's fingers that were almost ripping through his clothes. "Your talons are rather sharp, big bird." He softly added: "Try to relax; it's all part of the big spectacle my dear friend here has planned."

Lupus stopped mid-way chewing on a Javifluf leg. Gold glazed his eyes. With his cheeks filled with meat, Lupus looked right at Cassir. "I haven't planned anything."

Amelia's eyes widened. She grasped for air as she looked around the pitch black hall. "Then what's happening? Why did the lights go out?!"

Her breathing turned more shallow with every quick breath she took as she swatted around, searching for Catherine.

It's him. It must be. I have seen him in the crowd. I know I did. It wasn't my imagination. It was him. It must have been...

He's here.

Her mumbles turned into shrieks. "Catherine, where are you? Catherine, we have to go."

Cassir gently held onto Amelia's fingers that now were clawing into his flesh. "Who's Catherine, big bird?"

Needing to escape absorbed Amelia's every thought. She couldn't hear Cassir. She only shook her head as snot slithered down her trembling lips. "Catherine?"

Her fingers felt a small hand. Amelia held onto it tightly. She let go off Cassir's arm and rubbed away the snot. "Thank goodness you're alright. Let's hurry."

Amelia vanished into the muttering crowd.

Cassir tried to grab her hand and tell her that no matter what was happening, they'd figure it out together - the three of them - like they always did, but he couldn't find Amelia anymore. He didn't know what was going on, but he knew she was no longer by his side. "Big bird, please, talk to me. Big bird?"

He stared at the darkness surrounding him.

"Taene?"

For the first time she had appeared in his life, Cassir was met with silence.

His legs no longer supported him and the wings of love weren't there to catch him.

Cassir fell to his knees.

"Taene, please... Taene..."

***

Through his gold glazed eyes, Lupus had watched it all happen: the terror on big bird's face when the lights went out, the name Catherine coming out of her mouth over and over again, her abandoning Cassir and Cassir now crying all over Lupus' marble floor.

If Catherine was who he thought she was, then bird man was in way over his head.

Lupus recalled Cassir's genuine confusion upon hearing the name Catherine.

Lupus shook his head.

Bird man doesn't know anything.

Maybe it wasn't that bad she had left him? Let's just hope that Amelia - because that was her name, not Taene or big bird; it was Amelia without the golden hair - had figured it out before their... mutual friend had seen her with Cassir.

Lupus placed his hands in his side and inhaled deeply.

Even if he had seen them together, Lupus and Amelia could give it a plausible explanation? They could say Cassir is a nurse, maybe? Someone who looks after pregnant women as their job? If he'd buy it, then Cassir would be alright?

Lupus exhaled and shook his head. It's better to not let him get to Cassir at all.

Lupus placed his hand on Cassir's shoulder.

"Bird man, let's go watch the Pfe Pfe. It might cheer you up. Besides... There's something you should know."

Cassir looked up in the direction of Lupus' voice, but before he could say anything the murmurs around them were drawn out by a mechanical clicking and soft humming of gears.

Cassir preened into the darkness. Lupus focused on where the music came from. He knitted his eyebrows and pulled down his lips. Lupus readied his claws.

"It has begun. We have to go. Now."

Lupus turned around. The door behind him had been closed.

When did this happen?

He tried the doorknob, but it wouldn't turn. Lupus kicked the door. The door didn't budge.

"This is no good."

The clicking grew louder and turned into a cling clanging as the mechanical sound of a music box filled the air.

Cassir strayed from Lupus and looked up at the ceiling. "What is this?"

Soft, sparkles twirled down onto the audience and filled the town hall like stars strewn across the universe.

Cassir reached out his hand. As his fingertip was about to touch the sparkle, he was abruptly pulled back by Lupus.

Lupus hissed through his teeth. "No touching the sparkles, bird man."

Lupus grabbed a tray and slammed it on Cassir's head. "Now stay under this while I'm finding a way out off here."

A spotlight turned on. It moved from the audience to the ceiling and bathed an angelic figure in pure white light.

Cassir rubbed his eyes. Was he dreaming? Could it be? A bird even more mesmerizing than his Taene?

The bird's angelic voice started to sing to the mechanical tune of the music box.

🎼"🎶 Laa la 🎵 Laa la 🎶"

From their rosy cheeks and heart-shaped beak, to their dark hair with golden streaks, from their feathered frock and lace bows to those elegant eyebrows, from that tache de beauté and the way that they swayed, it was clear as a summer's day, Cassir's heart for the first time strayed...

He lowered the tray.

Mesmerized, Cassir walked towards the crowd, his eyes fixed on the angelic figure flying through the air as they sang to the tune of the music box.

🎼"🎶 Laa la 🎵 Lailai lai la 🎶"

Lupus turned around. He noticed that Cassir had gone. Lupus clenched his fists as he scanned the crowd. "Not on my watch, bird man."

Lupus stormed towards Cassir.

Cassir reached out to touch a sparkling feather that had fallen from the bird's frock as they danced through the air, but before he could touch it, Lupus pulled him back.

Lupus dragged Cassir away from the scene and threw him on a bench in the protective glass cage of a bay window. "Stay here. No touching sparkling feathers either."

"But they're so beautiful!"

"And so is the idea we have of each other until we look close enough. Don't move, bird man. You won't like what you'd become."

Lupus studied the window. "Perhaps...?"

He threw his weight against the glass. It bended slightly, but didn't break.

"Hmm."

The mechanical tube of the music box stopped playing. The angelic voice continued to sing to the soft spinning of gears.

🎼"🎶 Laa la 🎵 Lailai lai la 🎶"

The white light gradually turned red as the angelic notes slowly, but surely distorted. A grin crossed the angelic figure's face.

🎼"🎶 Laa la 🎵 Lailai lai la 🎶"

With every note they sang, the angelic figure's face turned farther around.

The audience pointed at the scarlet angel. Some of them swallowed, others averted their gaze. Soft murmurs filled the hall.

In the halo of blood red, the figure's distorted face stopped turning as it stood upside down on their neck.

The humming of the gears stopped and the audience turned silent.

While the rest of the audience was figuring out whether to applaud or empty their stomach contents, Cassir stared at the mesmerizing blood stained angel. "Magnificent," he said. He crawled off the bench and headed back towards the center of the hall.

Lupus shook his head and grabbed Cassir by his vest. "Not so fast, bird guy. You stay here and close your eyes."

"Why should I close my eyes?"

Lupus sighed. "You won't like what you'll see otherwise. Now close them."

***

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