Wingless: A Dark Fantasy Tale

By Victoria Champion

In the world of the mundanes, a loner joins an online community of misfits in an effort to find his own mysterious kin. He arranges to meet a young woman who has taken on the persona of a creature similar to himself. Could she be the link to the hidden world he has been seeking? Unknown to either of them, a dangerous lurker schemes to destroy their plans.

This story contains mature subject matter and is suitable for mature young adult readers, new adult, and adult.

This ebook contains the dark fantasy paranormal horror short story about shapeshifters, Wingless. This original story by Victoria Champion is 6,000 words, or approximately 22 pages.

First Edition. Originally published on November 27, 2013.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Luminous Points Publishing
• Release date: Nov 27, 2013
• ISBN: 9781501467226

Book preview

Wingless

Victoria Champion

The tattoo needle pierced his skin a thousand times every minute. Under a sheen of blood, the winding branches of the Aerie gate came into view on the landscape of his flesh. He did not know what the symbol was, nor did he know the true identity of the young man who inked him. Struggling against his restraints, the teenager’s visible endurance for the vibratory pain of the tattoo gun lessened with each tiny puncture. In the dusky gloom of the squalid apartment, he gritted his teeth and rolled his eyes, looking for an escape route. Sweat pooled in his eye sockets and in the tender hollow of his throat.

Raptor adjusted the lamp and scowled at the shivering youth. Weakness always disgusted him.

Stop moving. You’re going to fuck this up.

The teenager responded with a barrage of angry insults. However, his outrage was muffled into feeble whining by the dirty t-shirt which gagged him. Raptor wiped the thin layer of blood off his unwilling client’s soft belly. He was not a professional tattoo artist — yet. Raptor was still too young to get a job in a parlor, but he surmised that any practice for the near future was beneficial. He paused and observed the boy’s contorted face. The pathetic mundane only thought he knew what suffering was. Raptor frowned. The fine line-work was going to be ruined if the little bastard did not quit squirming. He smacked the livid flesh with the back of his hand.

I said be still.

He resumed his careful recreation of the nest pattern.

Raptor had never seen the branched gates of the long-lost sanctuary for himself, but his mother had drawn them on a piece of paper for him. He carried it with him always, habitually rubbing the drawing between thumb and forefinger. The treasured scrap was wearing thin and fading beyond