In a small but quiet room he laid on a hard but comfortable mattress on the floor, eyes shut trying not to think. With no view of the street below the room was dark, so it didn’t matter if they were shut or not, but he could not help but feel that it made it more normal to shut his eyes. In the sweltering heat of this summer he wondered what had he done to deserve this life, this cursed life. The church bells chimed in the distance and he felt a surge of panic flow through his body, this was so unlike the bliss he had once felt when he heard them the first time. Had it been that long ago, it had only felt like mere months in yet here he was looking at the start of his 106th year in which he was cast out. Cast out of the only family he had once known.
In the next door apartment he could hear the couple argue like they had done every night before, it always sounded as if they were in the same room as he, words thrown about like they didn’t mean anything, damn he thought, wish my hearing wasn’t this acute. He raised his hand up to the wall peeling with wallpaper and banged on it yelling “Shut Up!”. He had had enough, when were they going to understand that in life there are more important things than always being right, something he wished he knew the day he chose his.
Slowly the noise dissipated and he lowered his arm back down onto his chest. Trying to get his thoughts back to where they were before the noise had interrupted was completely impossible now. He turned his head to look at the clock beside the bed and saw it was 10:00pm, he had better get up soon he thought to himself. Rolling his head back so he was looking at the ceiling he sighed, why did he care so much about these mere mortals, it’s not like they were as powerful as him, they didn’t care about him but although the fall had stripped him of his wings it didn’t strip him of the compassion he felt for them, it was his job to protect their souls.