'Dust' by Vikki Gemmell

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Lights pierced the darkness as she fell. She reached out, trying to catch a star, screaming a wish that was lost; an echo of regret, her voice thrown back in her face, taunting, mocking. The stars burned her hand, dissolving on touch. So this was infinity – falling through the sky with no end in sight, with nothing concrete to hold, spinning out of control.

She closed her eyes, a carousel of memories turning in her mind; the happiness and colours, the laughter and love; the good things she’d forgotten. One wrong turn and it was lost. He’d warned her; he’d let her choose and she chose wrong.

The heat rose up from below, flames licking her wings, destroying the last of her goodness. Destroying another glimmer of hope. The feathers fell like snow. And then she was dust.

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