500 Word Short Story
A Fallen Angel
Scott A. Gese
500 Word Short Story
I was sitting in a bar with two of my reporter colleagues. We were discussing the strangest story we had ever reported on. I thought I did well relaying the story of my day as a passenger in an overcrowded stagecoach as we reenacted a fifty mile ride along the same route as the first stage line in Oregon. But it was not to be. My buddy, Harmon took the prize. Here's his story.
“This is a story I reported on several years ago. It's strange, but I swear it's true. I know it for a fact because I was there. It's so vivid in my mind, I recall it as if it happened yesterday. It was around nine o'clock in the evening. It was a warm night. My wife, our two good friends and I stepped out onto the patio for a couple of cold beers.
“We were discussing recent events when we noticed something streak across the sky just above our heads. We all wondered what it might be since it was so close. A few seconds later we heard the crash. It was on the back side of the property about one hundred yards away. I grabbed a flashlight and we all headed toward the area where the sound came from.
“When we arrived on the scene, we found that whatever it was had crashed into the side of an empty outbuilding. We cautiously opened the door to look inside. Even though it was a warm night, the room was frigid cold. There was ice on the walls. Everything inside the building was frozen.
“We stepped inside and looked around. I shined the light to the back of the room and there we saw it. A nude man, but yet, not a man. I mean, it had arms and legs and looked human except...it had wings. Big... black... feathery wings and a few feathers on it's body here and there. It was laying still. We weren't sure if he...if it... was dead.
“Not sure of what to do we called 911. When they arrived, we took them to the outbuilding. As soon as they started working on the “man”, we were ushered out of the building. They immediately called the police who quickly arrived, as did several unmarked cars filled with serious looking men. My guess was some sort of security people. The body was hauled away. I'm not sure if it was still alive. We never heard another word.
“The following day I made some inquiries but got nowhere. I wrote up the story and my editor refused to run it. Said it was too unbelievable for our mainstream readership.
I ended up selling the story to a tabloid under a pseudonym. I think they titled it Bird Man Falls From the Sky.”
We had a good laugh. He assured us it was true. Believing him would have been a stretch, but then, who really knows, stranger things have happened.
© Copyright 2018 by Scott A. Gese All Rights Reserved.
