The cold night’s breeze that the open window provided sent chills around Nick’s body, waking him up from his slumber. He shifted his body around to get a hold of the blanket and pulled it over his entire body as he reached for Riley to wrap in his arms, but she wasn’t there.

His eyes propped up his head and opened his eyes only to find Riley’s side of the bed empty. He glanced at the alarm clock; it showed the time of 2:38. “It’s Christmas,” Nick silently reminded himself as he smiled, but the smile quickly vanished as he wondered where Riley could be. He stopped and listened to see if maybe he could hear something that would signify her using the bathroom, but silence fell in his dark surroundings.

Nick remain laid down on his bed for a moment, taking deep inhales and exhales of air. He felt a sudden sensation of disconformities build up inside of him. He didn’t know his reasons for the feelings that had soon overtaken his entirety.

Fifteen minutes had passed since Nick had awakened in finding the other side of his bed empty. “Where could Riley be?” he asked as finally he got out of bed and walked out of the bedroom and soon found himself walking down the stairs.

A sudden shift of noise was released from the direction of the family room. “Riley?” he called out, loud enough to have whomever was in the next room hear his voice. Nick began to thread along the path that ultimately led his hand reaching for the doorknob and pushing it opened.

He found the glass door set ajar as the cool night breeze was let in and Uriel’s cage, which was empty, slowly flung in one motion, seemingly to have been dancing with the wind.

Nick walked closer to the opened glass door and looked out only to find Riley sitting flat on the grass, with her back facing him.

“Riley?” Nick called out, but she didn’t response. “Riley? What are you doing?” he called back again, and still there was no response. “Riley? Come on back inside before you get the chills!” he screamed out again as a last attempt, and just like his last two, it failed any sort of response or movement from Riley whatsoever.

Nick found himself in deep confusion as he felt he had no other choice but to go outside as well and take Riley back inside the house with him. Barefooted, he walked out towards her and after a few steps, he found himself 3 feet away from her until Riley blurted out, “Don’t come any closer, Nick!”

Nick stopped as his eyebrows curled, “Are you okay?” he asked.

Riley slowly got up revealing her long flowing nightgown. It had a thin strap with satin materials that reached all the way down to Riley’s ankles. The plunging back line revealed Riley’s silky-smooth back while some strands of her hair that had been held up in a ponytail managed to find its way out of the grasp of the hair tie and flowed along with each blow of the wind.

All that Nick could see from Riley’s vision was her back and the side of her face as her right arm was bent with her forefinger sticking out in the air as Uriel stood on it.

“You want to go back inside now, Riley?” Nick asked, “the air’s getting cold and misty, I think it’s suppose to rain tonight. Let’s go back inside before you catch a cold”

Riley turned her body around to face Nick, but not making any eye contact with him as her vision was fixated on Uriel. “The job is done now,” she said gently as she raised her left hand and began to stroke Uriel’s feathers.

“What?” Nick asked, more confused than ever.

“Say bye to Uriel, Nick!” she said as she readied herself to let Uriel fly away

“Wait, what are you doing?” Nick blurted while reaching for Riley’s right arm to stop her from letting the bird go. “You’re not going to let him go are you?”

“The job is done,” she said again as she allowed her left hand to touch Nick’s hand that was touching her right hand off of it then followed through letting Uriel fly away.