TW: graphic details

Every year was a race to see who could get their wings first. Serafina’s sister, Bridgette, had gotten first last year, earning endless praise and a shower of gifts from her parents. It was unfair, really. Bridgette had always gotten first. First in the spelling bee, first in the gardening competition, first in the berry-picking contest. Bridgette was truly unstoppable. 

Serafina, on the other hand, had always placed a fair second in school, which only earned a few tight-lipped smiles and whispering voices. Her sister had tried to help on numerous occasions, but only earned the glory of being her teacher. After that, Serafina preferred to learn on her own. 

“But how do you earn your wings, Professor?” Violet, a whiny fairy with purple hair, asked from the back of the class. “We’ve been trying to get them our entire lives, but no one will tell us how. Not even a clue.”

“Only those who do it themselves are worthy enough for wings.” The Professor’s eyes gleamed in that mischievous way that only fairies could. She fluttered her own blue-feathered wings, so unlike all of the others. “And there are plenty of professions for those without wings. I know plenty of noteworthy acorn collectors.”

Violet scoffed as if acorn collecting was far-below her station. Serafina could hardly blame her, considering the silence that was sure to come if she landed a job in acorn collecting with the rest of the rejects. Some of them still look for wings, but none were successful. She could not bear the pitying frown on her sister’s face with a reassuring pat on the back. _No_. Serafina would get her wings, no matter the cost. 

Bridgette fluttered around on her magnificent, iridescent, purple wings that glittered when the sun hit them just right. They were the prettiest wings in the entire forest. Serafina had only seen a pair like that once before, on an old fairy dying of pollen-sickness. Sometimes she would imagine what it would be like to have those wings. How the other fairies watched in unconcealed jealousy, their own insignificant wings dusting up a storm. 

“The only way you’ll ever get anything in life is if you take it,” the old-dying fairy had said when she visited. The old woman was some distant relative, so the parents made Serafina and Bridgette go, despite having never talked to the woman before.

“You have the most beautiful wings I’ve ever seen,” Bridgette said in pure adoration. “I hope mine will be half as pretty as yours.” 

And so they had. Shortly after the old woman died, Bridgette set out on the mysterious quest to get her wings. Now, it was Serafina’s turn. She tried everything she could think of. Volunteering at the acorn center, helping the elderly fairies with their chores, aiding the sick and dying, planting a garden filled with the most magnificent berries, but to no avail. Months passed. Even Violet had gotten her wings, a short, amber pair that looked like moths. Slowly but surely, everyone in Serafina’s class had gotten their wings, until she was the only one left. They all stared at her the entire lesson. _Acorn collecting it is_. 

Until that very night, when Bridgette was laughing with their parents, fluttering her purple wings and batting her purple eyelashes, Serafina thought of the wise words from the old-dying lady. She eyed the brand-new acorn shears in her hand and stared at her sister. With only a moment’s hesitation, she lunged at Bridgette, and hacked at the stems connecting the wings to her sister’s body. 

Bridgette screamed and screamed. Her purple blood poured out of the open wound as Serafina kept hacking and hacking, until the wings were completely free. They glittered in her bloody hands. 

“Sew them onto my back for me?” Serafina said to her open-mouthed parents.