The Flame and The Wings

Enraged I slammed my fists against the mahogany table beneath me, "Get out!" I demanded as everyone in my board meeting ran towards the doors, pushing and shoving one another as they struggled to leave as quickly as possible, fear dancing like a playful breeze in their eyes. I could feel my body warm until it felt like it was submerged in black flames, and my face felt like it was melting. My eyes burned like golden embers in my skull, steam rising from my body, soon red flames were licking at my shoulders and engulfing my entirety. Frigid water was dumped over my body, cutting out the flames and leaving my wide eyed, shocked, and cold. Snapping away from my dazed fury I looked up to see my bestfriend peering at me from behind her glasses, "You're overheating again," she stated with a sarcastically annoyed tone. Taking a deep sigh I pushed myself onto the chair behind me and covered my face with my hands, "These f*****g morons had the audacity to compare our sales to that little bout of fairy dust," my head had started to become more logical as my temper fell to the floor and a wave of peace enveloped me. My bestfriend, a mid height black girl, with wire framed glasses, and long curly black hair, sat on the mahogany table in front of me looking me dead in the eyes and shaking her head in disbelief. She is stunning and absolutely brilliant, I sometimes make the joke that if I wasn't so gay she would be my girlfriend. Her name is Jaydean but I, and only I, call her Jayjay. She is demanding, sarcastic, intelligent and a wonderful person in general. She's also one of the few people in this world that know that I'm a phoenix. Hold up a second, I'm getting ahead of myself here, let me tell you who I am. My name is Sage Gemini Jones, I'm a 22 year old self-made multi-millionaire phoenix, this is my tenth reincarnation and none of my lives have been easy. In my first life I was a normal guy, but everyone around me hated me and called me a witch because I was gay, they then proceeded to burn me on a stake with bright red and blue flames licking at my flesh and charring me to the bone I could feel the fire as it went coursing through my veins, from the fire the encompassed my body came what looked like a bird made of the fire it flew through, wings as wide as a football fields and claws sharper than a spike. When it reached where I stood, tied down, it stopped and said, "Sage. Stop hurting, you will survive this. All you have to do is reach out to me" and so I did, I struggled to free my hand from its bindings then reached through the flames towards this ancient creature as they harshly licked at my blackened skin. The next thing I remembered was waking up to a voice I could not recognize in a language I could not understand, the lights were dim and I could hear the squalling of a child so close to me my own ears were ringing from the noise, low and behold it was me the noise was coming from. The bird that had saved me from the flames then proceeded to explain the situation, "Preston, I am your phoenix, we will be tied together for the remainder of time, no matter what happens to you, you will never be alone for you will have me. Your memories will stay and you will continue to be reincarnated in this way. You have died in flames, you will rise in flames, and WE shall thrive in flames," my phoenix has been with me since, and every time I die I become born again, my parents never knowing I'm tied to a phoenix, and the only thing that seems to stay the same in every life I live is my name, my sexuality, and my phoenix. Every life I die a horrible death, and just as the dumb bird had told me I can still feel the pain in my memories, every death that I had died and every broken heart that I have had. It just so happens that this life I had an abusive family that I ran away from at the age of eleven, I had stumbled upon Jay one night as I was sleeping in my car and she brought me home with her where her parents took me in and helped finish school. With their help I went to college and started my own publishing company using all the knowledge I gained in every one of my past lives, including the time I spent as a study of no other than THE William Shakespeare. Soon after I had been taken in by Jay's family she realized my powers, bringing us closer to each other than we had been before. Soon enough my current boyfriend came in and began working as my assistant and it's a surprise it took me so long to fall head over heels in love with him, he is my life and my world. Just like Jay I can't live without my boyfriend. Considering the three years that we had been dating it was only natural for him to find out about my powers, but shockingly he didn't even seem fazed when the topic came to rise, instead he just kind of shrugged it off and gave me a quick kiss before proceeding to ignore my presence and focus on the movie we had chosen that night. That was one of my fondest memories of him. Taking a deep breathe my I removed my hands from my eyes, confident that they had gone back to their natural color, and made eye contact with Jay, a polite smile playing Lucifer's lullaby on my rounded lips, "Am I back to normal?" I humbly asked Jay as she examined the specks of light in my eyes, "Close enough," she muttered climbing off of the table, grabbing my hand, and walking towards the Conference Room doors, "I'm hungry and you owe me one, so food's on you today big guy," Jay said looking back at me with a cocky grin and a wink.