In Chap­ter Sev­en­ty of “If These Wings Could Fly,” the atmos­phere is tense and chaot­ic, char­ac­ter­ized by the smell of smoke that rais­es con­fu­sion since guns don’t typ­i­cal­ly cause fires. Amidst the tur­moil, the pro­tag­o­nist, Leighton, finds him­self pressed against the stairs beneath his moth­er, who anx­ious­ly checks if he is hurt. Leighton reas­sures her that he is fine, but the dis­tress­ing scene reveals that the wall near­by has been shot, metaphor­i­cal­ly ‘bleed­ing’ and requir­ing assis­tance.

A sense of urgency per­me­ates the air as some­one express­es pan­ic, search­ing for keys with­out both­er­ing to exam­ine the dam­aged wall fur­ther. Sud­den­ly, a crow named Joe makes an unex­pect­ed entrance, fly­ing through an open win­dow and land­ing on the shoul­der of the pro­tag­o­nist. This event recalls the fig­ure of the Mor­ri­g­an, a super­nat­ur­al being asso­ci­at­ed with fate. Joe’s chaot­ic pres­ence adds to the dis­ar­ray as he bumps into a cof­fee table, scat­ter­ing trin­kets that Juniper, pre­sum­ably a key char­ac­ter, had left behind — includ­ing pen­nies, paper clips, and the cru­cial truck keys, glint­ing in the moon­light.

As a fire­work illu­mi­nates the night, the scene momen­tar­i­ly becomes vivid. In a swift­ly mov­ing moment, Joe seizes the keys with his claws and escapes through the win­dow, leav­ing the chaot­ic set­ting behind. This chap­ter effec­tive­ly cap­tures a blend of dan­ger and the inex­plic­a­ble pres­ence of Joe, serv­ing as both a reminder of fragili­ty and the unpre­dictable nature of their real­i­ty. The urgency and ten­sion height­en as the sit­u­a­tion unfolds, blend­ing super­nat­ur­al sym­bol­ism with a stark depic­tion of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty amidst threats.