Ty's Secret
~Ty's kept a secret for years and decides it's time to tell his friends, but they don't react well so he runs and almost dies. When he wakes up they had helped him and they all apologize. No ships.~
I never meant for them to hate me. It just kinda... happened when I tried to tell them my secret.
'Guys, I need to show you something.'
If only I hadn't been born like this. Then they wouldn't see me as a liar.
'What's going on Ty? Is something wrong?'
Why did it have to be me? Why did I have to be the one born different?
'Ty. Why won't you talk?'
"Why me?!," I exclaim, punching a tree next to me and sinking to the ground. Now they can't look at me anymore.
'I've never told you guys the full truth about me. I wasn't born like you guys.'
I rest my head against the trunk of the tree, just staring at the bark, ignoring the world as I feel my eyes start to well up.
'What are you talking about Ty? How are you not like us?'
I wished I could have just hid them forever. Now they won't speak to me.
'I'm not human.'
That sentence. That sentence that made statements pop out at me before I could finish talking.
'You're crazy. Of course you're human.'
'Um, did you hit your head?'
'Dude. Not the day for pranks.'
I remember what I had said and done afterward.
'I'm not pranking you guys. Look.'
That's when I had showed them why I was different. Their reactions were, to say the least, what I had actually expected.
'You're a monster!'
'Please don't hurt me.'
I cringe when I think of the last thing said before I had to leave the angered atmosphere.
'I've had enough of this Ty. You're supposed to be our friend. Not keeping insane secrets from us like this. Keeping this a secret from your best friends for years? That's the lowest you've gone. I've actually hated how you always mess me up in parkour maps, interrupt what I'm saying when I'm talking, and, worst of all, starting to hang out all alone in your room more than spending any time with us. I'm so done with you!'
That hurt. Hit the most sensitive part of me. They don't know how my parents kicked me out and that I was adopted. I was too embarrassed to tell them.
'Tyler! If you can't stop misbehaving with those enhancements of yours, just get out! I don't want a son who won't even sit still for a second! I'm done with you.'
"Stop. Please just stop," I sob as that memory passes. By now there were trails of tears down my cheeks, dripping onto my pants and the snowy ground.
After Adam had shouted at me I just ran. Ran out of the house, ignoring the calls to come back, and ran into the woods, not really caring that it was well below freezing and I didn't grab a jacket or anything. I just needed to get out of there.
That's how I found myself here. Sobbing and freezing at the foot of a tree in the middle of an old and huge forest, not even knowing where I came from. And, since all I had worn was a short sleeved shirt and some shorts, because I wasn't planning on going out anyways, I could feel my hands and feet start to go numb.
But I won't go back. Not if it meant more yelling and criticizing about something I can't even change. It wasn't my fault. Why couldn't they see that?!
You can't just change the fact that you have wings.
The darn wings. The wings that ruined my life. The wings that I almost wanted to cut off multiple times, but never followed through because without a professional doing it, I would probably die.
My stupid wings.
I finally look up and see a broken branch, the side jagged and sharp. My mind rambled with memories and thoughts until it suddenly stopped, and I was only thinking of a single thing.
I crawled over and picked up the branch, it immediately cutting my palm slightly it was so sharp, and just looked at it. Was I really about to do this? Is it worth it?
"It's totally worth it," I mumble. With that, I spread out my, before now invisible, wings and flap them slightly, the black and neon green scales on them dim and dull, relating to my emotions.
I move the branch around to my back, right to where a wing connects to my back, but hesitate. I was risking my life, but what other choice did I have? If I go to a hospital they'll just think I'm a monster and call the police or something, or call scientists to experiment on me.
Basically, I had three choices. Go to the hospital and hope for the slim chance that they'll remove my wings and not make a big fuss over it, keep them and just have more people turn me down, or get rid of them myself.
I decided on the last one.
The burn from the slice made me cry out and drop the branch accidentally, which only made the cut deeper, and I'm sure it hit the bone. I clench my teeth, trying not to cry out in pain again and draw attention to myself. If they wanted me normal, they'll get me either dead or normal. There was no turning back now.
After a few more minutes, me having tried again on my other wing, I was just laying on the snowy and cold ground, the snow having turned red from my blood.
"I guess they're getting me dead," I rasp, almost being to weak to even open my eyes. My vision was blurring and focusing in and out, multiplying as well. I was about to pass out when three sets of feet entered my hazy vision, blurred and distorted. I hear shouts, but they were muffled by the pounding in my ears.
"Ty. Ty stay with us. Come on Ty don't close your eyes. Keep them open for me," I hear a muffled voice, Jason I think, say. One of the other two figures had gone to check my wings, and the last was just walking around us, as if keeping watch.
"I'm so-orry I'm a mon-onst-ter," I rasp.
"No Ty. You're not a monster. We were stupid idiots. Just stay with us."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't say that Ty."
"I-I'm s-so-orry..."
Then, my world went black.
Darkness. That's all I could see. The dark fog, almost like smoke, wisping around me. I could only see. I couldn't speak nor feel or smell. I couldn't even move to see if my body was there or if I was just a spirit. But, I did see my memories.
I saw my mom. She was playing with me. Holding me in the air and spinning in circles, since I wasn't even a year old it seemed. I had squealed happily and beat my fists in the air, kicking my legs out and laughing. My mom laughed too, bringing me down and kissing my forehead.
That was my earliest memory.
Then I was swept off to another old memory. This time, I was at the playground at school, sitting on the swing and just swinging my legs back and forth, not trying to accomplish anything. A boy came up to me. He was wearing some sort of amulet. "Want to play with me and my friends," he asked, pointing over to where I saw six other boys. One had a hat on that said eclipse, another was holding a Styrofoam sword, another was all furry, another was tinted blue, another was wearing sunglasses, and the last had a purple cape on. I just shrugged and followed the boy to his group of friends, who would soon become mine.
That was when I met all my current friends.
Once again, a different memory took over. I was playing with the kid that had the amulet, who I learned his name was Adam and liked to be called Sky, and the kid wearing the ecipse hat, who I learned is Jason, except this time we were teenagers. We were jumping from block to block above a lake, just laughing and having a good time. I see myself push Adam into the water, and he teleported back and pushed me in. Jason was just rolling on the ground laughing at the checkpoint, and Adam and I were also laughing really hard.
My very first parkour map.
The memories went by. On and on. Me with my friends, online doing videos, my early memories with my family. Everything. Suddenly the fog cleared, and I was still unable to move or do anything.
But, suddenly I could hear.
"Do you think he understands now?," I heard an unknown voice ask.
"Possibly. Yet, I still feel his mind being all dark and cold. Nobody, not even his mother, can make it light again. Only he can, and it all depends on his choice."
"Ah yes. The choice. Do you think he will choose right? Should we show more memories of how great life was?"
"I cannot see his thoughts. If anything, he is wondering who we are. What we are. Why we are here."
"Do you think he understands that paths are laid out for everyone? How, though everything has gone wrong, he was supposed to-"
"Hush. Do not speak of fate while he is listening."
"He can hear?"
"Yes. He has listened to our entire conversation."
"Still though. Do you?"
"It is not my place to decide. Not even he can decide that. None of us really choose to believe. It just happens. Nothing anyone, not even us, can do to change it."
"He needs to choose soon."
"And we can only hope that he chooses right. If not, everything will fall apart."
"Do you think he understands how important he is? How strong he can be? How wise he could be if he chooses the right path?"
"Again, I can not read what he thinks. We just have to hope he chooses the right path out of the ones he has. Now, it's time to start."
"I know you can hear me Ty. I need you to think for a second."
"Think about your life. Was it perfect?"
"No. But, was it good?"
"You had great friends. Friends who, in a good way and bad, are the reason you are in this void of emptiness."
"Yes. They may have hurt you with words which caused you to go to such measures of escape."
"But, they also felt you were in trouble and came to help you. Without them, you wouldn't even be in this void. They helped you just in time to give you a chance."
"A hope."
"A choice."
"Now. Was your life really that bad? Yes, there were people who hurt you and abandoned you, and yes. Even your own best friends did sometimes."
"But, they were also the ones to stick with you through good and bad."
"Thick and thin."
"Dark and light."
"Yes. Life has downsides. But, it also has upsides. Now, it's time for the choice."
"You must know the choices by now. Please remember, these choices are permanent. You cannot just come back and choose another."
"Now make the choice."
"..."
"..."
"Ah. Yes. That choice."
"A good choice was made. You have just shaped the world to come."
"Just close your eyes, and on the count of three you will be with the choice you made."
"One."
"Two."
"Three."
Darkness.
After a moment, I started to hear things. The crackling of a fire, footsteps on wood and stone. Then, I could smell. Steaks in a furnace, the smoke from the fire.
And then I could feel. Something light over my back. Myself laying face-down on something soft. Something wrapped around the cuts I had made trying to remove my wings. Then I felt something... hands?.. removing whatever was around the cuts.
But then, I was able to see.
I open my eyes, and at first it was blurry. Then it started to clear, and I noticed the unmistakable checkered jacket from Mitch. "M-Mi-itch?," I rasp, feeling lightheaded.
"Ty. Your awake," Mitch says, complete relief evident. "Just hang on a second. I've gotta change the bandages."
"I don't care. I don't even want these stupid wings anymore."
"Ty. It doesn't matter whether you have wings or not. You're our friend, and none of us should have reacted like that. Just be still until I'm done," Mitch says. I sigh and close my eyes, unknowingly falling asleep again.
I woke up again and could see a bit better. Nobody was in here this time. I was alone.
At least, I was until I heard voices from outside the door. "We messed up so bad guys."
I heard a sigh, and knew that the first voice was Jerome and the sigh was Jason. "He kept saying sorry. That he was a monster. I've never been as scared for someone than when he was saying that."
"Do you think he'll forgive us?," I hear Sky ask, and then the door opens. I quickly closed my eyes to make it seem like I was asleep, but still listened in. "I mean, that last thing I said..."
"If Ty is anything, he's a forgiving friend. Almost too forgiving, but he's him. We never should have freaked out on him because of something he was born with," Jerome says.
It was then I decided to open my eyes.
They were standing in the doorway watching me and when I opened my eyes all the way I saw Jerome unfold his arms from his chest and walk over. "Hey Ty," he says, kneeling next to the bed I was on.
"Hey," I rasp. Jason grabs some water from a chest in the room.
"You must be thirsty. Here," he says, and then he helps me drink some of it since I was weak.
"Why'd you guys help me? I thought you were mad," I say.
"Because we were stupid and idiotic, and I definantly shouldn't have said what I said. You're still our friend that has always been there for us, ad the one time we needed to be there for you we weren't. I wasn't. We're so sorry," Sky says from the door, seeming to be unsure if he can come closer.
"No. I'm sorry. I should've told you guys from the start, but I hid it instead and now look where I am," I say.
"It's not your fault Ty. It's ours," Jerome says. I yawn again and they chuckle. "How about you get some more sleep. You're still missing a bunch of blood." They leave again and I close my eyes, letting sleep overcome me again.
