Do you ever get the feeling that you're being watched? Like, all the time, with no way to escape or talk to anyone without another person threatening to put you in a cage?

(Just me? All right, then.)

That's what my life was like for a little while, until I experienced something that no human has ever experienced at all.

Granted, I'm also not 100% human, so that was more of an understatement.

For a moment, all eyes were on me. Those bloody whitecoats and their clipboards-always waiting around for something interesting to happen, while I just wanted to rip their throats out.

Every part of my body ached from yesterday's new "test". And regular teenagers who go to an actual school think running the mile is hard...

Try running through a maze while a dozen people are watching you, with their weird contraptions at the ready to shock you whenever you stop to catch your breath.

Yeah. It doesn't sound fun, does it?

Well, I guess I should start from the beginning. So, my name is Dani. Full name's Danielle Aleksandrovsk. I don't know, I think that's my last name. I saw it in a whitecoat's head. But that's a story for another time. Don't call me Danielle, though. I'll punch you.

Back to the point...

I've been in a cage all my life. What I know is that I was born in Bulgaria and transferred at the age of six to a lab in England. I was forced to learn English and now here I am talking to you in English. Thanks whitecoats. Much appreciated. (Eye roll).

I was transferred again to the U.S. when I turned thirteen. When I was fifteen, I made my grand escape. Getting into people's heads and mucking about is kinda my specialty.

I discovered it the hard way, though. Getting chased and attacked during one of their "tests" kinda pushes those things out of you.

Escaping from a heavily-guarded, completely locked-at-all-times facility doesn't seem like the easiest thing in the world.

Unless you're me. това е животът (tova e zhivotŭt-aka "this is life"), my friends.

But on that one (and probably only) fateful day, while it seemed like every whitecoat in the building had their eyes on me...

Let me tell you what happened.

I stared back at them, grabbing one of the taller whitecoat's hands as he came near me. I heard the crunch of his bones as I clenched my fingers...

...I could suddenly see what was going on inside that mediocre brain of his.

His response was to flail his hand around and kick my cage until there was a nice Dani-sized hole in it.

Time to muck about.

Smirking, I wrapped my fingers around his ankle and tried to concentrate. Not my fault if he forgets to breathe, right?

I jumped out as he fell to the ground, grabbing his chest. Most of the whitecoats seemed to crowd around him, while a few realized that I was halfway out the door and began to chase after me.

"I got this," I think to myself, sprinting through every inch of the winding hallways like I was in some sort of marathon. "Just need to get to the door, and-"

"Stop right there!" I heard a loud, breathy voice somewhere in the middle of the path I was taking.

лайна. Laĭna. Shit.

I turned to face the oncoming whitecoat and ran at him. He stepped forward and I slid under his legs, knocking him down. His lanky body remained on the floor as I got back on my feet, slowly approaching him as he struggled to stand up.

"Nice try," I teased, pulling his arm back and twisting it. I tried to focus again.

Set him on fire. Make him think he was about to douse his body in gasoline and light it. Maybe this disgusting place will burn with him.

I opened my eyes, but I didn't see flames anywhere.

The whitecoat pulled away from my hands, taking me by the waist and throwing me over his shoulder.

"This was fun, Danielle, but playtime is over." He started retracing his steps to the cage where I had ran away from him in the first place. I was mad enough already, but that sentence that included my full name was about to become the last sentence he's ever spoken.

"I don't think so," I murmured. Picking my body up, I swung my elbow into the base of his neck, hearing a satisfying crunch. He gasped and his grip on me lessened. His hand went to his throat and I elbowed him again, aiming for his jaw this time. Feeling his head snap to the side was the only sign I needed to get off of him.

I slid my body away from his shoulder so that I landed in front of him. reaching into his pocket, I felt a leather wallet. Sighing, I drew it out.

I swung around, leaving a nice kick to his side. He knelt to the ground, gasping for air as I ran towards the exit.

Several cages from the back rooms rattled; other experiments made strange, terrible-sounding noises. I turned my head around for a moment, watching some dog-like creature jump onto one of the other whitecoats.

I laughed at my unbelievable luck, only to be face to face with the door of the building when I turned around. The impact of my face smashing into the surface of the hard metal seemed like karma for all the crap I did to that poor guy who's probably choking on his own blood by now.

I stumbled backwards and covered my nose with my hand, feeling blood dripping onto my fingers. I recovered from my blonde moment, awkwardly pinching my nose and hoping that nothing else in this world would attack me anymore.

I studied the doors as I heard footsteps not far from where I was standing. Not many locks held it shut, so I lifted my leg and slammed it on the door as hard as I could. Feeling the metal creak beneath my foot told me that it was working. I picked my leg up once more and stomped again, sending the door flying open.

I felt a rush of fresh air and breathed happily. I heard voices calling and getting closer, so I looked over my shoulder and decided to break into a dead sprint. No use getting caught now.

I was in a yard. Not the type of friendly yards that humans have. But a training yard. One used for Erasers. Let me explain...

Erasers are giant men who are half wolf, half human, and all blood lust. Not terrified yet? Well, you should be.

I was smaller, thus faster than them.

Bolting for the fence, I noticed it was electrified. The muscles in my back were calling to me, aching to spread themselves out and catch the breeze. I heard bulky footsteps pounding from the grass and sent a glance back. They were closer than I had thought.

Making a last minute decision, I ran at them. I sped at one who was shorter than the others, jumping onto his shoulder and then attempting to land onto the ground behind him.

Before I hit the ground, an Eraser grabbed my ankle, making me land with my face in the dirt. I rolled over, just to get kicked in the middle of my back and have the wind knocked out of me. My eyes went wide and I gasped for air, clawing at the Eraser's foot that was still on my spine. He let go and I flipped onto my back, kicking him in the place where the sun don't shine. I then grabbed his ankle and twisted, making him fall to the ground.

I stood as more surrounded me, their faces morphing into a long snout with teeth that were a tad too big for their mouths. One still in her human form ran up to me and punched me in my jaw. I screamed as she sent me flying into the fence, which then shocked me. Remember when I said the fence was electrified? Yeah, well, I wasn't kidding.

The shock sent me forward as more morphed. As I looked around me, I knew it was now or never. Get out now or become lunch. I'd rather not test out that latter.

Knowing this was it, I ran as fast as I could away from them, seeing slightly raised ground. I snapped out my wings. Jumping into the air, I pushed as hard as I could.

I felt something wrap around my foot and I saw the short Eraser that I had taken out. He started to sprout fur just as the others had.

I flapped harder, repeating up down up down in my head like a mantra. "Up, down, up, down, up..." I shook my foot until I felt his hand let go and I rose higher now that I had less weight to carry.

"Oh god, о, Божe (o, Bozhe-oh god) I was actually flying," I thought, and forgot to flap which sent me down a few feet.

Snapping out of my amazement, I realized they had guns pointed at me. Little red dots cluttered my shirt and my eyes went wide. "Gotta fly, boys. Time's a-tickin'," I yelled down to the Erasers. Winking, I banked to my left and tried to propel myself as fast as I could out of there.

I barely made it past the top of the trees, and the branches snagged at my skin and scraped me as I flew by. I tried to go higher, but my muscles just weren't working right.
I glanced at each of my wings, making sure all was okay. My auburn and caramel feathers were ruffling with the breeze, and then it hit me: I was free. The past fifteen years of my life, caged and tortured, and now, just like that I was free.

Stopping in a clearing, I started to lose altitude. I was attempting (and failing) a landing.

I landed while still moving and my legs tried to keep pace, but failed. I went tumbling over myself till I landed, breathless, right on my back.

I giggled. I actually giggled and laid there, laughing and crying, because for once in my pathetic life, I was free.

I took a deep breath and leaned forward, putting my head on my knees. And before I knew it, I was sobbing. I couldn't stop for some reason, so I just sat like that for what felt like forever, sobbing my little heart out.

I laid back, closing my eyes.

"свободен съм," I muttered to myself. Svoboden sŭm. I'm free.

So, that brings me to now. Still in a clearing, still laying down. I'm telling you this because it is just the beginning of what is to come.