Fly Fly Away
CHAPTER ONE
I filled up my water bottle on the way out of school, and did my best not to think about how much this walk home was going to suck. It was the last day of my senior year of high school, and it was hotter than it had been in over ten years in Alturas. I went to the Modoc public high school, but I was one of only two students here that lived on the actual Achomawi reservation. I felt absolutely terrible.
My name is Ezekiel Rock, and I was possibly the loneliest eighteen-year-old to ever live.
I didn't have a family. Not anymore. I had one once, when I was very young. But something had happened, and to this day, I still don't understand it.
You see, I was the youngest Rock child. I had five older sisters, and one older brother, Daniel. I hadn't seen Dan since I was five years old, but I remembered him. I thought he was a god. Fourteen years older than me, he was the coolest thing I had ever seen, and the closet thing I had ever had to a father.
My mother, to put it casually, was a stripper. I hadn't seen her in three days, but this wouldn't be the longest that she had gone missing. Once, when I was twelve, my sister Candice and I didn't see her for forty-six days. The tribe was no use. The cops never even came to check on us, because they had no right to on the reservation. Our neighbors were pot heads, and usually so high or drunk that we had to walk around them on our way to school. There was no way they were going to call DCFS for us. I remember those forty-six days because the only time I got fed was at school, and for a twelve-year-old boy, that was torture.
Considering the fact that none of us kids had the same father, and a hell-bound mother, we had all turned out pretty well. I mean, I didn't know about Dan, but my sisters all still called to make sure I was eating, staying sober, and going to school. The oldest two had left the year that Dan disappeared, and my family was ripped apart. They were only nine months apart, and had always acted more like twins. My mother really liked to get around. They were both absolutely gorgeous, and had gone off to LA to try and make it as models. By the grace of God alone they found work, and found other girls to move in with. I knew they had some pretty rough nights where they slept in shelters, and in bus stops, but they had fought their way to the top of food chain. The oldest was married, and the other was engaged. They had picked me and Candice up for the wedding, but my mom was conveniently missing at that point.
My third oldest sister was only a year behind the second oldest, and was smarter than anyone I had ever met. We think her father must have been a very rich, smart man. She had gotten a thirty-five on her ACT the first time she took it, and had gotten a full-ride to UCLA. She moved in with my two oldest sisters after graduating, but had gotten a job, a couple of roommates, and an apartment after a few months. She had a steady boyfriend, and would probably be getting married one of these days. She, as well as my oldest two sisters, sent back money for Candice and I whenever they could, but they had bills to pay just like the rest of the world.
My fourth oldest sister had fallen in love with one of the richest boys in the county. She had kept her trashy life hidden from him all throughout their first two years of high school, and then begged him not to call the authorities for fear that we would be put into homes. They had run off to Vegas to get married the night of graduation, and we heard from her a couple of times a month. Her rich husband had gone on to get his doctorate, and they were currently expecting a baby.
Three years ago, Candice had dug her way out of this hell hole just like my other sisters. She and I both cried the night that she strapped on her back pack and walked the twelve miles to a bus stop. She had received the chance to attend the Los Angeles Film School. She wasn't paying a dime to attend, but she needed a job to pay for her personal expenses still. She worked at a Starbucks, and even only earning minimum wage, she still sent money back for me. She had called me a few nights ago to tell me that she had been hired as an assistant director for her first film, and they were filming all over the world. I could hear the excitement in her voice, but also the worry that accompanied any phone calls from my sisters. They had all offered to let me come and stay with them at one point or another, but my mother glued me here. She would never give up her rights. By the time I turned eighteen and could run if I wanted, I had a steady job here, and six months left of school. It would be stupid to leave.
I wasn't handsome enough to make it as a model like my sisters. I wasn't smart enough to get a full ride to a university, or creative enough to go to a trade school. I most certainly wasn't in love with anyone rich.
What was love even? I knew I loved my sisters. I knew they loved me. I had seen the way my oldest sister had looked on her wedding day, and had seen the light in my fourth oldest sister's eyes as she ran off to Vegas. Yet, I still wasn't sure I could really understand it. I mean sure, I understood lust, and sexuality and all that business, but who's to say that love exists? I'd certainly never felt it.
There was one girl. She… enchanted me. Remember those pot-head neighbors I had? There were about fifteen people living in that house I think, and one of them was a girl my age. She had lived there her whole life, just like my sisters and I had lived just up the road from her our whole lives. Once, when I was about eight, and three of my sisters still lived with me, the oldest had found her passed out in the middle of the road on a hot summer day. My sister had carried her inside, and gotten her cooled down. She was severely dehydrated, and had probably needed the hospital, but my smart sister had nursed her back to health. She knew better than to call the police on her parents, whoever they were. If she called, who knew what those neighbors of ours would do? They could kill her, or us, for not keeping our heads down and staying out of trouble.
Her name was Kat. From the time I was about thirteen, I'd thought she was beautiful. Not like my sisters though; she had a different kind of beauty. She was short, but strong, and fast. I had seen her running from a drunk member of her household once, and even though he was drunk, she was like a cheetah. Barefoot and underfed, she was booking it as fast as she could away from him while I just watched in amazement. He gave up after a few hundred yards, but I stayed up to watch and make sure she got in and the lights turned off at her house that night. I'm sure she was planning her escape out of here just like I was.
It was reaching into the low one hundreds at three o'clock that day. The walk home was a good six miles, but I had been doing it for five years since my fourth oldest sister and her boyfriend (with a car) left. Candice had taught me to always fill up my water bottle on the hot days, and make sure I ate whatever they were serving for lunch in the cafeteria. Dying of dehydration was worse than choking down something nasty, she told me.
Kat walked home too, but we had always kept our distance. I knew if she ever fell, or passed out again, I would help her, and I thought she would do the same for me. That thought was only a little comforting. I had no idea how a five-foot-nothing ninety-pound girl was going to help out a six-foot-two me, but I knew she would try.
If there was any day in the last five years that I was going to drop dead before I made it home from school, that day was going to be today. I felt worse than I had ever felt in my life, and I figured I would probably end up being killed by some treatable bug my system couldn't fight off. I was way too poor to afford a trip to the doctor's office. My wages in the food carts I worked for barely kept me fed and the lights on at our house. My mother's wages, if she ever contributed, could easily afford our house and all of it's expenses. Too bad she was of absolutely no good to me.
Kat was ahead of me today, but some days I beat her out of the building and went first. It was kind of strange, but we had never walked together. Not when I was with Candice, not when we were younger, never. We were only a few yards away from each other, but we never spoke, never made eye contact, never acknowledged the other's existence. God, no one talked in this town. We had nothing to say to each other. At least, not people like Kat and I. We were the ones the teachers always worried about, but never did anything for. We were the ones who had a one in a million shot at getting out of this place with some dignity, and that was with luck. My sisters had done it. I would do it to.
And, if we were being honest, I would try to find a way to take Kat with me.
Never mind that we had only spoken a few times, and that was when we were assigned to in school. Never mind that neither of us was phenomenal at anything. Never mind that we were both living in a hell hole. Something about living in this place, and watching her survive as long as I had, made me want to never leave her. I felt like I couldn't leave her. If I was getting out, so was she.
My legs felt shaky, and I was exhausted as I saw her turn onto our road. She disappeared behind the trees at the entrance, and for a few moments I couldn't see her. I made myself drink some more water. I had to make it up the road to our house still.
As I came around the corner, I saw Kat lying on the ground, clearly passed out.
My adrenaline pushed me the few yards towards her, but after that, I have no idea how I got her back to my house.
I was shaking so bad I could barely walk, and I felt like I was going to pass out. I was hungry, even though I had eaten lunch. The heat was rolling off the ground in waves, and sweat dripped into my eyes. I shakily bent down and rolled her onto her back, cursing God for making this the day that she didn't make it home.
She was very red, and felt hot, even to me. She was either overheated, or sick. Considering the state of myself, I was going to assume both. I looked around for a moment, put her backpack on right over the top of mine, and then scooped her into my arms.
She was like a rag doll, but I could barely hold her. I took deep, steadying breaths to get me back to my front door, and for once was glad to see that my mother wasn't home. She was an awful woman, and would likely leave the girl out on the road to die. I fumbled with my key, but it fortunately didn't stick in the lock that day. I walked into the dark house, leaving the door open only for light. I couldn't afford a real AC system, but we had a window unit in the living room. One of my sisters had paid for overhead fans one year, and with all of those turned on, it wasn't that terrible indoors. Certainly better than outside.
The small AC was on full blast, and I set Kat down on our ratty old sofa next to it. She didn't stir, and I fought the urge to collapse on the ground right next to her. I thought for a moment, and remembering that heat escapes from feet, I took her sneakers off. I did the same with mine, and blearily made my way to the kitchen. I filled up my water bottle, and got another water bottle for her. We had four ancient ice packs in the freezer, but they would do. I put two under her arms, and made my way to the bathroom for some ibuprofen. Fortunately, we had a whole bottle full.
When I got back to the sofa, I knelt down, and felt my head swoon. I put the two pills on her tongue, and poured water down her throat to help her swallow them. She got them down, even unconscious, and I forced myself to swallow three. I fell onto the dirty carpet, put the ice packs under my arms the way I knew I was supposed to, and was asleep instantly.
In my dreams, I can remember that night perfectly. My mother, high without question, came stumbling into the house. It had been days since I had seen her, and maybe even weeks. I was little then, and time passed funnily. She walked into the kitchen, and absolutely blindsided me. I can still feel the way her soft hand hit my head so hard, and how I fell out of my chair, the linoleum reaching up to catch me.
My sisters were already asleep. I had woken up from another nightmare, and Dan had taken me into the kitchen for some water, trying to calm me down. He had looked so tired that night. Tears made the next part a little blurry, but I was positive of what I had seen. Right before my eyes, Dan had stepped in between me and my mother, blocking me from her. He was shaking so hard, he looked like he was vibrating. One second, Dan was there, the next, the largest, most terrifying bird I had ever seen. The bird stood right where my brother had, and clawed my mother's face as it flew out the window behind me.
My mother was too stunned, and high, to even scream. She looked at me lying on the floor, and walked out the door. I had laid on the kitchen floor all night, too afraid to move, convinced that Dan would come back. He never did. It was my oldest sister who found me the next morning. I told her what I saw, and even though she acted like she did, she didn't believe me. I heard her and my other sisters whispering about how Dan had found his way out, one way or the other. They expected to hear from him, but we never did.
I hoped more than they would that he would come back. He was my best friend in the whole world. I kept thinking that he wouldn't just leave me behind, he wouldn't just leave us, he couldn't, he couldn't, but he did.
Yet somehow, life went on. The hole that Daniel left was never filled, but I was distracted. Time faded the memory of him, and sometimes I thought that maybe I had just imagined the bird.
But that night, tossing in a fitful, feverish sleep, I knew what I had seen.
I knew Kat was there, but it was like she was a world away. I felt lost in my own head, like I couldn't find my way to the surface of a deep pool. Everything hurt, and it felt like little bombs going off in my chest every time I coughed. I was angry. Angry at Dan for leaving me, angry at my sisters for being so lucky, and angry at my mom for getting us in this situation.
So this was how we died. Kat and Zeke, the kids who had toughed it out through so much, killed by some disease. How ridiculous.
In fact, it made me angry. How could this be the end? How could we have lived our whole lives, struggled our whole lives, just to die like this. I felt myself quivering, and I felt like I was being pulled to the surface of the pool I was drowning in. My eyes flew open, and in one moment, I knew what was about to happen.
Everything in me exploded into anger. All I could see was red. I was in the air suddenly, and some part of me wasn't surprised to realize that I was flying. I had wings. I was a bird, an eagle. Every piece of DNA in my body was screaming at me to fly, fly away, but I looked down.
Kat had her eyes open slightly, and her lips were kind of smiling. I think, to this day, that some part of her knew I was getting out. That smile meant that she knew I was leaving, and was happy for me. I was out the door and flying into the night in the next instant.
Suddenly, there were voices.
What in the fuck… a male voice came through my head.
Shit, thought a different male voice.
Get Dan, thought the first male voice.
Already halfway there my brother, said the other.
Dan? I thought. The image of Dan as I had last seen him, so tired looking that night, passed through my mind.
Yeah that's him, thought the first male voice. How do you know him?
Are you reading my mind? I thought. Who are you?
My name is Brian, he thought. That other voice you here is Corey. Everything is going to be okay. How do you know Dan?
He's my brother….I thought, wondering if this was all a dream and I would wake up on the floor at any minute.
You aren't dreaming, Brian thought. Just be patient. We're coming for you.
If that's supposed to be reassuring, voice in my head, I thought, it isn't.
Right, thought Brian. You probably think you're going crazy huh?
Oh, we passed crazy long ago, I thought.
You bet we did, Brian thought. I had no idea that Dan had a sibling.
He has six, I thought defensively. I have five older sisters. He left all of us. Even in my thoughts, I sounded angry at him.
He didn't have a choice kid, Brian thought.
We all have choices, I thought. I was in the woods now, they were only about two miles from my house. You could walk to them from the road, but it was dangerous. There were no houses after Kat's, and there was a lot of violence and drugs down here usually. In fact, I was pretty sure this was where Kat's parents got their drugs.
I know exactly where you are, Brian thought.
That's really creepy, I thought. How?
Well I grew up a town over, only about ten miles away. Even over there we knew that place was dangerous. What are you doing there anyway?
I live here, I thought. Two miles up the road.
My God… Brian thought. All this time, I never knew that Dan lived in such a bad area.
It seems to me there's a lot you don't know about my brother, I thought.
He's on his way, said a new, deeper sounding voice in my head. And my name is Landon.
I didn't know how to respond to the formality. How about you tell us your name, thought Landon.
Ezekiel Rock, I thought. But anyone who talks to me calls me Zeke.
Zeke, Brian thought. Houston, we have a name.
How do you all know my brother? I thought.
Because we're just like he is, Landon thought. He found us, took care of us when we first shifted.
I thought about Dan, and how he had worked two jobs when me and my youngest sisters weren't old enough. I remembered him walking me to pre-school before he walked himself to high school. I remembered him giving me a bath when I was really little, and tucking me in to the small bed we shared. I remembered him checking my homework worksheets, even while doing his himself. I remember him making dinner so my sisters could get their homework done, and only eating the same amount as me, even though he so clearly needed more.
Yeah, I thought. He's pretty good at that.
Zeke.
Suddenly, an all too familiar voice was in my head. Thirteen years later, he still sounded so much the same.
Dan? I thought, but I knew it was him.
Of course, he said.
You left us, I thought, unable to stop the angry words.
Yes, Dan said. And I am so sorry, Zeke.
I thought of Kat, lying sick on our couch. I prayed that I would get back there before my mother did. I wouldn't leave her, not like Dan had left me. Not even if I was stuck like this for the rest of my life, I wasn't going to leave her here.
You aren't stuck like this for the rest of your life, Dan thought at me.
I'm not leaving her, I thought.
I'm gathering this, Dan thought. Hell, she looks like she's about to change…
Wait, I thought. This is going to happen to her?
From the way it looks, Dan said. Within the next few hours.
What happened to me? I asked. What happened to you?
Well, Dan thought. It's in our genes to be like this. Hundreds of years ago, our ancestors changed into birds as well. We think it was to protect the tribe.
My god, I thought. This is insane.
Yes, Dan, Landon, Corey, and Brian all thought at the same time.
We're not the only ones like this, Dan thought. In fact, we're a very small group compared to the other people like us. They turn into wolves though. They live on the Quileute Indian Reservation in La Push, Washington. They change because of the threat of vampires. We aren't sure why we change, other than genetics. There are a ton of them, two generations worth actually. The first generation doesn't shift anymore… But they've all got kids that do. It's a big, loving family. You'll like them.
Great, I thought. You have a new family.
It's not like that, he defended. We only met them about seven years ago. The first six years, Zeke, I was only human twice in that entire span.
Why didn't you come back for me?
We did come back, once, Dan said. I saw you, and Candice. What did you want me to say? Oh Hi Zeke, I know I haven't see you in ten years, and I exploded into a bird in front of you and all, but don't worry, I just came by to say hi.
You could have said something, anything, I countered. The girls thought you had run. They thought you had gotten out. We expected to hear from you. We waited for weeks. They think you're dead. They're going to think I'm dead.
They don't have to, Dan said. But you do have to come with me.
I'm not leaving Kat, I insisted.
Right, Dan thought. She'll have to come with us too, once she shifts.
I was getting out of here. We were getting out of here.
That's right, Dan said. And I have never been happier about something.
I didn't even know what to say. I was getting out of here, and going with Dan. This day had sure taken a drastic turn.
Where do you live? I asked.
In a big house, he thought. The others were being quiet, but I could tell they were still here. Wherever here was. We've had a ton of extra room since the girls moved out, so you can have your own room and everything.
The girls… I thought.
They stopped changing once the new generation started. They aren't needed anymore. Plus their husbands stopped, and they all have kids and stuff.
Wait… How many of you are there?
Ten, Dan thought. But with the girls, and Michael, there were twenty of us.
Who is Michael?
He imprinted on Lyssie, and she imprinted on him. He's also your cousin, but you probably don't remember him. He's my father's brother's son.
I had forgotten that Dan ever even met his father, or his father's family. I decided to tackle that fact later. What's imprint mean?
Dan mentally laughed. I've got a lot to tell you, and a long flight until we reach you.
Well, I'm all ears, or thoughts… or whatever.
Dan mentally laughed again. I've missed you, buddy.
For a long while, Dan just told me things. He told me about all of the wolves, and how much had changed in La Push since they first came. He told me about vampires, which freaked me out like no other, but I was very interested to meet the ones that lived in town. The Cullens, who had initially triggered the wolves to change, now lived in Canada. There were ten vampires who lived as Cullens. The Denali's had a total of six people now, someone named Tanya had married somebody named Andrew. The coven in town had a total of ten vampires.
There were also two half-vampire, half humans living in town. He told me how Nessie had come about, and how the same thing had happened with some vampires from Depoli, India. Those were the vampires that lived in town now. When the human girl had gotten pregnant with a vampire child, they had contacted the Cullens for help. The other half breed was named Zemati, and she had imprinted on a second generation wolf named Nick. Nick's mother was Leah, and his father, someone who was also previously a wolf, was named Joel. Leah and Joel had imprinted on each other just a few months after Nessie had been born. Nessie and Jacob had two children, Eila and Cade. Eila had been imprinted on by another wolf, named Bryce, and after changing at a very young age, Cade had imprinted on Marah, Nick and Zemati's daughter.
I did my best to keep up with him as he explained to me that every single wolf eventually imprinted, and had children. Now the children were imprinting on each other. It was a mess, but they were a family. He told me it was pretty overwhelming at first, but not once you got to know everyone.
So, I thought. Are all of you from around here?
The general vicinity, Dan answered. We all have the same ancestor though. We are all related to the first eagle.
Huh, I said. This is making sense.
Perfect timing too, Dan said. Because we're only a mile away. Still no sign of Kat I see.
No, I said.
Suddenly, I could hear them. I could hear their wings beating, I could hear their fast, bird heartbeats. A group of birds were suddenly in front of me, landing on the branches around me. I could pick out Dan. He had a stripe across his wings, and the others were following him. His feathers were as dark as mine, pitch black actually.
You feel like being human again little brother?
Yes, I said. But I'm not so little anymore.
Just try to relax….Dan thought. Try not to feel angry. Calm down…
