Chapter One - "Hey, freak."
I growled loud enough so he could hear me, and lifted my head off the ground, my light blond hair falling over my face. "You're just as much of a freak as I am." I countered.
Edge, the only other person in this god forsaken quarantine cell, sat in the corner, his knees pulled up to his chest, His strange black eyes watching me through his equally dark hair. The room spun for a bit, and when I was focused, I stretched out like a cat, and yawned. "You slept for even longer this time." Edge stated. I shrugged. "A gal needs her beauty sleep."
He snickered. "Don't lie, Illicit. When they brought you back in, you were so hyped up on drugs, you spun around the room saying that you were Mary Poppins."
I looked at him, trying to see if he were serious. His eyes gave away nothing, as always, but usually when he said my name it was the truth. I lifted my hand to my left eye, feeling the scar that ran down through the middle. This scar had been with me for years, ever since the School decided my vision should be enhanced. I couldn't feel any new scars, and I looked back up at Edge, a scowl on my face. "What did they decide to operate on, this time?"
"Your teeth, by the looks of it."
I ran my tongue along the edges of my teeth, and flinched when I felt the newly grown fangs in my mouth. I lifted my finger and did the same, flinching again when the tooth pierced my skin. "Now why in the world would I need fangs?!" I exclaimed, and Edge finally stood up, walking over to me. He lifted my chin and I opened my mouth so that he could also examine my new set of teeth. "I told you before. They want to send you out with the flying-mutts." Edge answered, letting go of me and trudging back to his ultimate-corner-of-doom.
"I don't want to go. Besides, the dogs would totally eat me up." I murmured, half scared of what this institute could possibly do to me if I declined their offer.
The 'mutts' and 'dogs' we kept referring to were kids, our age and younger, that had genes of both a human, and a wolf. When they wanted to, the were able to mutate into half-wolves, and pretty ugly looking half-wolves at that. They were the kind of thing you'd see in some poor kid's nightmare, gigantic and terrifying. They were like the law around the School, if any of us other human guinea pigs stepped out of line, they were the ones to set us straight. Yup, you heard me right, I'm a human guinea pig. I'm a freak.
I'm different then the mutts though; my genes are made up of human and avian. For those of you out there who aren't quite sure on the term 'avian', it means bird. Yeah, stay in school.
So what neat tricks can Illicit do, right? Well, actually, only one thing sets me apart from being 'normal', if such a thing exists. I have large wings on my back, in an almost...angel like way, I guess. Although I'm far from angelic. Yes, I can fly. Not that I get the chance too often. I'm usually cooped up in a cell, and only once in a while do I get a little freedom. My wings are white, but they were so dirty and covered in mud that they appeared brown.
"Ellie? Ellie?" Edge called, breaking me away from my daydream. Ellie, my nickname, had started off as Illy, but then somehow changed to Ellie. It was a confusing process. I turned my head to Edge, who seemed to want my undivided attention. "Yeah, what?"
"Did you hear me at all?" He snapped, and, ignoring the anger in his voice, I shook my head. "I'm sorry, Edge, I wasn't paying attention. Please repeat what you just said." I said calmly, and it only seemed to frustrate him all the more, because he growled.
"I said, what are you going to do if they send you out?" He said through clenched teeth. I tilted my head and smiled. "For a hedgehog, you anger easily." I commented. His hand thrust out, and a sharp quill suddenly pierced my shoulder, making me jump. "Ow!" I hissed, pulling it out and throwing it across the floor, into a pile of other quills. I had started making a collection of them since he hit me the sixth time. I now had over fifty. "I told you, it's porcupine." He snarled, then added, "Now answer the question."
I held up my hand as an indication for him to wait, deciding to think about it carefully. The wolf-boys, or, Erasers as they had been called, had only one mission, as far as I knew, and it was to kill a bunch of kids that were exactly like me. Probably the only ones out there in the world who were like me. I had met one of them, Iggy. We were both having our eyes operated on at the same time, and he was more like my comforter, though I knew we were both scared out of our minds. We spent a few days together every month, but in that time he had been like my best friend, because we were both going through the same thing. I remember him talking about the rest of his flock, and how I wished I could join them. Despite where we were, he made it sound like the were one, big, happy family. And I envied him for it. My final eye operation was before his, and while mine had absolutely no effect on my eyes other than leaving a scar, I had no idea how his went, because I was dragged away and had never seen him again. I'd heard he had gotten out though, with the flock.
I pondered the question for awhile, before I was stabbed with another quill. "Hey! What the hell was that one for?!" I yelled, pulling it out of my arm. "Hurry up and answer the damn question." Edge replied. I growled, but answered anyway.
"I guess I'd have to go anyway. But what would they want me for anyway?"
"Don't you have some sort of natural compass?"
"I don't know, do I?"
"Stop answering my questions with questions." He demanded. I relaxed against the stone wall behind me, my bright green eyes closing as I yawned again. "I dunno. I'd guess I'd go." I said, opening one eye to peek at his reaction. He showed no emotion, as per usual, but his next question surprised me.
"Would you help take down the bird-kids?"
I opened both my eyes, watching him. I didn't think he knew about the flock, but then again they were the talk of the School. They were like celebrities in this messed up institution. I had already hesitated long enough for Edge to know my answer, but he still waited.
"I can't. But I have to."
Yeah. Go me and my brilliant contradictions.