For fifteen years all Castiel had known was a cell. He knew nothing of the outside world or of anything further than the confines of the secret government lab on the edge of Nebraska.
His whole life he had grown accustomed to people dressed in white, needles and seemingly endless pain.
In the facility he wasn't the only one. All four of his brothers and sister also stayed locked in the seemingly exit-less walls of science. They had all grown up here. Removed from their parents care when Castiel was born, none of them had been older than four at the time. Gabriel, Anna, Samandriel, and Balthazar all couldn't remember what it was like to live in a semi-normal home. The memory of their parents, home, and even each other was all forgotten.
They all spent their time locked in separate rooms with medical professionals and scientists constantly monitoring their every move. Many of the workers in the program neglected the children. They didn't see such beasts as human and chose to have them kept unclothed and in cage like spaces. While some people disagreed with the treatment nothing was done about it and nothing ever changed.
It wasn't at all abnormal to the five individuals. It was how they remembered their whole life being.
Very few government officials inside the United States knew about the abnormal teens under lock down on the border of Nebraska. The part of the military that worked around the facility worked very hard a their job at keeping all information collected in the area from the public.
To anyone who didn't know about the teens the world kept spinning and remained, for the most part, normal.
Castiel sat in the corner of his familiar room with a piece of charcoal in hand. The once white walls of his cells had become filled with pictures from his imagination over the years. He didn't know where the ideas came from or what they were, but he loved the sight of them on the walls.
Jumping up from the floor he used his wings to keep him balanced. The wings on his back draped down past his feet and the tips drug across the floor as he walked. Stretching, he shook his big black wings, a few feathers came loose and drifted to the ground.
He yawned and wandered to a big cushion that sat in the opposite corner. Sitting down he looked at the lights on the ceiling. They were dimly lit which met it was night time.
Shifting his right wing he curled it around himself and laid down on it. The other wing came up and curled around his top, much like a blanket. He brought his feet up toward his body and curled up in a ball. The room was slightly chilly, but it always was. Ruffling his feathers his bony hand came up to touch a small bald patch on his left wing where doctors had removed some of his feathers. A small bump could be felt just below the skin.
"It's just a tracking chip. It won't hurt you." He remembered what the doctors had told him. Not sure what a tracking chip was he decided to just go along with it. If it didn't hurt it must be good.
After a while he felt his eyes close as he dozed off into a somewhat peaceful sleep.
"Castiel can you tell me what this is?" Meg held up a small piece of paper with a picture on it.
Meg had always been Castiel's favorite. Every day she came into his cell with him and they talked and played games. Though she had went to school to become a teacher she had ended up in the army and later ended up here. In a top secret facility teaching gifted kids that no one outside knew existed.
Six year old Castiel shifted his wings behind himself and grabbed the picture from Meg's fingers. Smelling it he stuck the paper in his mouth. The paper soaked up the moisture from his tongue and he gagged.
"No you don't eat that." Meg grabbed the paper from his mouth and laughed. She held it up again even though it was now soaked. "Do you know what it is?"
"F- feefer."
"It's a feather Castiel. Can you say feather?"
"Feether."
"Close enough." Meg picked up her bag from the floor and turned to leave. Castiel whimpered and ran in front of her and spread out his wings and held out his hands. "I have to go." Meg smiled sadly when Castiel pouted. "I'm sorry I'll be back tomorrow, I promise."
That day was the first, but not the last time that Castiel cried himself to sleep.
When Castiel was seven he was up to the same education as a kid in a normal school system would have been. Through teaching Meg grew attached to all the five winged kids in the building.
On the day of Castiel's eighth birthday the government gave the organization permission to perform experiments on all five children.
Meg had been the only worker in the facility to protest against the experiments. They had fired her that day.
Castiel didn't know what happened to nice lady with the kind smile and the flash cards, only that he never saw her around after the day all hell broke loose in the lab.
Over and over the scientists worked to uncover the secrets of the children. By the time that a session was over with one they would be testing another. Every time the doors to their cells opened they fought and tried their hardest to escape the torture, but it was no use. As soon as a needle entered their skin they were out cold.
Castiel uncurled his wings and jumped up from the cushion that he had been sleeping on as soon as he heard the bolt to the door shift.
Spreading his wings out behind him he got ready for a fight. However the door didn't open. After a few minutes he let himself relax. With one swish of his wings he pushed himself towards the door. There was a loud crash outside and he froze. A screamed echoed through the space and then silence.
Slowly he made his way to the door and pulled on it to find it unlocked. In all his life he could only remember stepping outside the room three times in fifteen years. Opening the door he could see flashing from a light that hung down from the ceiling, it only remained connected by one wire.
Cautiously he slipped out of the room. A few drops of blood were tricked across the floor and a few stray feathers laid scattered on the title. Picking one up he looked at it. It was different than his, instead of black it was brown with a bit of gold laced into it. It was actually beautiful, he had never seen any other feathers other than his own.
There was a crash down the hall to the right and another scream. He dropped the feather and hid against the wall folding his wings as tight to his body as he could. Just as he was about to go into the hallway someone who wasn't looking where they were going almost ran into him.
As soon as they saw him a panicked expression slipped across their face. They didn't stop running and took off down the hallway on the opposite side of the room. Castiel crooked his head sideways in confusion and stepped out from hiding. Keeping his back to the first hallway he looked to where the person had left. It seemed like the people were scared of him, but why would that be?
The air was knocked out of him as some one tackled him from behind. Using his wings he bashed them against his attacker. Suddenly there was a swish of air and the thing was above him. He rolled to the side before they could jump on him.
Growling he turned on the assailant and jumped at them. Using his wings he struggled to gain an upper hand. Suddenly something heavy collided with his head and he fell.
Everything stopped and he looked to whatever had just attacked him. The person standing before him seemed to be in just as much shock as he was. Shaking his head he remained on the floor. He ears were ringing.
"Are you okay? I didn't know you were like me."
The other winged boy offered a hand to Castiel. Taking his hand they both turned their heads when there was the sound of glass breaking. The light bulb that had been hanging from the ceiling now laid in a pill of smashed glass on the floor.
"I'm Gabriel."
"Castiel."
"Do you know who let us out?"
Castiel shook his head. He didn't know, maybe it was a mistake that they had gotten out.
"Do you know if there are anymore of us?"
Once again Castiel shook his head.
"You don't talk a whole lot do you?"
Staying silent Castiel rubbed his head, there was a bump forming where Gabriel had hit him. Gabriel moved to the hallway where the light was brighter. Castiel looked at his wings then and saw the golden color that he had seen on the feathers scattered across the room. The teen had hair and eyes to match.
White turned to red unexpectedly as a loud and high pitched noise echoed through the building. "Well I guess that's a hint to leave. Come on." Grabbing Castiel's hand he took off down the hallway.
They came to another room after a bit of running. This one wasn't so empty and held a few doctors and scientists who seemed to be working frantically and panicked. They all stopped when two of their experiments burst into the room.
"Fuck." Gabriel whispered under his breath. Castiel had no idea what that word meant but if it was being used in this scenario it couldn't have been good.
A panic broke out in the room and a few people ran while others came at them with tranquilizers. Jumping in front of Castiel Gabriel spread out his wings as far as they would go. Two of the doctors stopped and backed up, but one continued to advance. Flapping his wings Gabriel sent the doctor stumbling to the ground.
"Get out! Leave!" The doctor yelled at the few remaining people who took off in all directions.
"Come on!" Gabriel took off down the hallway that the most doctors had escaped down. There had to be an exit somewhere.
Castiel followed close behind, but found it hard to keep up. After all the time in a cramped cell he had never gotten much physical activity. He also had a few stitches from various degrees of experimenting that the doctors had completed just a few days before.
After a few more turns they came to a door with a red exit sign over it. Gabriel pushed on the door in an attempt to open it, but found it firmly shut. "UGH! COME ON!" He punched it with one last attempt, it didn't budge.
Castiel turned his back toward the direction they had come. Yelling could be heard from down the hall.
"Back up! We need back up! Two caught, one in sights and two missing. I repeat! Send back up!"
Castiel turned to Gabriel in panic. He didn't want to go back.
"Don't worry I'll figure something out. Follow me."
Castiel followed Gabriel down the hallway past the exit door and into a large room with a glass ceiling. Castiel looked up at it in wonder. Little white and sparkling dots littered a seemingly black background. "What is that?"
Smiling Gabriel looked up and stretched. "That my friend is the sky."
Studying it Castiel noticed it was much like the images that always appeared in his head. Maybe all the thoughts he had were real.
"Whoever built this was an idiot, but at least they are helping us."
"How do we get up?"
Gabriel looked around for a minute, but finally just looked at his wings. "Have you ever flew?"
Castiel shook his head. He hadn't ever gotten the chance to actually fly. The most he had done was slightly jumping from one edge of his room to the other.
"Well if you want to escape you're gonna have to try. I'll fly through and try to break the glass, you follow after that okay?"
Nodding Castiel looked paranoid to the doorway.
"We don't have long so-" He was interrupted when someone came crashing through the glass doors. Glass scattered across the room and grayish wings curled around the person to protect them as they slide through the glass shards.
Stumbling, the kid stood up from the wreckage and froze, eyes wide and staring Castiel and Gabriel. He was skinny and slightly skittish.
"Guess we have another. Have you flown before?" The boy shook his head. "Well you're both hopeless... Okay just follow me then. This might hurt." Turning quickly Gabriel spread out his wings and launched himself into the air. The ceiling was high, but he didn't have long to get to a speed high enough to break the glass.
With on last push he flung himself into the glass. It broke without much resistance, but Gabriel barley stayed in flight. Shaking his head he took to the sky, he wanted to get as far out of range of guns as he could.
Down below Castiel and the other winged boy stood with their arms over their heads to protect themselves from falling glass. After it stopped Castiel looked up to the sky. The grey-wing boy didn't waste any time and took off with a shaky and slightly hurried start.
Castiel watched as he almost fell back down, but righted himself just in time. He took a few steps back. He was sure that with a running start he would be able to get up.
Taking a deep breath he ran a few steps and jumped bringing his wings down at the same time. Once in the air Castiel struggled gain elevation. Just as he figured it out and began to rise further from the floor a group of military officials stormed into the room.
Aiming their guns the commander ordered one person to take a shot. Their goal was to capture, not kill. Castiel was almost past the opening of the roof when he heard the shot. A pain erupted in his shoulder and he lost control. Crashing into the glass of the roof he used his wings to direct himself to the edge before he could fall.
A piece of glass that jutted out from the opening cut his leg while he pulled himself up. After crawling out of the roof he stood up and looked around for Gabriel. A few hundred feet up he could see two pairs of wings.
He winced at the pain in his shoulder. Luckily his wing felt fine meaning that it hadn't been hit. The warmth of blood could be felt running down his back. Not knowing how bad it was he spread his wings and took off into the air.
His head spun and he faltered. Suddenly Gabriel flew next to him. "Here." He held out his hand and Castiel grabbed it. "We'll go as high as we can and then glide. It takes less energy."
They rose into the sky at a slow but steady pace. When they were a few more hundred feet up Gabriel let go of Castiel and shifted to fly beside him. "Just spread your wing and fly straight. Try to catch the wind."
Castiel did as Gabriel said and after a few tries succeeded.
After a few minutes he felt the adrenaline slowly leave his body. The pain in his shoulder was greater than ever and he was afraid that he might pass out.
"Hey stay with me." Gabriel said when he noticed Castiel start to doze off. "Just a bit longer then we can land. You good?" He turned his head in the direction of the other boy who nodded. "I didn't catch your name." He yelled over the wind.
"Samandriel."
Gabriel kept watch of the ground. Everything seemed quiet, they seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. "Okay, I think we're good."
They all glided down towards the ground and found a clearing. Upon landing Gabriel and Samandreil landed pretty smoothly, but Castiel had a difficult time and tumbled to a stop on the ground.
He sat up with a wince. His whole body ached and the pain in his shoulder was almost unbearable. After taking a few deep breaths he looked around. Underneath his naked body the ground felt weird. Looking around he noticed he was sitting in a patch of tall grass.
Curiously he felt it between his toes. Despite the pain in in his body he laughed. Meg had always told him of things outside his room, but he hadn't believed they had actually existed.
"Castiel! Where are you?!" Gabriel's voice could barely be heard over a rushing sound to Castiel's left.
"Here!"
"Wow that looks like it hurt." Gabriel looked at the trail that led to were Castiel was seated. The grass had been flattened.
Samandriel stood behind Gabriel but smiled up at the sky and spread his wings. "I didn't picture this. I can't believe we're outside. Like seriously this is awesome..."
Ignoring the blabbering boy Gabriel knelt next to Castiel. "Turn." Castiel did as he was told and Gabriel looked at the wound on his back. "It doesn't look good, but I don't know what to do."
Castiel stood up shakily and shook the dust from his wings. He was curious about the sound next to them so slowly he made his way towards it, the cut on his leg caused him to limp.
"Where you going?" Gabriel followed him with Samandriel in tow.
When they arrived at the river Castiel sat at the edge and scooped water into his mouth with his hands. The water was cold, but not exactly clean. After drink some Castiel waded into the water up to his thighs. It was freezing against his skin. Splashing water into his wings he enjoyed the fresh feeling.
Gabriel's and Samandriel's faces both lit up at the sight of water and they followed Castiel right in.
To be con't...
I know it's kinda a weird ending, but that's as much as I could think of of this chapter. If you read it and liked it please give this chapter a vote and leave a comment saying what you thought.
Thank you!