When my eyes open I'm face down in the dirt. I gulp in the air for a few seconds not bothering to think how absolutely absurd I must look. My face feels sticky and filthy. I reach up and swipe off a speck of bloody dirt.
That blood…is it mine? I wonder, I've never bled in my entire life, I was too good for that.
My eyes burst open with sudden realization.
That insane bird girl had broken my nose.
I reach up, it's still bleeding, the blood feels warm and stick as it slides through my fingers. My mother isn't anywhere…I'm alone. I keep my hand covering my nose and I run.
I don't get far before I have to sit down. I know I need to stop the bleeding I just don't know how to.
"Come help now!" I half yell, usually that would work
Today it didn't.
I bite my lip resisting the urge to burst into tears. That would be very childish. I wasn't supposed to be childish. I was supposed to be a perfect being…
But that bird girl beat me to it! I clench my fists I hate her!
Now I'm completely alone.
Not just because I don't have any company…
But the fact that I'm not perfect still hangs in the air taunting me.
I fall asleep, when I wake up the bleeding has stopped so I keep moving. Slowly I begin to come to the realization that I'm never going to find anybody that had ever cared for me in the past. Angrily I punch a tree out of my path, it falls over with a loud THUMP! I grin, that was kind of…
Kind of…
Kind of what?
I felt like it should be an obvious word choice I just couldn't think straight…
"This is all bird girl's fault" I snarl to nobody
I don't feel as helpless anymore, I'd never felt helpless in my entire life. I'm glad the effect wasn't permanent.
It's been 2 days now, 2 horrible days of me running around with an invisible blindfold on looking for any trace of my "perfect" past. I would like to find bird girl so I could finally beat her…
I bite my lip causing it to bleed, I had bled a lot in the past 2 days, I was never going to finish what bird girl had started.
Maximum.
Yeah that was bird girl's name.
Maximum…
She really was Maximum, she was better…
"Angel wait!" someone yelled
"Just cause I'm faster doesn't mean I've got to wait" I little girl replies
My head peaks through the trees. Bird Children?
MAXIMUM!
Yes…
I will get to finish what we started…
Ari opened his eyes. He felt smaller, weaker.
"Ow…what happened?" he asked out loud
His voice sounded squeaky and younger.
No….No freaking way.
Ari sat up and looked down. His hands weren't big and beefy anymore they were small…
The CORRECT size of a 7 year old's hands….
"Max!" he cries happily "Max! Max!"
He looks around.
Max wasn't there.
"Max?" Ari tilts his head
Max and his dad or any of the other flock members (Well…Maybe except Fang) wouldn't just leave him…
"Max!" Ari screams "Dad! MAX! DAD! MAAAAX!" Ari waits his lower lip quivering "DADDY!"
He'd never felt so small and helpless in 4 years.
Jeb sat up in his seat. Something has clicked in his head and he wasn't sure what. He walked, no ran, well maybe sprinted out of the door.
Max? Max?! Are you alright Max?
What do you want Jeb?
Something is very VERY wrong Max is everything alright.
Oh yeah everything is just peachie
Max I'm not joking around
I'm fine. Everything is fine. Now leave me alone.
Jeb sighs wishing Max would just forget about the past.
Jeb's eyes widen as he sees a little boy sitting in the middle of a field tears pouring down his eyes…
A little blond boy…
A very familiar little blond boy.
"A-Ari?"
Ari turns around "Daddy I'm scared"
Jeb ran over to the little boy and picked him up "I'm sorry! I'm so so sorry!"
"It's okay" Ari replies "I just…Where's Max?"
I start moving slowly toward the bird kids, slowly only because I don't want them to see or hear me coming.
"Someone's here" the little blond bird girl says
How does she know I'm here? I wonder
"Because I can read minds!" the little girl replies in a happy voice
"Who are you talking to?" a young boy runs up behind her
"Some guy hiding in the trees" the little girl replies she glares at me
2 boys, a girl and Maximum run up behind them.
"Guy in bushes you better come out or I'll smash your head in" Maximum growls
I'm not sure what to do so I stay in place.
"Hey Max guy in bushes knows your name" Angel tells me
I try hard not to think about anything other than the situation at hand but it's getting progressively harder. I want to think so badly about my battle with Maximum, growing up, my mother, my training…The events of the past 2 days.
"You've got till the count of 3" Maximum warns
Not sure what to do I start moving towards the bird kids, I know I should probably run away but that was the exact opposite of what I was trained to do.
"1"
I make no noise waiting for Maximum to get to 3 so I could pounce.
"2"
One more number and I would finish the battle…
"2 ½" I almost groan, Maximum is sounding less certain, of course it wouldn't show to anyone unless they were trained to hear it
"3" Maximum growls and leaps into the bushes
I prepare to defend myself but quickly remember she knows my one weakness.
I'd have to conquer it.
"You!" Maximum hisses "Omega!"
I flinch in the dirt, she's got me pinned down and I'm too weak right now to do much about it.
"Yes me" I growl back
Maximum's eyes are just a bit fearful "I see you don't know how to wipe blood off your face without anyone helping you, no wonder I beat your sorry butt last time we met"
I flinched and shut my eyes, of course she wouldn't leave me alive this time if she even meant to last time.
"What are you doing?" Maximum laughed a bit
"Just kill me" I growl
Maximum laughs "I'm not going to kill you"
I looked up at her, the desperation and pain of my eyes was reflected off of her own.
I looked weak.
Really really weak.
"Just kill me!" I yell
She was dishonoring me by sparing my life, either I kill her or she kills me that's how it works!
"Why do you want to die?" Maximum asks the hostility in her voice lowering, just a little
"Just do it" I snarl suddenly wanting Maximum to win
And just like that the stupid bird girl gets off of me.
"I'm not going to kill you"" she says calmly "Now get lost"
"I am lost" I growl back quietly
Maximum's eyes widen, just by a little bit "What do you mean your lost?"
"My mom is gone" I tell Maximum "I have no more purpose because…beating you…Can I do that?"
Maximum shrugs "I guess not. But that woman was not your mother, she took away any hope of you having a normal life"
"She made me who I am!" I exclaim "The perfect…the almost perfect being I am today!"
"And is who you are today good?" Maximum raises her eyebrows
Then I do something I've never done in my entire existence.
"No"
I admit to a big horrible flaw.
"But she's still my mother"
Maximum looks at me like I'm insane…am I insane? I'm not sure…
"If you don't want a beat down and you don't want to get even more lost get over here and don't try to kill anyone" Max says cautiously
"Why?" I ask
"Because I feel bad for you" Maximum replies with a snarl
Not sure what to do I follow the girl I was trained to kill my entire life.
Her flock eyes me suspiciously.
"What are we going to do with him?" a black haired boy asks
"I don't know" Maximum sighs "But we can't leave him here…his whole life has been a giant experiment"
No it hasn't. It's been me preparing for the final battle…with a girl! A girl with wings. A girl that beat me.
I bite my lip and hold back tears of failure, again.
"So we just adopt him?" the black haired boy gives me a mean look "He tried to kill you"
"So did Ari" a little blond girl says "But he turned out okay"
Everyone including the speaker flinches.
"Let's bring him to Jeb and see what he thinks" a black girl suggests
"Good idea" Maximum says, only it doesn't sound like she thinks it's a good idea
My blood runs cold when she adds "Then we can find out when he expires"
So she does want me to die.
Or expire.
Whatever that means.