Why does sleep always seem so far away when you actually have a bed to sleep in? I have spent most of the past few months sleeping in caves and I never had this kind of problem before. There is nothing on my mind so why can't I just close my eyes and drift into unconsciousness?
For those of you who don't understand the cave comment, I'm Maximum Ride and I live on the run with my family because we are constantly being chased by some of the most psychotic people on the planet, and all in the name of science.
Now normal kids hate science because it's just another boring lecture you have to listen to and be tested on. I hate science because people use it to do completely insane thing like, I don't know, grafting bird wings onto innocent children. This is what happened to us, to my family and me. I was the eldest followed by Fang and Iggy who were the same age as me at fourteen. Nudge was next followed by The Gasman and Angel.
We were raised in a place called The School, where we were experimented on and tortured. There were also these lupine hybrids called Erasers that kept us in line. It was up to me to take care of the younger kids, Angel only being a baby at the time. Most of the whitecoats treated us like specimen but there was one called Jeb, who seemed to genuinely care for us.
When I was ten years old Jeb stole us from the school and took us to live with him in the Colorado Mountains. For two years we were happy, relatively normal (except for the flying) kids, until one day Jeb disappeared. I was heart-broken to lose my father figure but I forced myself to step up as our leader.
Another two years went by until Angel was kidnapped by the School. They wanted her because of her ability to read minds and this seemed more important than the fact that they were taking a six year old girl away from her from her family by force. We all knew that we would get her back or die trying.
Since then we've been on the run, having our home exposed to the people who are trying to capture us so they can perform painful tests on us. This has entailed us sleeping in less than pristine places but we're all tough and can handle it. During our adventures I found my biological mother and I half sister that I never knew I had.
I love my new family but I would never put them in danger by staying with them for too long. This became difficult when Nudge and my sister Ella became best friends. I agreed to spend a few nights with them every so often to please both of my families which lead to my current predicament.
After a few minutes of tossing and turning in the bed of my mother's guest room, I decided to get myself a midnight snack. I walked down the corridor, trying to be as quiet as possible because I didn't want to wake anyone so I was surprised to find that there was someone else in the barely lit kitchen.
My little Angel was sitting on the kitchen floor with bits of broken china surrounding her and streaks of silent tears running down her face. Her big, blue eyes were red and puffy and felt my heart break into a million pieces as I rushed over to her and pulled her into my lap.
"Angel, baby, what happened?" I reached out my hand and stroked my fingers through her curly blonde hair. "Darling please tell me." I urged her; even though I wasn't sure I wanted to hear her answer. Angel was one tough kid and if something could upset her, then we should all be worried.
"It's ok, Max. I just had a nightmare and, and, and....." Her uncontrollable sobs stopped her from finishing that sentence.
"Tell me what happened in your nightmare, honey. It will make you feel better."
"Well," she started of hesitantly. "I was back at the School and I knew they were going to test on me but before they did, the Whitecoats made my torture you and the rest of the Flock. I don't know why I did but I couldn't stop myself." Angel was crying again. She seemed to be ignoring everything I was thinking.
To be honest, my thoughts were to tangled a mess for any six-year old to understand, heck I didn't understand it. Even though I was confused I knew that I had to stop Angel from feeling this way especially if it was something she had no control over.
"Honey, I have never met anyone who is as sweet as you but at the same time, you are so ridiculously determined that no one can force you to do something you don't want to, unless of course I'm the one telling you to do something, you have to listen to me." She made a small laughing sound so I knew I was on the right track. "I raised you, Angel, know you backwards and forwards and I also know that you would rather die than betray us."
Angel's tears ceased and she looked at me with eyes full of an innocence that didn't belong to her anymore. I had a sudden surge of anger over the fact that she should be full of innocence but those stupid scientists had taken that away from her, as well as any chance for her to be a normal kid.
"It's ok, Max. In a way I should thank the whitecoats because if it weren't for them I never would have met you and I can't imagine my life without you." She broke eye-contact with me and looked down and her hands. "You know I love you, right?"
"I love you too Angel."
We stayed together in a comfortable silence for a while more. I looked over at the clock and saw that it was 4:15 in the morning. "I think it's time for bed, honey." Angel nodded so scooped her up and carried her quietly back into the room she was sharing with Nudge. I tucked her into bed and kissed her forehead.
"Sweet dreams Angel."
"Goodnight Max"
I left her room and found myself back in my bed. For some reason going to sleep seemed to be much easier so when my head touched that pillow I left the world of the conscious with thoughts that I had a family who loved my and needed me, which meant that I would be fine, no matter what happened.