Chapter 2
I reached out my hand feeling the silky covers overtop of me, I jerked awake. Where was I and how long had I been asleep? My bandaged arm and wing were stiff; looking around the room and it all came flooding back to me, shot, Kit and Frannie, Flock, dream and blackness. I heaved my self out of bed, where was I, at the lake house, in my room. I went to the window and looked out at the dark blanket of a sky with diamond bright stars. The lake was like glass with a perfect reflection of the wonders above. I don't know how long I stood there, but as Frannie came in to check on me light had started to creep over the tops of the mountains.
"You're not supposed to be up yet." She said herding me back to bed, "Okay Max, I've met your charming little friends, but before I let them in here we need to talk."
"How long have I been asleep?"
"About eight hours," I let out a deep breath I didn't know I was holding. "Where did you go two years ago and why did you leave."
"I left to keep you safe," I said hanging my head, "I didn't want you to get hurt when they came for me."
"What!" Frannie looked shocked, "Someone's still after you!"
I nodded yes, "Someone will always be after me, I'm just not a safe person to be with and they got me in the end just like I knew they would."
"Who got you?"
"The white coats," Frannie looked puzzled, "The people from The School."
"No," She gasped, "The School was shut down!"
"It just moved and I've been back. If you've noticed my wings are different now." I spread my good wing to show her, she nodded. "They completely rewrote my biology, changed my DNA. I less bird than I was before and I am a mammal now, so now how about letting the others in? Oh and don't tell Matty and the others yet I want to surprise them."
"Alright," she said opening the door, "you can come in now and don't let her get up!"
I rolled my eyes, Fang grinned at me and I felt light headed. I smiled at Angel who carried her Angel dressed teddy bear, Celeste.
"He loves you," chanted in my head, and then pretended nothing happened.
"Max!" She called running over and jumping up on my bed. Her talking dog Total was hot on her heals. I wrapped her in my arms, I loved little Angel, she was so sweet. Her small, pure, Angel like, white wings folded neatly on her back. "Is this all your stuff?"
I looked around the room at the posters, pictures and trinkets, "Yep, my stuff, my room."
"Hey, Max." Total said smugly, "They all think I'm a normal dog. This dog coat really works! The only thing I've said all morning is, Bark!"
"Um, ok Total, that's grate. I think."
"Who's that?" Fang asked his black hair falling across his forehead. I glanced at Nudge, realizing she hadn't said anything yet, her frizzy black hair was pulled back in a louse ponytail above her soft tawny brown wings and Iggy had stuck a piece of tape on her mouth that said 'DO NOT REMOVE' on it. The picture he was pointing to was of me and Matt with our arms over each others shoulders. Ignoring all the protests and all that Frannie said I got out of bed and walked over to stand next to Fang and Nudge.
"That's me and my little brother, Mathew." I said and everyone stared at me. "What, so I have a brother, big deal so does Angel. Infact I have two and a sister, no biggie."
"Ya, but we all knew about Ari and Ella." Said Iggy, "What does he look like?"
I sighed, "Blondish, a lot like me, I don't know. I haven't seen him in two years."
As I turned around I saw Fang had left my side and was looking at the picture on my desk and my heart skipped a beat. Fang looked me in the eye, "Who are they?"
I took the photograph from him and sunk down onto the bed, this was not something I wanted to talk about, "My old friends, how did you even find my desk under all that crap? I mean all this stuff is junk, not a single piece of paper is still worth anything."
"What happened to them?" Gassy asked bringing me back to the original conversation, which I didn't want to have.
"Their here, in this house, the wonderful lake house. Well most of them." I said feeling my heart drop into an ice cold memory. Fang sat on the bed next to me; he noticed I was looking right at Oz and myself. Oz had one arm up giving Ic bunny ears and the one arm around my waist. My arm was over his shoulder and we were both grinning like fools.
"Who was he and what happened to him?" Fang had that unmistakable habit of dropping unwanted questions as if they were bombs; well at least he cut strait to the point.
"His name was Ozymandias," I said sadly and lovingly. "Oz, he was shot, murdered. We all still remember his dumb tattoos and stupid grin, but he was a good kid and a close friend."
"I'm sorry, Max." Angel had read my mind and picked up the memory of Oz lying in the forest, blood splattering his t-shirt, his cold, lifeless face staring up at me. I shivered slightly and Fang put an arm around me. "What about the others?"
"Fine, I guess," I said half heartedly, "Icarus must be at least thirteen by now, he was born blind, Matty would be eleven, and Peter and Wendy should be about six."
"You know," Fang said picking up one of the drawings on my desk, "This stuff isn't crap; it looks just like a drawing of a skeleton with really long arms and weird wings."
"It is a drawing of my skeleton and it is crap because my skeleton doesn't look like that anymore. It's old Itex stuff, stone-age compared to what they have now, that stuff is from before the Erasers."
"Hey Max that's a cute picture," Angel said pointing to a picture of my kids, Oz JR. and Janie, "Who are they?"
"Um, just a couple of kids I know." I had no intention of telling them who they really were, not yet. My babies were around a month old, they were sitting on the porch swing that was out front. Janie was giving her brother a big hug and he looked like he couldn't breath.
"Aww," Nudge moaned from under the tape, "O cue!"
Then a voice came from outside the door, a voice I identified as Ic, "Hey Mat, did you hear that?"
I sucked in a breath sharply as my baby brother responded, "Ic I don't hear half the things you hear silly, what is it?"
"Someone's in Max's old room, should we check it out?"
"Duh, we can't just have people going through my sister's stuff. Ya know, out of respect for the dead and all the old stuff from the school is in there."
"They think I'm dead!" I said softly.
The door opened and an older, blonder Mathew stepped into the room. My heart leaped and I grinned widely throwing my arms around him. No Matter how big and tall he was I was still his big sister and a little taller, "Matty!"
It took a second to sink in who I was, and then he hit me right in the face. A really good hard punch in the jaw before he hugged me again, "Max! Where the hell have you been! It's been two god damn years! We thought you died! We looked for you for weeks! For months Frannie left the window open, just in case you came back!"
"That's a much longer story than I want to tell right now." I said then moved my arm, "My arm hurts, oh well. How are Pete and Wendy?"
Matty gave me an odd look and grabbed my arm, I winced, "Max were are your wings?! What happened to you! Oh no, the school got ya didn't they, the bastards!"
"Watch your mouth in front of the little kids and the rest of that is part of that long story, maybe another time, Mat, I promise."
"Hey Max," Angel said sweetly and then giggled, "he fainted!"
"Don't be stupid," Mat said as I knelt next to my old friend, "Ic doesn't faint."
I lifted his arm and dropped it, it hit the floor with a clunk and I agreed with Angel, "He did and that's my Angel your calling stupid!" we all laughed about it for a while then in the uncomfortable silence I said, "So now what do we do with him?"
"I know!" Gazzy exclaimed, "We put him on your bed so you have an excuse to be up."
I slapped high-fives with him, "That's my boy." Sticking Icarus on the bed I looked around and then down at the white nightgown I was in, it must have been Frannie's or something 'cause it was really big, "now where are my clothes?"
"Frannie took them, I think she's going to wash them," Total spoke up making Mat jump.
"Your dog just talked!"
"Actually he's Angel's dog, Total, and yes he talks. Ok, where's my backpack?"
"In the kitchen,"
"Alright, I'm going to go get it then we'll find clothes for the rest of you. Nudge, you just look through my closet, kay?"
Iggy pulled off the piece of tape he had stuck over her mouth to keep her from talking everyone to death, "Ow! Kay Max, Iggy I'm going to kill you for that. Max I'm hungry, Where's the bathroom? Are you really Max's little brother? You're my age, right? You're name is Mathew, right? Cool, I'm Nudge. Do you have wings?"
"Um," Mat said starring at her and then gave me a distressed look, "Down the hall and the first door on the right. Yes. I'm not sure; it depends on how old you are, I'm eleven. Yes. Nice name and yes."
I walked down into the kitchen and found my red leather backpack along with Angel's pink teddy-bear one, Fang's black leather one, Iggy's highly explosive blue one with flames on it, Gazzy's camouflage one and Nudge's jean one.
"Max," Kit said coming into the kitchen, "What are you doing?"
"Hey Kit, I'm looking for my clothes." I said honestly, "I want to take a shower. You have no idea how long it's been since we had access to a hot shower."
"It's been that long?"
"Yeah well, most of us aren't nearly as tanned as we look."
"Your jaw is red, what happened?"
"Oh, um, Matt hit me."
"There's ice in the freezer, oh and your little friends wouldn't give out names so who's who?"
"They wouldn't give out names! Good on them! Just like I taught them, ya know for safety reasons." I said proud of them, "Anyway the tall, dark, emotionless guy is Fang, the taller, strawberry-blond, blind kid is Iggy, the black girl who wont shut up is Nudge, the little blond smelly kid is the Gasman or Gazzy, warning stay up wind, and the little blond girl is his sister, my little Angel."
"Great so I'll find them some clothes."
"Good, Nudge is going through my closet. I haven't seen Peter and Wendy yet."
"Yeah they went with Frannie to the store to get some food; your friends eat a lot."
"Yeah, enlarged stomachs and high metabolisms, plus we spend half our time starving. Nudge can eat a super sized Big Mac and still be hungry enough to eat four hotdogs; it's also hard for her being a vegetarian. Oh and keep your head free of swear words, Angel reads minds and I don't like bad habits." I walked back up stairs to grab the shower.
"Wow Max," Nudge said, "You must have had a leather faddish when you were younger, but your clothes are so cool! This place is awesome, I love it."
"Um I wouldn't call it a faddish, let's just call it an obsession, you look good though." I said, she did. She had changed out of her bloody jeans, now red t-shirt and filthy hoodie into my old black leather pants, a black t-shirt and a red leather jacket. Her hair had been refashioned into two long, soft, wavy pigtails with my old straitening iron and she had obviously had a shower.
"Thanks," she said, "I like it. I'm hungry, where's the kitchen?"
"Guys, Kit's going to find you some new clothes." I said ignoring her previous question, "Nudge, Hun, has there ever been a time when you weren't hungry?"
"yep, last week when we went to that McDonalds drive-through and I got three supper sized veggie burgers, four things of fries and eight hash browns."
"Other than that time?"
"Nope I don't think so, but still food is fuel, fuel is energy, energy is good."
Kit came up behind me, "So tell me if I get this wrong, you're Fang, you're Iggy, you're Angel, you're Gazzy and you're Nudge."
"Yep, that's me, Nudge." Nudge said smiling, "Max used to have a leather obsession, ya know, but I really like her clothes. This place is neat, wow; do you really need two bathrooms upstairs? Ware's Frannie gone?"
I smiled, grabbed a C.D. player and locked the bathroom door, leaving Kit to puzzle over the stream of questions. Sticking my favorite C.D. in the C.D. player, I stripped off and turned on the shower. I sighed and relaxed as the hot water ran over my now damp feathers. I opened up a bottle of my favorite shampoo, strawberry, kiwi and mango. I would never tell anyone this but, I love bubbles. They make my hair feel clean and soft again; they tickle my wings and make my feathers sparkle and shine. And the conditioner just smoothes out everything. Jumping out of the shower, I dried off and put on some jeans, a t-shirt and a sweatshirt pushing my wings through the slits in the back. Walking out the door I saw Angel coming out of the other bathroom as Fang took the one I had been in and Gazzy took hers. She looked pretty in her new jeans, white long sleeve shirt and jean vest. Her long blond hair was in two braided pigtails with ribbons tied in bows at the end. Total didn't look nearly as pleased with the bow she had tied to the floppy hair on the top of his head as she did. And really truthfully deep down in side I pitied him, But out loud I laughed. "Aw, poor Total."
"It's not funny Max," He whined, "This is a Matter of ether my pride being wounded or Angel's feelings. I would grin and bear it if the bow wasn't pink!"
"Oh come on Total, she's a six year old little girl, let her have fun!"
"That easy for you to say!"
"Come on Total," Angel cooed sweetly, "will it help if I make Fang, Iggy and Gazzy ware them, too?"
"Yes, very much!"
"Good luck, see you at breakfast." I walked down to the kitchen to find Mat, Kit and the now awake Ic starring at Nudge who was literally vibrating. "Uh oh, what did you let her eat?"
"Cinnamon Toast Crunch, bad idea?" Ic asked.
"Yep, sugar high much? Not even I can handle this and even if I was I wouldn't want to, if you get any good ideas tell me, I live with this every day. Good luck, bye." I walked out onto the porch and sat on the porch swing. Frannie's dog, Pip, came and lay down with his head on my lap. "Hey boy, long time, no see."
A growling Fang sat beside me with a pink bow on his head, "Oh my god, she did it!"
"Alright so we get a frying pan…."
"Fang," I cut him off pulling the bow out of his hair, "This is our sweet little Angel we're talking about, not some sicko scientist."
"Max your sweet little Angel just black-mailed me!"
I held up my hands, "Alright we're not savages, a base-ball bat will do."
"Really?"
"No! Of course not!"
"What's with the dog?"
"I've known Pip since I was twelve." I said ruffling his ears and kissing his head, "Isn't that right boy?"
"Woof." Pip said happily waging his tail.
"So not a talking dog?"
"No, he belonged to Frannie already when she found out about The School." A car pulled up in the driveway, "Here she is now, with Pete and Wendy!"
"With who?"
"The Asian kids from the photo, Peter and Wendy!"
"Max!" they both shrieked running at me and then both running head long into the same porch support.
"Ow, oh no," I said flinching and getting up to see the six year old twins who both had nose bleeds. kneeling next to them I instructed them on how to stop the bleeding and gave them both tissues, then smiling I said, "You two haven't changed a bit. I love you guys, ya know!"
"Max," Wendy asked as I picked them up, they were considerably heaver then when they were four, "Why did you leave us."
"Because I didn't like putting you guys in danger." I responded.
"So it wasn't because of what happened to Junior?" Pete asked and my heart froze.
"Well, that to sweetie, I couldn't handle that."
"Mama cried," Wendy said talking about Frannie; she had called Frannie Mama since she was four. Actually, Wendy called any motherly figure Mama, but we had all kind'a imprinted on Kit and Frannie, it's a bird thing.
"I know," I said sadly, "Why don't you go see how my friend Angel's doing, she's the blond girl the same age as you, kay?"
"Kay Max," they both said running off with Frannie in tow.
"So," Fang said in such a way I knew what was coming, "Who was Junior?"
"First you must understand that even though The School that Mat, Pete, Wendy, Ic, Oz and I came from was stone-age compared to where you and the flock came from we had to deal with more pain and suffering than you could ever imagine." My cold, harsh look melted, it wasn't Fang's fault. With a sad look in my eyes I looked down and away from him, nearly choking, "Ozymandias Junior, was my son."
Fang looked surprised for a second and then went back to emotionless, "I'm sorry,"
"It's ok, I shouldn't have gotten angry. After all, maybe his death was for the best," I admitted, "He never would have fit in with his wings in a world of humans. It was my fault anyway."
"What happened?" he asked sitting down and motioning for me to sit next to him and Pip.
"Well, Ozymandias was the father, he died before the kids were born and I named them Ozymandias Jr. and Frances-Jane Jr., after Frannie. Because of their avian blood they developed faster than humans and at a few months old they could do everything a human two year old could. One afternoon they were climbing a tree in the yard, I know not smart but at twelve years old I wasn't prepared to look after two kids, anyway, I wasn't paying attention. Then Junior fell out of the tree," I paused a moment and closed my eyes before continuing, "He broke his neck and died. I wasn't prepared to lose my closest friend, well boyfriend, and then my son so soon after wards. At first I tried to forget, I put everything that reminded me of them, except for that picture on my desk, in a box and hid it in the attic. Then I locked myself in my room, I'm ashamed now to say I neglected Janie badly at that time and then when I came aware of someone watching me I fled. That choice hunted me for a long time, I was living with the guilt of abandoning my only daughter and that's why I took to Angel so quickly. Looking after her was like making it all up to Janie, because I think the only thing I did for her that didn't hurt her was lead the people from the school away from here, making it so she never had to go there."
"It's going to be ok, Max," Angel's voice said in my head quietly, "Janie will forgive you in her own way. She loves you, Max, almost as much as I do. You just need to reach her."
"Thanks Angel," I said aloud, knowing she was near by.
"What did she say?" Fang asked.
"She said Janie will forgive me in her own way and that she loves me." I smiled, "Almost as much as Angel does."
