Here's the chapter I promised. I know it's been a while but I hope a lot of you guys are still with me because I plan to update much more frequently. XOXO- sky2585
Erasers began to swarm us, claws at the ready and teeth bared. I looked back at the group, prepared to see them ready to run. Instead, I was surprised with the sight of them all in a fighting stance, even little Angel.
I was the first to advance on an eraser that was nearing Angel. I sent a swift sidekick to it's ear. It wheeled on me and hissed. This eraser was more animalistic than human, I noticed. It swiped a claw at my face but I threw up an arm, and instead it's claws left four jagged, bleeding wounds on my forearm.
I sent another powerful blow to it's chest and it stumbled back. I took a moment to look around, all of my saviors were fighting viciously against the erasers. I was tore my gaze from them as a large fist slammed into my ribs. All the air in my lungs expelled out of me and I gasped.
It took my loss of air as an opportunity struck me again. I fell backwards and scrambled on the ground away from it, my gaze never tearing from the eraser. I gasped and panted, struggling for air. It loomed over me, a wicked grin crossing it's face. I tried to kick my feet towards it's abdomen, but my meager attempt did nothing but make it chuckle.
I had gone down so quickly, despite all of the training I believed I'd had. It raised a clawed hand, ready to gut me with the razor sharp nails. I was dead, I was going to die.
I flailed, trying to land numerous blows, all of them in vain because they did nothing to the eraser. That was when I saw a flash of darkness and it was sent backwards, slamming into a wall, leaving an eraser sized dent. It let out a sound of pain as it crumbled to the ground. It hadn't been just a flash of darkness, it had been Fang.
After making sure the eraser was definitely not going to get up again, let alone advance on us again, Fang walked over to me, and grasped my arm and pulled me to my feet. I hissed with pain and his hand came away bloody, he had grabbed my injured arm. His eyes widened, "You okay?" "I'm fine," I replied, glancing around. All of the erasers were on the ground, injured, knocked out, and some dead.
"You say that a lot," he remarked. "I wouldn't say if if I didn't mean it, I'm fine." "Whatever you say," the look he gave me was infuriating. Like I was an idiot in denial. He had barely known me for an hour, who was he to say he knew when I was fine and when I wasn't. "I'm fine," I repeated through clenched teeth, losing my temper.
Max glanced at us and padded over, "We can do this later, let's go." I turned to see that Angel, her brother, the blind boy, and Nudge flapping their wings, hovering outside the window. I began to walk towards the window, so close to getting out.
"Don't you dare, Skylar," Jeb warned from behind me. "Or what? You're going to lock me up in a crate again, stab me with some more needles, force some more drugs in me?" I retorted. "You should be grateful to me!" Jeb exclaimed. Max, Fang, and the rest of them, watched and listened to our exchange intently.
"For what? Turning me into a lab rat!?" I shouted. "For taking you away from those people that you called family, oh, you know. The one's that sold you to me because the money offer was just too good to pass up? The ones who loved money more than their own daughter?" Jeb was going in for the kill, bringing out every bit of information that would hurt me.
My eyes began to water and I blinked back all of the tears before saying, "Possibly, but they're not the ones who gave me wings, they're not the ones who genetically altered my DNA while I wasn't under anesthesia, while I felt every minute of torture, ever incision and needle. They're not the ones who destroyed me. That was you." With those words, I turned to the flock of winged children, children like me. Max nodded her head to go.
I bolted into the night, my wings carrying me faster than I ever knew I could go. If I had waited up, if I had listened behind me back to where the group trailed me, I would've heard the words, "Damn, she's fast."
After flying for a few minutes, going over everything that had happened in my head, I began to calm down a little bit. A little bit. I slowed down and waited for the flock.
When they caught up with me I asked the question I was terrified to ask. "So what now?" They all exchanged glances, as if communicating silently what they would do next. "Well…," Max began, "why don't we head to Colorado, and once we reach the border, we'll decide from there."
I nodded, although Nudge and Angel opened their mouths to speak. "That's final," Max told them. Nudge bowed her head but Angel set her mouth in a firm line and crossed her arms.
"Follow us, I'll lead." I did as I was told and began flying after Max, the others did the same. We flew in silence, nobody said a word. I took this as an opportunity, I had never flown outside or felt the feeling of absolute freedom before. It was amazing, it was unlike anything I'd ever felt before.
The wind lifted my wings up and I was gliding. Below me, city lights sparkled like floor-bound stars. Above, real stars glittered and not a cloud was to be seen. The stars were like a little bit of home I never thought I would see again.
I remembered that as a child, I would climb out of my bedroom window, onto the roof. I would lay on my back and gaze up at the night sky, and often I would stay there until dawn bled pink, purple, blue, orange, white, and other color's I had no name for, across the horizon.
Around me, everyone glided on the wind. Max, with her tawny and white feathers, reminded me of a hawk. Angel, with her white wings and halo of curly golden locks around her head, looked like a god-sent.. Well, angel. If Angel was heavenly, then Fang was an angel from hell. He had wings black as night, with midnight blue tinting them to look like eternal darkness. He was beautiful, in a blackened way.
Gazzy's wings were similar to Max's, but reminded me more of a falcon than a hawk. Nudge's were tawny and golden-brown all over, like a lion's colorings, they complimented her beautiful dark skin nicely. Iggy's wings were white, tipped with black.
I didn't know Iggy very well, heck, I barely even knew all of them. But Iggy, I hadn't even heard speak. The other's I could pick up a whiff of their personalities from their wings, but Iggy's wings, he was like a living contradiction.
Like he was so much more than even his wings could portray. I couldn't get a read off of him, and it scared me. If the other's wings conveyed their personalities, I didn't know what mine said about me. 16 feet in all their silver glory, fading into black tips at the bottom of them.
It had been sheer luck and something else I couldn't name, that my hair had turned the exact color of my wings and eyes. Well, if you call harmful drugs luck. The only remembrance of my once raven black hair was at my roots, where the slightest bit of night coloring remained.
Max stopped flying and I was pulled out of my train of thought. Everyone turned to me, their eyes sweeping over my body and face, well everyone's except Iggy's. I felt like I was being examined. As if noticing my discomfort, Fang turned his gaze to Max.
"Do you have any special abilities?" Max asked me. I thought this over. "Yes, I can breathe underwater, I can create ice, as well as turn anything into ice, and all of my senses are heightened to the enth degree," I told her. I knew I was reciting things like an encyclopedia, but it was what I had been taught to do.
Fang tilted his head, "That was why the alarm affected you so much." I nodded. "We can breathe underwater too!" Angel exclaimed, and I smiled at her.
"About this ice thing, show me," Max demanded. "I need an object first," I explained. Nudge dashed down into a space of forest hundreds of feet below us and returned with an acorn. She placed it in my hand.
"Freeze it," Max said. At first, I closed my eyes until I felt like there was ice moving through my veins towards my left hand. It hurt at first, then the pain slowly subsided. I looked down, it was covered in frost.
I kept going, pulling power into my hand until there was no remnants of brown. The acorn now looked like an ice sculpture. The younger kid's eyes widened, and Max shared a look with Fang.
"Why were you called Test Subject #2?" This was beginning to feel like an interrogation, in a way, it was. "There was a boy before me, Dylan, he used to be my best friend. They had done all the experiments they had done on me to him, only I wasn't expected to survive, he was.
"Only he didn't, he died after they implanted his wings. Maybe the pain was too much or maybe it was something else, either way, I lived, he died. Even after that, they still called me Test Subject #2." I tried to keep my voice even and steady, I didn't want to cry in front of these people, I wouldn't cry. Dylan was gone, and no amount of tears would erase that.
"What do you mean by implanted? Your wings weren't grown?" Fang asked me. "No, they were implanted. I remember." "You remember?" "They wanted to test his and I's pain tolerance, our wings were implanted in our spines while we were awake, without any drugs. So yes, I remember, although the pain makes it all a little blurry."
"I'm sorry," all the others were looking at me with pity, but Fang wasn't. He was looking at me, not like I was broken, but like I was strong. "There's nothing to be sorry for," was my response.
We all just kind of hovered in the air, the only sounds were our wings flapping and the slight breeze. "We have a hotel room, down there," Max spoke up, gesturing to the city below. "Would you like to stay there tonight with us?"
I was unsure. I had nowhere else to go, they had saved me, they had fought for me, but I didn't know them. They could hurt me.
But like I'd said, I had nowhere else to go. I nodded my head and Max dived towards the ground. I thought she was falling for a moment but the way her wings were tucked behind her and the way she was letting out shrieks of joy and excitement told me she wasn't.
Everyone followed suit, I'll admit I was scared. I looked up from where Angel had just gone spiraling towards the ground to see Fang. He was giving me a knowing look. "Here," he said, "fly downwards, tuck in your wings, and let them out before you hit the ground."
I took a deep breath and did as he said. It was exhilarating to the point I had to remember to breathe. I'm not even sure I did that. All I knew was that I was falling, and the surface of the lake was coming closer and closer, but I wasn't terrified. Instead, I was thrilled.
I was centimeters from the water when I let out my wings and pulled upwards. When the wind jerked me upright, I was shocked but I soon found my balance. Ahead of me, the flock was flying. Behind me, if I had looked, I would have seen Fang smiling. I grinned and flew closer to the water, reaching out a hand to skim the surface.
My fingers sliced through the black water like blades, and my face was reflected in the water. I hadn't seen my reflection in years. Needless to say, I'd changed a lot since I was seven.
My once black hair was now silver, and it lay in straight but slightly unkempt strands around my head. It was long though, I didn't know why, but Jeb had never cut it besides a little trim or two before a big meeting with other scientists. I had to look presentable. So it was now a few or more centimeters past my waist.
I assumed he had never cut it do to the wishes of the nurse that had tended to me. She had been kind, unlike the rest of them. She had braided my hair, stitched up my cuts, sung me to sleep a few times, and was more of a mother than I had ever gotten in the past.
My round face had become heart shaped, and my eyes, big and silver, made me look a bit like a doll. They had always done that, ever since I was little. While they were pretty, they made me look innocent. They would have made me look young had not my cheekbones protruded out of my face sharply, but not in a good way.
I was thin, too thin from not having enough to eat. And my skin was as pale as the face of the moon from having not been in sunlight for a long time. I gazed up from my reflection, not wanting to see anymore, and continued to fly after Max and the others.
We flew high above buildings until we reached the roof of a hotel. It was actually a decently nice one, with golden lights illuminating the space around it. We then landed on the roof, my cheeks were tinted slightly pink from the wind.
"Follow us," Max told me, as she opened a door and led us down a flight of stairs until we turned left. Before me was a long hallway, doors evenly spaced apart on the walls. "This way," Max unlocked a door and glided in.
"You'll probably want some other clothes than that, probably some to sleep in too," Max observed as she glanced down at my all white apparel. White pants, a tight white tank top, and bare feet. "You can borrow some of mine, although they'll be a bit loose."
"Okay," I replied, not wanting to think of why they would be a bit loose. Not wanting to think of how my body that had slowly diminished bit by bit over the years. Max gestured me over into another connecting room.
She opened some drawers and pulled out an oversized T-shirt and shorts then some jeans and a black tank top. "You like black, right?" She asked, and the question seemed almost juvenile. After all I had endured, Max was asking me if the color of a shirt was alright.
"Yep, it's fine," I said, taking the clothes as she offered the to me. "If you want to take a shower the bathroom is over there, just remember to lock the door, the younger kids like to mess around and scare people while they're in the shower." I laughed, "Thanks… For everything."
"Don't worry about it," she brushed it off like it was nothing when it was everything. "I mean it, thank you." And with that I headed towards the bathroom to take a shower.
Author's Note: I hope you like this one, sorry if it got a tad bit boring at the end of the chapter, but the next one will be a lot more exciting. Once again, thank you for all the reviews, follows, and favorites, they make my day. ;)