Chapter 1
Hands shoved her into the small, cold, metal dog crate. She heard the door squeak and lock. Her dark brown eyes peered through the semi-darkness as the white coat walked away, swinging the key on his finger, and whistling a merry tune. Go ahead; keep thinking that it's all okay and that your world is perfect. Just keep thinking that.
Leara placed her pale hands on the cool metal bars, letting her black hair fall into her face. Today had been just like every other day; the white coats tested and experimented on her. They liked to see which abilities she had gained ever since she became a freak fourteen years ago. She was faster and stronger than the average man, standing at 5 foot 9 inches and only weighing ninety pounds.
As she leaned against the back of the crate, she winced as a loose plastic tie from another crate pressed against hers poked her. She moved what the plastic had pricked, and felt the soft feathers. Yes, she had wings. This was why when you looked up "freak" in a dictionary; there was a picture of her. Her wings were blue-black and raven-like.
A door slamming suddenly caused her to jump and hit her head on the top of the crate. Her crate door swung open and a tray was slid into her "cage". The crate door slammed and locked, and the meat-headed guard stomped off to take his duty back outside the door. On the tray lay the usual slop that was supposed to be a meal and a can of something that was orange, but tasted too sweet and bitter.
Leara curled her nose, but as usual, picked up the spoon and dug in. The slop was always tasteless, just as it had been for the past fourteen years. They really needed to get a cook or something. But, from retching earlier, she had been experimented on with an empty stomach. Any food was good at the moment.
As she set down her spoon and shoved the tray to the front of her crate, she looked up to see a girl being shoved into a crate on the other side of the room. The girl looked no older than six or seven, though she was a little taller than most. She had beautiful curly white blond hair, and she noticed something along her back; feathers. White feathers. Could this girl be like herself? Were there others in this place with wings? Leara never saw any other winged-people besides herself; though she did see some experiments with some odd mutations.
For some reason, Leara couldn't take her eyes away from her. Something drew her attention to the new girl, but she didn't know what. She was too far away to hold a conversation without the white coats over hearing them, so she didn't even try. Once in awhile, she would see the girl's eyes flicker over to her, search her face, then she would go back to sleeping, or crying.
