Come Blow Your Horn, Part 2/3
By Mice
Klaus McQueen is falling.
He has this dream almost nightly; he jumps off of a building and let's the buildings around him whiz by in a blur. He can't see straight
and he panics until he sees a flock of pigeons flying by effortlessly. Their wings press against the wind; guiding them. And then his truest
fear erupts from behind. Large wings tear out from his back and rips his shirt. He screams out loud from the pain in the dream and in the waking world.
"McQueen, ya havin' a bad dream?" Lucky Floyd is Klaus McQueen's partner. Right now, they're in Washington D.C. from their native L.A.
They're trying to get a story from Graydon Creed and the possibility that he's hiding something that has to do with the FOH.
"No, Floyd. Just, ah...yeah. Go back to sleep." He looks over to his friend of many years in the bed beside him in the cheap motel. She
falls back asleep effortlessly and he stays awake.
I should tell you, Lucky, he begins to think, I've trusted you with so much in my life, and you haven't hated me because of it. Why
is it so hard for me to tell you that I'm a mutant? He sinks back into his bed and eventually drifts off.
The dawn broke cruelly in the small room. On a hunk, Klaus called out, "Hey, Floyd. Time to get up." No response. "Floyd, get
up!" Still nothing. "Lucky?" His eyes ventured to her bed where she is not.
Getting up, he headed toward the bathroom. "Lucky?" She isn't there either. "She never gets up early..." He stood in the room in nothing but his boxers, about to call his editor when the door opened and Lucky walked in carrying a large paper bag.
"Hey, McQueen! You look good without your shirt!" After a wolf whistles, she threw the bag to him. "I claim the shower first!" She rushed into the
bathroom, throwing her trench coat to the side. Klaus went over to it, investigating it as in his years of knowing Lucky, he knew for a fact she actively hated trench coats. (He did not know for a fact when his ex-wife's birthday was, though.)
He found a patch sewn on inside of the coat with the initials "FOH". Floyd, what did you get into this morning? he wondered. He tossed the coat aside and prepared for his shower.
At thirty-three, Klaus has had a pretty full life in the last six years. Married at twenty-seven, wife gave birth to a little girl at twenty-eight. Divorce promptly on his twenty-ninth birthday, and promotion on the newspaper the following year. Got paired off with Lucky at thirty-one, and established himself in the news world at thirty-two. At thirty-three, he had the fear that his best friend is part of the FOH.
But that makes no sense. She's fascinated with mutants...or is it that she truly hates them and decides to observe them... These
questions race through his mind while he begins to shave while Lucky showers.
His face is not a bad one. He was never shy for girls growing up. Light blue eyes that gave off a sincere look and dark blond hair to frame his tanned skin. The part he liked best on his face was his nose, though. It was stern and didn't make him look like a freshman in college as some people with similar features do. He was born and raised in California, and he looked the part.
Lucky stepped out of the shower with a small towel and smiled at him. She, too, was raised in California, but no one would ever confuse her for a beach bunny. Dark brown hair and dark hazel eyes with fair skin that defied the sun. She was much shorter than him with a decent figure, though her diet was mostly Twinkies and Mountain Dew, where he had to work out every day and keep his fat intake low to keep up his build.
He moved over to the paper bag, hoping for something edible. He wasn't surprised to find a Big Slam of Mountain Dew, Ding Dongs, and some beef jerky. He was surprised, though, to find some coffee and a bagel with lox.
"I know ya don't eat junk, McQueen. I wouldn't force my food down your throat," she said with a big grin.
"I thank you, Floyd." He sat down at the table with his breakfast and some cream cheese and began to prepare his bagel.
She slid into a black body suit that went down to her ankles. "Hey, McQueen, don't mean to be nosy-well, yeah, I'm being nosy, but could you tell me something?"
"Mmm-hmm," he mutters with a mouthful of bagel.
"Why did you and the IceQueen break it off? Ya keep sayin' it was a mutual disagreement, but c'mon, there's sumthin' else, isn't there?"
That explanation was far from the truth.
It was simple how it happened. His wife, Claudia, had asked him many times what the two symmetrical scars on his back were, and he kept
telling her that they were an old injury from his baseball career in high school.
Claudia had kept on being curious and checked out his story. Klaus had never played baseball or any other sport in high school, and she confronted him about it, but he didn't want to tell her. He wanted his secret, but she threatened to leave with their daughter, Rowena, right then if he didn't tell her. He stared at her for a moment before deciding to show her his wings.
They spread out from the scars on his back. Unlike the the outed mutant Angel, his wings could hide in his back, though it hurt like hell. His wife stood
there in horror and left him with their daughter.
Lucky laced up her boots and shrugged. "Uhm, you don't have to answer me. I was just curious."
"Thanks, Lucky." He smiled over to her and realized what a good friend he had...who hopefully was not out to destroy his genetic
brothers and sisters. "I've been wanting to ask you, Floyd. Why do you have an FOH jacket?"
She stood frozen. Her wide hazel eyes gave off a yellow glow and reminded him of a deer caught in the headlights.
"Tell me you're not one of them."
Her lower lip quivered as her eyes filled with tears. She reached for her best friend and tries her best to explain. "I'm not, Klaus, I swear it! I don't know how I got that jacket, I just know that I went out for breakfast this morning, and when I came back, all I had on was that jacket!"
"Hey, Lucky, it's okay."
He rubbed her back sympathetically and held her. "Klaus, something
bad happened, I-"
The silence and the room was interrupted by the door being kicked in. Three men in berets and FOH shirts grab the twosome. "Mutie scum!"one of them screams out.
"Let her go!" Klaus McQueen shouts, knowing that they are there for him.
"Hey, McQueen, chivalry is dead!" She snaps back. "But you heard him - let me go!"
Both Klaus and Lucky are knocked out by blows to the head and the three FOH members stand there thinking. "What should we do with the other one,
Gomer?"
"Eh, take'em with us. Have a little fun. C'mon, we got to get going, guys. Creed wants this done before breakfast."