"Max?" I saw the tall, scrawny figure with the light brown hair in the distance. "Max!" I ran to her but she faded away, her eyes filled with hurt and sorrow. She had a fresh bruise on her cheek and a swollen lip. There were bruises on her wrists like she had been restrained.
"Angel, please, you have to help us. You're our only chance. It's… you… pain… hurry… lost…" Then Max faded away and all that was left was a feeling of pain and fear. I felt lost and alone and like there was nothing I could do.
I sat up and screamed, which startled the people around me. I felt cool hands on my chest, trying to get me to lie back down.
I thrashed and screamed, pushing at the hands. "Let me go! Get off me!"
Then the calm washed over me again. I tried to fight it, but it was useless. I opened my eyes and looked at the hands holding me back and I looked dup to see a young girl of about 18 or 19 with blonde hair and golden eyes like the woman from last night.
I didn't say anything. I just looked at her, willing her to let me go. She looked confused and the hands were removed only for new hands to hold me down again. "Please. We don't want to hurt you. We want to help you."
I laughed without humor. "I've heard that before. And it's always the same. They just want to use me!" I practically spat out the last sentence at the man who had spoken. He had blonde hair and pale skin with golden eyes. He sat on the edge of the couch and I saw that he had a bag with doctor supplies in it and then I started thrashing again.
He was going to experiment on me! Cut me open and see how I tick! They're just like all the rest! I thrashed and screamed, but not for very long because every time I got worked up, that stupid calm passed over me and I couldn't thrash anymore.
"She thinks you're going to cut her open and see how she ticks. Just like all the others." I looked up to see the boy who spoke. He had bronze colored hair and, like everybody else here, pale skin and golden eyes.
"What others? Cut her open?" The blonde man had a look of disgust, but that could easily have been faked. And I never would have believed it if I couldn't hear his thoughts.
Who would so such a thing? And to a child? Were they the same people who gave her wings? I wonder if it would upset her if I gave her a checkup, just to be sure that she's healthy. But if she's not a human then regular human checkups don't apply to her, do they?
I looked at him. "What kind of checkup? Like a 'I'm going to check your vitals' or a 'I'm going to cut you open and see how you tick before slowly and painfully putting you back together'?"
Everyone's mouth dropped, even the bronze haired boy who could read minds. "I would never…how could anyone…just a checkup. A regular 'check your vitals' no cutting involved checkup."
I looked at him and said, "Where is the lady from before? The one with the heart-shaped face?"
"Esme. She's in the kitchen preparing a meal for you. You must be starving."
The thought of food made my mouth water and the additional smell of a delicious home-cooked meal. I didn't trust myself to speak so I just nodded. The woman seemed to genuinely enjoy the cooking and she seemed nice enough so I decided that she wasn't poisoning my food.
I turned back to the blonde man. "Who are you? Why are you doing this?"
He smiled at me. "I'm sorry, how rude of us. My name is Carlisle. I'm a doctor at the hospital in Forks. " I tensed when he talked about the hospital and doctors. "But don't worry. I won't hurt you or even give you a checkup if you don't want me to."
He motioned to the bronze haired boy. "This is Edward and that is his wife, Bella." He motioned to the girl with the long dark hair. He motioned to the muscles above me and introduced him as Emmett and the blonde to my left he said was Emmett's wife Rosalie. I saw a blonde boy in the corner holding the hand of a short pixie-like girl with short brown hair spiked in every direction. He named them off as Alice and Jasper. The one who had been restraining me after I forced Rosalie to release me he introduces as Renesmee and behind her was a burly dark skinned kid called Jacob.
I looked back at him. "So why are you helping me? Why do you want to help me?"
He smiled at me. "Because you broke into our house, starved and alone. Your clothes were filthy and you needed rest. And because Esme and I couldn't just let you go without knowing that you would be okay."
"What are you? And don't say you're a human because I know better."
He smiled. "Vampires."
You'd think after all these years of people lying and cheating and throwing the scariest, creepiest, most terrible things after us that I would be use to stuff like this. I wasn't and I sure wasn't expecting that.
Esme came in then with more food than even Fang could ever eat. I smiled at her. "Thank you." Then I turned to the food and devoured it as quickly as I could without looking like a total pig.
All the food was so delicious and when I was finished, I was so full I doubted I'd be able to fly anywhere for another couple of hours. The girl named Alice jumped up then. "The package is here!"
She raced up the stairs and back so I fast I wasn't sure I'd actually seen her. She went out and came back a minute later with a large package. "I saw your clothes and I just had to get you some new ones. I mean, they were filthy and there's no way I was going to let you walk around with those." She smiled at me as she pulled out a pair of jeans that were just my size. Then she pulled out a pink flannel shirt and white sweater. Then came a black jacket that looked so fluffy and cozy, I was sure Max would kill for it in the wintertime. Next she pulled out a few pairs of really cute socks and then a pair of designer shoes that any super model would kill for.
She smiled at me. "I know you're planning on leaving as soon as you find out where Max is, but I was hoping you would consider staying here until you could find out where she is and if maybe you wanted some help finding her once you knew where she was. If it's a place you need you're welcome to stay here. If it's food or clothes you need, we can surely provide it. If it's assistance you require, I wouldn't hesitate to assist you in any way I can."
I felt my eyes tear up, and I got up. Predicting what I was about to do, she was there in an instant, hugging me to her just as any sister would to her favorite sister. "Alice? What are you talking about? Who is Max?"
"I'm sorry. Carlisle. I don't know myself. I just saw her in my vision. Angel was going to find Max and some other people, but I don't know their names."
"Angel?"
"I guess it's my turn to explain." I walked across the room and turned at an angle where I was facing everyone as a whole. "My name is Angel. When I was in my mother's womb, a gene was implanted into me to make me a human-avian hybrid. My mother sold me and my brother to the chool so they could use me for science. There are five others like me. Max is the oldest and she'd fourteen. Fang is a couple of months younger than her and Iggy is a couple of months younger than Fang. Iggy is blind, but that doesn't disable him in the least. Nudge is eleven and Gazzy, my only blood brother, is eight. I'm six."
I paused to let them take that in before continuing. "Max is the leader of us and has been taking care of us ever since Jeb broke us out of the school over four years ago. The school desperately wants us back and they'll do anything to get us. Unfortunately, so would Itex and a bunch of other institutes across the world. We've had to fight Erasers, which are human-lupine hybrids, and Flyboys, which are just these really terrible and creepy robots. Since then they've sent all kinds of crazy stuff our way and we've just dealt with it and tried to get a normal life."
Now was when I confessed about why I was here. "We had always had to scavenge for food before so I was used to it. And we had taken a break and gone to a concert outdoors somewhere in Seattle. But I'd gotten lost in the crowd and it was my irresponsibility that allowed the Flyboys enough time to catch us. Well, them. I managed to get away, but it started raining and I couldn't figure out where the blue van went. So I went off to find food and then plan my next moves. That's how I ended up here."
I stopped then, tears welling up in my eyes. All this talk about my flock and my irresponsibility was making me depressed.
"It's not your fault Angel." I looked up at the boy named Edward. "You couldn't have known-"
"Of course I knew! I wanted to go and I didn't think of the consequences! I wasn't looking out for myself, but they were and that's what got them caught! Nudge, Gazzy, and Iggy were fighting them off while Max and Fang went looking for me! We couldn't fly off in the middle of the crowd so we got trapped! They shot down Nudge and Iggy before they even had a chance! It's my irresponsibility that got them caught in the first place!" I was in a rage and I didn't care about my own preservation anymore. All I wanted was for Max and the rest of the flock to be all right. "And when I saw the Flyboys, I ran. I ran away from my problems and when I finally got up the courage to help them, they were gone. All traces of them were gone."
I was looking at the ground, feeling utter disappointment in myself, when suddenly I felt a cool hand on my shoulder. "It's not your fault, Angel. You're just a kid. Kids make mistakes."
"But they don't usually endanger their whole family when they do it."
"True, but your not a normal kid. You're special, Angel. God believes in you and that's why he put you here, on this Earth. He trusts you to help the flock, and to look past what you did and look forward towards what you are going to do to get them back. Now, do you want to dwell on the negative, or do you want to save your friends… your family?"
I looked up at Carlisle with tears in my eyes. He was right. There was no use in me feeling sorry for myself. It wouldn't save Max or anyone else. It was time for action.