DISCLAIMER: I do not own Maximum Ride or it's characters...yet. Also the quote in this chapter is from 'Catcher in the Rye' by J.D Salinger.

Eight – By Starlight

As the Flock slept peacefully in their beds, their habitual nightmares defeated for one night, three other tainted children were nearby ready to attack on command. They had stalked the Flock and had joined them in their relaxing holiday, albeit they lived and dined in the polluted shadows. Draven, Felix and Tobi – three Erasers who had been denied happiness and sanity for the perusal of winged experiments.

In an inn whose clocks had stopped at a minute to midnight 1959, the chosen Erasers rested and plotted on events no virginal ears should hear. They had neighbouring rooms with the same drab fifties furnishings – mahogany bed and cabinets, lime green basin and thin garnet linen and curtains – and the occupants of these two mirroring rooms had the same betraying beauty, but that was where the similarities ended, the mirror shattering with the Erasers' conflicting essence. They may have been created by the same Disturbed Artist, but each of the three portraits had its own attribute that set them apart from the other.

Draven - the leader and sleeping reaper. In a different country he could be presumed to be a mystic creature with his immortal strength and power. The Disturbed Artist had wanted a living vampire.

Felix – the sadistic saint. The love child of Satan and the Holy Mother. The Disturbed Artist had wanted an evil angel.

Tobi – the mischievous imp. A nymphomaniac who attached himself to women so he could claim their body as his. He was determined to avenge the innocence that his mother had taken from him. The Disturbed Artist had wanted an interrupted child.

The Disturbed Artist had painted the three Erasers as proof that he could sire satans.

One of his satanic beauties sat with her legs hanging over the window ledge of the Castle Cove inn, her feet dangerously swinging in the night air. The moon was high and watchful in the sky, and its rays fell like motel wax onto her fair skin; but it wasn't this that was making her wince in pain. It was her wings.

The Eraser Felix traced a slender finger down the scar that ran down her spine, the scar the doctors said would eventually heal but, after five years, remained as vivid and tender as the first day her wings had broken through her skin. Nothing could have prepared the normally unmovable Felix for the pain of spreading her wings. She preferred to be constraint and controlled, but that hadn't been the School's desires; they had wanted their wolfish experiments to fly.

Felix lived for agony but this…this would drive the Devil to tears.

Slowly Felix swirled her legs back into the room and jumped elegantly from the ledge. Draven was sprawled on the bed and snoring heavily, and Felix toyed with the idea of waking him up. Maybe if she were to wake him they could participate in one of his sick games and she could be distracted from the pain in her back. In the end she decided against it and decided to take a walk around the starlight town. Slipping into her black tank-top and skirt of the previous day and lacing up her converses, Felix crept out into the midnight air, grabbing the book she had started to read on the journey down.

The air was quiet and empty akin to the silence found in a church, and the gentle sound of the waves was the only sound echoing through the village. Everything had been cast into darkness, but it was a different darkness than that of the cities. There was no crude picture shows made by the neon lights or the feeling of walking on a knife's edge in Castle Cove's night-time. It was as if the haunting of the moon had been exorcised by a priest, so that no supernatural or mortal villains could hunt in the rural district. The moon seemed just as protecting as the sun.

Felix never felt fear – not real fear anyway – and so noticed none of these subtle changes. All she was aware of was her throbbing back. She pressed her hand against her spine, grimacing in both pain and relief, before walking up towards a bar she had noticed earlier. It was here she had decided to go, drinking and reading, drinking and observing, until she was numb once again.

She began to read as she walked, devouring 'Catcher in the Rye' as if she was reading it with virgin eyes. She wasn't; she had read this book hundred of times and it never ceased to capture her.

"What I was really hanging around for, I was trying to feel some kind of a good-by. I mean I've left schools and places I didn't even know I was leaving them. I hate that. I don't care if it's a sad good-by or a bad good-by, but when I leave a place I like to know I'm leaving it. If you don't, you feel even worse."

Despite the collective belief that Felix never thought about anything except for violence and sex – the two activities no good little girl should dwell on – Felix had another love that she could neither explain nor remove; her love for books. She hadn't been taught to read until she was seven but as soon as she learned, her addiction was born. It wasn't the fantasy element of stories Felix that enjoyed, having lived in a brutal reality for far greater time; it was the soothing lives and words of the characters. Characters that would never hurt her or make her weak and that made her feel as if she wasn't alone. Just look at Holden. Wasn't the reason she, along with numerous others, adored 'Catcher in the Rye' was because of Holden? He verbalized her doubts and attacked the world she had been born to. Surely he was the great anti-hero?

Soon Felix was standing outside the bar named 'Al's Wowsville' (1) (Felix could not help but smile at that title) and slowly entered it.

Just like the night air was different in Castle Cove to that of the city, so was the bars. No chained playboys and crack whores were slouching in the seats, nor was there any plastic Barbie dolls dancing on the floor. The normal sex, youth and money had been replaced by laughter, tolerance and self-effacing, and for once Felix was glad of the change. The unwanted attention she normally received would be down to a minimum as Castle Cove referred itself to be a family fun village. She still received looks of interest, but with innocent children nearby, nobody would bother her.

She walked to the bar, ordered herself a vodka coke and sat on the bar stool with her book in hand.

For the next hour Felix travelled with Holden, breaking up their visits with examinations into the people around her. A man on the opposite end of the bar drinking a scotch while taking sneaking glances in the mirror at a waiter behind him (Felix noticed the wedding ring on his finger and wondered how a woman could be so blind); a DJ who seemed to be on leave from the 1980's swinging his ponytail to the drab music as he bathed in his own coolness; a group of three parents drinking and laughing, forgetting about their family life for one night, acting as if they were teenagers once again; but it was a group of girls that caught Felix's attention the most.

There were three of them and they looked to be around 18 years old, their trip to Castle Cove most probably their last family holiday. They were normal enough girls dressed in skimpy clothes and giggling whenever a secret joke was shared, but to Felix they seemed to be made out of gold. It hurt her eyes to look at them, but she couldn't stop. They were everything that she was not and oh how she hated them for it. Behind each smile Felix could only see a mocking reminder into her bizarre life and although she delighted in screams, she felt sick whenever she saw a young girl with no worries or blood on her hands; and there they sat: one light, one dark, one sun kissed. The three perfect demons. Felix longed to attack them, to punch and ruin their beautiful features and trample on their gemstone future, but the School had made it clear that when following the Flock at such a close distance; she had to be anonymous. No violence could take place in case they were discovered.

Throwing down her money and taking her book, Felix stormed out of the bar before her self-control cracked. She walked quickly away from the bar, hoping that she could leave memories of the bar behind her, and soon she was standing outside the time warp inn. She walked up the stairs and opened the door, expecting to find Draven in the dishevelled heap she had left him. He wasn't though. He was getting dressed and packing up their few belongings. He looked angry when he saw her.

"Where the hell have you been?" he demanded.

"Just out," Felix answered, undaunted by his tone. "Where are we going?"

"Out?" he mumbled. "Out? Tobi's been looking all over for you!"

Felix calmly sat down on the bed.

"Why?"

"Because we're going," Draven barked. "The School called. They want us there immediately. They want you to join the Flock."


1) Ghost World anyone?


Please tell me what you think about Felix and the other Erasers as they're my own creation and I kinda curious about the reception they're receiving. What did you think about this chaper also? Please review.

xxx