Dark Blue
Pain…so much pain…. Tally thought, shuddering. She went to open her eyes, but saw nothing.
Blindfold, she noticed. Shi—she yanked at her arms, feeling a tug followed by a slight burning of her wrists. Velcro. It feels like the smooth side of Velcro. And then she tried her feet, with the same results.
Then she took a deep breath and froze. Antiseptic smells, alcohol, sterile, holy mother of all that is holy! Then all hell broke loose.
She shook her head violently, began to thrash, all the while hyperventilating. Please don't let it be the School! Not the Facility! Or anything synonymous! ……
After ages of this, she finally noticed the flock calling her name. "Calm down, Talon!" "Tal!" "Tally!" "Tals!"
Her head snapped in the direction. How the hell am I supposed to calm down when I'm right back where I started?! It wasn't tea and cupcakes getting the hell out by myself last time! I can't even test if they've neutralized my powers again or not!!!! She thought haughtily, giving another yank at her straps.
"Tally," Iggy's voice, patient and soothing if not exasperated. "You're not alone this time. It's going to be easier to get out than when you did it by yourself." Something tells me he's lying to himself. Is it the fact that he said he had a feeling that we weren't ever going to get out of this, earlier, in the semi?
She stopped her thrashing and settled for going limp, scowling.
"What do you mean, Iggy?" Max asked.
A gruff sigh from him. "Am I allowed to tell them, Tally?" he asked her.
Why shouldn't they know? They've probably had worse done to them. My escapade can't be that bad in their eyes. She clicked her tongue twice.
"Last time, it took her a while to get out. She jolted awake when they were coming to her with scalpels. They managed to cover her eyes before she launched herself off the table," he edited. She had made sure to show him clear pictures of what she assumed happened to her. Pictures of examining tables, scalpels, Erasers…blood. "The whitecoats from her place were being idiots and chose the lab with giant windows on the ground floor. So she twisted out of the whitecoats grasps, and hurled some stuff at the window to open it.
"She ran through it, Erasers on her tail, winding in and out of the woods until she started flying and then…ended up in the same hospital as Fang," he finished with another sigh. He had dulled it down significantly. It was far more gruesome and longer than that.
Tally jerked her head to the side. I hate this feeling of being blind….but I can't focus on that. I have to think….
"I'm sorry, Tally," Max said, actually sorry.
Talon shrugged her shoulders as she twisted her foot this way and that to see if there were any gives in the Velcro. Dang. Nothing. They've gotten smarter.
"Tally?" Nudge called softly, hesitantly.
She clicked her tongue twice.
"That means yes," Iggy informed her.
"Are…are you alright?"
Tally cocked her head to the side, desperately trying to hold down her breathing to a normal level.
"I mean…you were stuck at the School in Virginia for fourteen years, right?" Two taps here. "Well, wouldn't it be more…more scary? You just got out, only to be captured again…"
You have no idea, Tally thought, but she shrugged, blowing some hair out of her mouth. You have no idea, Nudge. There barely was enough time for the injuries to heal…how long before I get thrown into another battle? Or will they pick up where they last left off and just dissect me once and for all…?
-
Tally, thrashing around on her hospital bed, was completely and totally unnerving.
They had swapped her clothes for one. And given her the same doctor's jammies as when we first saw her, her black hair was fanning all over the place, and her ankles and wrists were rubbed raw from her tantrum.
The reason it was unnerving? I had gotten used to seeing her as stoic as Fang when she was around me. Or a bit smiley around Iggy.
Fact to the matter was, I had gotten so used to thinking she was a silent rock type like Fang, that it was strange to see her freaking out.
But didn't her brother and her have that in common?
Fang's worst fear was cages.
Tally's worst fears were being more impaired than she already was and being locked up in the cage that was the School.
She had had a full blown out panic attack.
I shook my head, watching her breathe stiffly next to Total before her hands formed tight fists, her lips moving as if she was mumbling.
And from here, I got a clear view of the scar on her throat. When we were at the hospital, I thought it was a smooth, clean scar.
Now that I saw it, it was jagged with pink scar tissue crisscrossing over her throat.
I turned away from her and looked at Iggy. He was limp, with his eyes open and completely devoid of any emotion.
Nudge and Gazzy were completely depressed.
And Fang…
His hands were in tight fists as well, his black bangs nearly hiding his eyes from view as he raised his head to look at the Velcro straps on his wrists.
And then there was the fact that Fang and Talon were two completely different people. Fang was silent and strong but he had four years of freedom. Talon was forcibly silent and strong but she was silly and a bit more open.
Fang was calculating.
Talon was calculating but also random from what I've seen of the little note pads she used to carry around with her.
Fang was completely brave when inside the School.
Tally was freaked out and ready to saw her limbs off to get the heck away from the School.
But both of them put on the strong face when the younger flock members were involved.
I shook my head before resting it against the hospital bed. Plan. I need a plan.
-
Tally woke to something being shoved into her arm, a numb feeling seeping through her body. No! Needle! She made to slam her elbows on the bed, whistle, click her tongue, anything to make some noise! But she felt bit furry arms hold her still and haul her away.
Lemme go! Dang it! Fang! Iggy! Max! Dang it! Someone! Mute girl being stolen! PLEASE?! she cried out in her mind, eyes hot and prickling with tears.
"Put it in this cage, next to the dog's," cruel, cold voice. Stupid sunava— she thought hysterically.
And then she felt her injured side being slammed against chicken wire. Her feet were shoved into the cramped space before the door was slammed shut.
Tally reached out and felt the walls of her cage. Chicken wire, large at best, dog crate, right?
She pulled her legs close to her body, settling her forehead on her knees. Damn.
"This is outrageous," she heard a feeble voice.
Total!
She whistled to get his attention. Never thought I'd be so glad to hear Total's whiny voice.
"Who's there?!"
How the heck am I supposed to answer that?! Tally opened her mouth, forcing air through it and trying her best to form sounds. "Tally," she said. But it came out more of "Tah-eh."
"Tally?!"
Two tongue clicks of confirmation.
"Oh, wow, you look beat up. And inebriated…"
Say what? Dumb it down a bit for me, will ya?
She was silent.
"Uh…right. You can't talk…." Awkward much?
Tally groggily closed her eyes…one more moment of sleep won't matter…
…right?
-
"What about Total and Tally?" I demanded triumphantly. "Were they a dream too?"
Jeb looked at me gently. "There was no Total the talking dog. But Fang's sister is real. She was integrated into the dream process to see how you all reacted to her, but you never really met her. The real Talon Ghost is currently doing strength testing," he stepped aside so we could all see the two beds across from us. They were empty.
They'd never been there, had they?
-
Tally cried.
For the first time in years, tears went down her face as she was battered around.
They were finding her worth, giving her an appraisal.
She wasn't one to cry when in battle…but this was the type of battle she honestly couldn't win.
Four flyboy thingies against her: currently blinded mutant, rendered powerless and rusty in fighting without her eyes.
So, they pelted her with hits and she barely got any in.
She couldn't fly out of it because of the fact that they were indoors in a puny excuse for a room, and she had her wings tight against her back because the moment she was thrown in, they went for her feathers. And she needed at least ten primaries to be able to fly. Contrary to popular belief, feathers on Avian-Americans did not grow all of that fast.
And the pain was excruciating. Did she mention that?
Sad part was that she was expecting the flock to come bursting through the doors and rescue her.
Earlier in the day, they put her in the maze, then the pool, the pressure tank, and then the battle room where she was currently bawling her eyes out.
Whoever wanted to make an appraisal of her was being really stingy.
I—I can't handle this anymore! She thought, letting herself get knocked down onto the ground, metallic tasting blood pouring into her mouth.
"This experiment has had it! You do anything more to it, and you'll kill it!" she heard the booming voice over the intercom.
"You're right. Have Experiment Ghost transported back to its new cage. Send it to the fields in two days."
-
Under the general heading "Torturing the Bird Kids, Part Deux," you might find a whitecoat handing us a cardboard box that night.
We opened it carefully, expecting it to explode in our faces.
Inside, we found two slim wrapped packages. One was a picture frame, the other was a small mini-TV.
I handed the Mini-TV to Fang. What the heck, it might have cable.
Fang examined the TV thingy cautiously before he pressed the ON button.
It blinked on, a picture flashing on the front with little quips of data scrolling across.
It was Tally. A recent picture at that…I think. Her eyes were covered with these weird glasses, and her eyes looked dead…she looked beat up and like she had given up.
But she looked like she did the last time I saw her for the most part. The white streak near the front, the black hair swooshing out of the frame, the doctor jammies…
I looked at the information, reading it outloud. "Experiment GH05T. Age: fourteen, height: five foot ten, weight: 98 pounds, Wingspan: 14 feet, Biological Twin Sibling: Experiment Seven," A small picture of Fang when he was still in the School next to it…
As soon as I finished reading that, the image blinked out before showing a moving picture of Tally.
She was fighting.
Fighting a bunch of Flyboys on her own.
She kicked one way, they come at her from a dozen other ways, she try and uppercut, and get knocked to the ground from a backhand and kick. Then she didn't move. She huffed soundlessly, blood dribbling down her chin before her eyes started glazing over…dried tear tracks on her cheeks.
"This experiment has had it! You do anything more to it, and you'll kill it!" A whitecoat, obviously.
"You're right. Have Experiment Gh05t transported back to its new cage. Send it to the fields in two days."
Tally's eyes shut, no motivation in them, and she was roughly picked up, wounded in plenty of places.
The TV turned off.
I shuddered.
Who knows what else they had done to her.
But…was it a dream? Was that our Tally, or some girl we'd never met?
-
Lemme go….Tally thought as her cage was thrown onto a little rolling cart. To say she was in pain was a major understatement. She was in agony and was fighting to keep her eyes open, if only for the sake of keeping them open.
She was dropped unceremoniously, and commanded to get out of her cage.
She, albeit weakly, managed to extend her middle finger, spitting some blood out of her mouth.
Well, that didn't end well. The Flyboys shook her out onto the ground and dragged her…someplace.
Then she heard voices, "Tal?"
"Tally?"
And the like.
Her eyes wrenched open, why? She didn't know. The stupid one-way mirror glasses were still latched onto her face.
But she knew the voices. First one was Fang, second was Max.
And then a hand brushed against her wrist. Iggy, she thought.
A/N: Anyone like it? I tried to start my veer off. But, due to popular demand, I'll finish STWAOES with Tally in it. Anyone like? Now we have proof that Tally is Fang's brother and not some clone gone wrong, that she is extremely tall (two inches taller than Max and I), that she has a big wingspan and yeah….reviews would be favorable, please.
The average reviews for this story is a little over six reviews. So, please?
Person to get the hundredth review gets a treat. Not a stingy virtual cupcake, but I might do anything from drawing them something to writing them a one-shot to letting them have a "Any question goes" for any one of my stories, including this one (if they want to know who dies, I'll answer, if they want to know what my veer off will be, I'll tell them. Five questions—make them count my unknown hundredth reviewer.).
-Maddy