Birdie twirled in front of the mirror in her new dress, the bright red fabric swirling around her, falling to its place at her knees when she stopped moving. After she pulled her hair pulled back into a ponytail, and pinned a cherry red clip on the right side, she made her way outside. She was meant to meet a friend a few doors down for her twenty first birthday. Smiling wide, Birdie nearly skipped her way down the sidewalk.

She'd only made it ten feet before she was grabbed, her mouth and nose covered with a rag to keep her from screaming. She fought against the arms that had wrapped themselves around her waist, but she wasn't strong enough. She lashed out, kicking and struggling against her abductor, but she felt herself getting weaker. She started to feel lightheaded. Her movements slowed and her eyelids became heavy. She hadn't lost her desire to fight, only her ability. She could feel the world going dark, her vision blurring until there was only black. All that was left to indicate she'd been there at all was a single, small, red feather.

When Birdie came to, her head was pounding, her body was sore and she had to blink hard against the florescent lights that filled the space she was in. As her vision adjusted, she saw that the room was mostly empty, save for her, the chair she was strapped to and a large machine in the shape of a giant birdcage a few feet away from her. And, if she squinted past the blinding lights, there was a smaller birdcage that hung above the machine.

"She's awake," a gruff male voice said from behind her, hidden in the shadowed part of the room. Birdie jumped, and as her muscles jerked, she realized how tight the restraints were on her wrists and ankles. The sound of a door opening from directly behind her alerted her. She hadn't been able to see it from her angle, as her range of motion was severely limited.

She'd known plenty of stories about girls being kidnapped, but this seemed like a place unlike anything she'd ever read or heard about. It was not a musty basement to keep her chained up in nor was it a ditch along the road where her kidnappers would eventually dump her body. The machinery in front of her seemed very advanced and complicated, not that she was an expert. She couldn't imagine what this place might be. All she knew for sure was that someone must have made a mistake. She couldn't be who they were looking for. Perhaps the real woman they were looking for was some kind of spy. That's the only explanation that made any sort of sense to her.

"You have the wrong girl," Birdie shouted, now set in her conviction that this must be the case. It hurt her head to yell, but she needed them to hear, to have their attention.

"You are Bridget Allen, aren't you," a different voice asked her, coming closer until they stood right behind her chair.

"Y-yes, that's my name," Birdie replied shakily. She hadn't planned on them knowing who she was. But they did know her, or at the very least they knew her name. Birdie shuddered inwardly as she tried to plan her next move. If they knew her, they must have selected her, but for what? She was nothing special. What could they possibly want from her?

"Do you really not know why you've been brought here? Surely you must know about your peculiarity by now," this man went on, circling the chair.

"My what," Birdie asked, genuinely not following what this man was trying to get at.

Before he had a chance to continue, the screech of a falcon pierced the room. The door behind her, foolishly left open, brought in a swarm of birds that circled overhead. Birdie watched on, fascinated at the odd spectacle. Many of the birds swooped down, using beaks and talons to attack her captors.

While Birdie remained distracted by the avian intrusion, the man who'd been speaking to her quickly shoved a needle in her neck. A quick, sharp pain flowed through her and only a few seconds later the room started to go black. Was this the end for her? To come this far and be left with only questions.