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Chapter Four

"Max, I'm hungry! Can we go to like, a fancy restaurant? 'Cause I'm starving, and restaurants are soo cool." Nudge turned to me instead, realizing that Max was deep in conversation with Fang.

She lowered her voice to a whisper, "You know, I think they should get together, they're perfect for each other. Max is beautiful and strong, and she deserves someone as cool as Fang." She paused to take a breath. "But that would be really weird 'cause you look just like Fang. Wha-"

I clamped my hand over her mouth, sitting up precariously on my branch. We were all perched in different trees, but Nudge decided to sit on the branch above me.

She. Would. Not. Shut. Up.

It was like having a constant radio next to my ear. Scratch that. It was like having fifty radios talking simultaneously all around me. She had talked about the color of the sky, how bananas taste, and everything in between.

God save me.

"Nudge, Angel, Gazzy, Iggy." Max called. I stayed where I was. I wasn't sure if I was welcome to join. Shifting against the smooth bark behind me, I pulled in my wings completely, resting my back against the tree. Nudge dropped to my branch, then glided over to where Max and Fang were.

Her wings were a shade of tawny that I had never seen before. Combined with her dark hair and skin, she looked sort of exotic in the dying light. It made me a tiny bit jealous. I just looked like an overgrown freak.

Watching them curiously, I locked my fingers behind my head. The Flock stacked their fists and tapped them. Some kind of ritual. There was a sudden twinge somewhere around my ribcage and I suppressed an automatic shut-down. Not here. Not now.

I looked up at the sky as Nudge said goodnight and came back to her branch near my head. It was silent, except for a murmured conference between Angel and their –get this- talking dog, Total. Their goodnight ritual reminded me of my sister.

I nearly lost it right then. She was the one thing that kept me going most of the time. She was a lot like Max. I think that's what made me want to stay. They'd named her Mutt. She had been a test, to see if they could make better Erasers. But like me, she had known what was happening and didn't want it.

"Thinking about something?" Nudge's whisper broke through my thoughts. A scowl crossed my face, but it wouldn't stick. I glanced at her. She was staring peacefully up through the leaves. A ray of moonlight fell across her face, lighting up her eyes.

"My sister." I answered, closing my eyes and letting out a deep breath.

"You have a sister?"

I took another deep breath and ignored the churning in my stomach. "Had. I had a sister."

"Oh." She stopped, speechless for once. "I'm sorry..." she said quietly, looking down. I could see the pain in her eyes. She knew death as well as I did.

I caught her gaze. "Don't be. It wasn't your fault."

She blinked, "What happened?" Then she put a hand over her own mouth, stunned that she had said that. "I'm so sorry...I didn't mean to-"

I laughed softly, seeing her expression. "It's ok. I learned how to deal with it." It was true. I knew how to handle it now. After a second, I continued to talk. "When we were taken from the orphanage, she was three. I was one. I don't remember anything, but she told me what she knew.

I had dirty blonde hair and light blue eyes. She was pretty much the opposite. She had really dark hair that fell to below her shoulders and bright green eyes. I used to believe that she was the most beautiful person in the universe."

Nudge shot me a glance, taking in my olive skin, dark, almost black hair, and dark blue eyes.

"For awhile, they didn't tamper with our DNA at all. They would take us out of our cages for tests and draw our blood. They'd make us run through mazes and solve problems to earn our meals." I felt Nudge shudder, rather than see it.

"Keep going." she whispered. I could almost feel the horror that arose in her at just the memory of the White Coats. Almost.

"One day they took her out and she didn't come back for ages. I thought she was dead. About a month later, they threw something into the cage with me.

I backed up against the cage wall, terrified.

The creature growled and snapped its jaws at the scientists, who locked the cage door and backed away. It turned to me and came closer. I had no where to go. The cage wall was at my back and I couldn't fight an animal, no matter how many fights I had already been in.

'Hey, it's me!'

It was my sister. She had silvery fur all over her body, but her arms still ended in hands. She had an elongated nose and flashing fangs.

'What did they do to you?' "

I stopped talking, feeling a knot in my stomach.

"Did they turn her into an Eraser?" Nudge asked me, confused.

"They tried." I explained. "A couple weeks after she had been brought back, a full grown Eraser opened the cage and grabbed us both. We fought him. She even bit him, but he didn't notice.

"We were brought to the yard. The one where the Erasers were trained to take down their prey. They put her behind a swinging door and pressed a button.

A buzzer went off, and the gate shot open. Katie leaped out and started running, only a few strides in front of the blood-thirsty wolf-men behind her. She had almost made it to the other end when one came out in front of her.

I was forced to watch as she fought them off for a while. I closed my eyes as they closed in on her, growling and foaming at the mouth.

Then they took me to a lab room. I didn't even fight. They shot me full of something, and I was out cold in seconds. When I woke up, I had wings and I looked like this." That wasn't exactly the whole truth, but it was close enough. Seeing how much the Flock hated Erasers and White Coats...well, I didn't want them to see me like they did one of them.

Nudge was silent. It was probably a first for her...or maybe a second...

"I'm sorry if I dumped all of this on you..." I said, hoping that she wasn't going to be scared of me or something.

"No. It's alright..." she said quietly. "I'm glad you told me." A funny feeling lifted off me. It was weird, but I recognized it as relief. It felt good to talk to another…semi-human being.

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-Dreamer