6.Jasmin
I cursed under my
breath, shooting a sideways glance at Mum, painting in the corner.
It
had been three days since Charlie had last emailed me. Something told
me he was in trouble, something had happened. I logged off my email,
and got up, intending to get a coke from the kitchen. I was halfway
through the living room when something caught my attention.
"There's been unconfirmed sighting of a Caucasian boy, with wings, at this very Alaskan airport. He was seen flying out of the car park. A man, for unknown reasons, was chasing him." Yelled a TV reporter.
I looked at the TV screen, they were showing a sketchy video, maybe from a mobile, of a boy, about twelve. Running from a man with brown hair and heavily tinted glasses. The kid had brown hair too. As I watched, he got to the end of the car park. He seemed to glance around him, checking for people, before bending his knees and leaping into the air, snapping out bronze-coloured wings. I caught some sound, it was the man yelling at the boy. But everything was lost under wind, and the excited muttering of the cameraperson.
The news reporter starting carrying on about how it was a modern miracle and all that stuff. I just stared at the TV, trying to make sense of all the thoughts flying through my head. I heard a noise behind me. Mum came in, her face grim and empty.
She stepped close to me and alarm bells went off in my head. I kept my expression empty, balancing on the balls of my feet. Ready too run.
"What?" I asked.
"Sorry about this Jas." She said, swinging her fist at my head.
I ducked and looked at her, and stood backwards. I could hear feet running from all directions.
"Why?" I whispered.
I looked up, and saw the panel. You see, our house is two stories high. And in the middle, right above me is a tinted glass panel.
"Jas, no, we're not gonna hurt you."
She's seen me look up, she was stepping towards me, the door started to open.
"You already have." I said, snapping out my wings and flying straight up.
It took me about three seconds to get to the window. I hovered under it and punched it as hard as I could. It didn't break. I looked down; there were about fifty men below me. I punched it again. Still nothing. They were up the stairs, surrounding me, coming in the windows. Everywhere. Our house was swarming with men in black suits. Crap.
I kicked at the window in frustration. Now I was stuffed. It didn't even crack. I heard a scuttling on the roof and looked up to see a figure above the glass. Then it shattered. The dropped through the window and grabbed hold of my neck, sitting in between my wings. They were choking me, they were locked on, the same way a drowning person grabs their rescuer. I screamed as their weight started pulling me down.
I beat my wings as hard as I could. Fighting to stay in the air. I was only about ten metres up, but it was taking forever. I was falling. I couldn't stop it, couldn't even slow it. He still had his chokehold around my neck. Still falling. My wings were catching the air and dragging painfully, I couldn't breathe. Still falling.
We were a metre from the floor; I heard a scream and realized it was me. Then we hit. Did you know when you hit concrete from about ten metres up, it's about a 7 on the extreme pain scale. Even flowing slowly. 10 would be your arm being sawed off without any form of anesthetic.
My knees hurt like fire. I had been trying to land on my feet, but I had 90+ kg on my back. I had landed on my knees, then twisted backwards falling on the man. I fell on my side, gasping for air and he let go. I rolled away from him and crushed one of my wings under me. It went crunch. It hurt almost as badly as my knees. I tried scrambling too my feet, but I got stuck at straightening my knees. I yelled out as fresh white-hot agony swept over me again.
I hand grabbed my shoulder, and tried to push me off balance. I nearly fell. Agony forgotten. I pushed upwards, and finally got to my feet. The hand on my shoulder was still there, so I pushed my wings forward, knocking it off with my good wing. I jumped into the air and started flying. OOOOOOOWWWWWWW. My wing started to hurt, really badly. God it hurt. I looked sideways at it, and wished I hadn't. A bone looked broken, it was stuck out at a weird angle. I wouldn't get far like this.
I finally got back to the window and flew through it. I landed awkwardly on the roof. Oh no. Oh noooo. I felt like sitting down and crying. It had all been for nothing. There were about ten men on the roof. And they had nets. I wouldn't be getting out of this. Well, looks like its toasted bird-kid for dinner tonight, I thought.
A man stepped forward. He had brown hair and tinted glasses.
"When are you kids gonna learn to be sensible?" he said.
I could tell from his voice it wasn't a question. His voice was cold, and had an American accent.
"Don't you know," I snarled, "I'm a teenager. I don't do sensible."
I don't know why I said it. Just reflex I guess. But he sure took it badly. He slapped me in the face and bundled me onto the roof. He put his booted foot onto my stomach.
"Jeez, watch the wing." I said sarcastically. He ignored me.
"You haven't realized yet, have you?" he asked.
"Realized what? That you're crazy." I sneered.
"No. The five of you
have refused to obey authority, refused to be caught."
"What
do you mean?" I coughed out.
"You. Tried to smash out a window. Fell ten metres. Broke a wing bone. Even now you're still fighting, even though you know you're beaten. Nick got off a plane, tricked his was through security guards and ran away before he even knew we were after him. He left me, his father. Because he sensed something didn't he? Charlie fought off his Dad, and me, grabbed his dog and ran away too. Before he knew what we were after. He knew it too. You can all sense it can't you? But how?"
"What? The upcoming disaster, I've sensed it since I was twelve. When I found Charlie, it got stronger. I knew then you'd come for us," I admitted, "but I wasn't sure when, who, and why."
"It's strong isn't it? Very strong. Ariel almost got shot trying to escape. Flash, Fred, has killed a man. He knocked me and another out. But why are you so desperate? What is it?"
I shook my head stubbornly. He put most of his weight on my stomach. It really hurt. Add to that my wing, my knees and the fact it was about 35 degrees Celsius out.
"Why'd you try and bust out the window? Why did Flash fight us? You know something don't you? Tell me."
I couldn't, if he knew. I wasn't even sure of it. It was just, so unlikely.
"Never." I snarled.
"Then I'm sorry." He snarled back, kicking me in the head. I felt a flash of pain, then the whole world went black.