The Renegade

Chapter 11

I sighed a silent breath of relief. I had no idea why, but I was insanely glad that the flock was staying. Well, most of the flock anyway. The younger ones I could do without. Especially Nudge. I thought, turning an ear to Nudge, as she and Angel huddled around a lantern Fang had put out in the center of the cave. It had been there for almost an hour now and for almost an hour Nudge had never stopped talking.

Did I get a say in what light gets turned on in my cave? Did I invite them to blind me during the only time where it's dark enough for me to see? I sighed again and jumped as I felt a hand slide lightly over my shoulder.

"You're breathing funny? You sure you're okay?" Iggy said sitting down on the sandy floor with me. I curled my knees into my chest and rested my chin on them.

"I'm fine… I'm just having a… bad day." I said, rolling my eyes at my lack of better words. I looked at him, barely seeing the shadow's that fell over his face, I figured he was smiling. I almost smiled back, even if he couldn't see it, but a wave of regret took over me. Somehow it felt wrong…

No… Truence… It was him… something's wrong with him, I couldn't help but think something isn't right. I closed my eyes and thought deeply. Truence and I never could literally read each other's minds, unlike Angel I was beginning to find out, but we always had a sense of knowing how the other was feeling. Right now the feeling was not good. I turned my head away from Iggy over to the ledge of my cave to clear my thoughts. Max and Fang sat on the edge, their feet dangling over it. I cursed that stupid lantern again after not being able to tell if they were holding hands or not. Why did we even have that lantern anyway?

Using 'we' again… dang it… I really need to get Truence being gone through my head…

But he's not 'gone'… he's just not here…

"I can't remember the last time the flock had a good day… maybe yesterday but we were all pretty exhausted." Iggy said with a small laugh, his voice bringing me back to reality. Max and Fang returned into the light of the cave, blinding me to their whereabouts.

"Aven. Iggy. You want to join us over here? We need to talk about some things." Max asked turning to Iggy and I.

Oh, boy. Things? I was in trouble now… I thought dimly. I stood up, helped Iggy up, and then, still holding his hand, lead him over to the rest of the group.

"Aven, we need to know what's really going on here with you and Truence." She said once we were all sitting down around the lantern.

And so begins one extremely long period of painful memories and old stories. I thought and started to explain exactly how we had gotten here.

"I just remember waking up in a lot of pain, I was pretty worked over, so was Truence but he flew me up to this cave and we rested up and just stayed here. I have no idea how we even got here, Truence would never tell me." A hint of sadness entered my voice involuntarily. "He had saved my life so many times before, I just never pushed him to tell me anything. From what I could tell it must have been pretty bad." I paused, waiting for a possible reaction. "You guys know about it, though?" They all fell silent for a moment and I felt the tension building. After a few seconds Max started to explain about the School. The testing, how we were 'made', how they had escaped, the works. I stifled my thoughts on how Truence and I got away and why I couldn't remember a single thing about it and continued to listen.

"What about the picture on the newspaper? What were you doing?" Nudge asked after Max was done.

"Well… Truence and I are kind of urban legends around here. We're like Big Foot or the Loch Ness Monster; some people don't believe in us, some do. That was the only time someone actually got us on camera. We attract tourists like crazy but I don't really know why they come. That's how we got all our stuff; we stole it from campers and tents."

"Why did you try to steal from them while they were in the camper?" Max asked skeptically. I was hoping they wouldn't ask that.

"It's kind of… we never wanted to do that but once sightings of us stopped so did the tourism. Then we have no way to get food." I told them, "We need to stir everyone up every once in a while to keep them coming. Unfortunately, that time they had a camera."

"What did you do?" Gazzy asked excitedly.

"We used fear tactics. When they can see you be loud, keep your wings out so you look bigger, and lock eyes with whoever you're after. When they can't see you be beyond silent, stay in shadows, and come out when and where they least expect it. Everyone claims to not be afraid of us but when they see us face-to-face they almost always run."

"What happens when they don't?" Max asked, a serious tone in her voice.

"Once a man pulled a rifle on us, he shot Truence in the wing and was coming after me but Truence… when he gets angry there's no stopping him. The man and his wife were dead when we left." I finished quietly, "I know it was wrong but we have to look out for ourselves too. Being separated, this is exactly what we never wanted to happen."

"The family with that took this picture didn't live long either did they?" Max asked, taking the newspaper and looking at it intensely. I shook my head, letting it drift down so I would be seeing my feet, if I could see at all. "Truence killed them? Or did you?"

"Out of all of them? He killed all but one… there was this one man… he just wandered through the woods for two days. He passed other hikers but never spoke to anyone; he just walked around all day and slept in trees at night. On the third morning we found his shirt and sweatshirt ripped to shreds under the tree he had slept under but he was nowhere around. We went down to check it out and couldn't find him." I was stopped by a sudden flashback. The pure black, hateful eyes that belonged to the pale, tattooed body of the man rushed towards Truence from behind. I didn't fear anything an attack from a normal human didn't faze either of us. Then there was a flash of light that blinded me from seeing whatever the man was holding.

"He attacked Truence with a knife." I almost added in that I was terrified but figured I had publicly humiliated myself enough for one day. "He stabbed him in between the wings and I had to kill him. We never killed anyone just for the sake of killing someone." I said defensively, feeling the emotion in my voice rise.

"Is that how… why Truence is gone?" Max asked.

"No, he was bleeding but he still could fly. He flew himself pretty easily back here and… basically told me how to stop the bleeding and everything from there." I briefly relived the most horrific moment of my life. If he would've passed out I wouldn't have had a clue of what to do and he could have died. "I'm not proud of what we have to do for to live but it's either us or them."

Max nodded but stopped when she notice I could see her. After out little 'meeting' it was nearly pitch black outside and I longed so deeply to go fly through the liquid night air. Max force the little ones to sleep on the floor using the only two blankets I had. I had no idea what the rest of them were going to do. I was fine; I loved the cool darkness of the night and life in a cave. It's part of the bat thing, what can I say? Max and Fang stayed by the lantern and talked about me. I tuned into their discussion between Iggy and my conversation about sight. Apparently I have never seen the colors yellow or pink or any pastel versions of any colors. I don't really know what he's talking about. He actually saw normally for a while, I never have. He fell asleep while trying to find the best way to describe colors. I tried too but it really is almost impossible.

I stopped my thoughts and stared at the dark ceiling that hung above me. It felt good to talk to someone again.

Author's Note: Hope you like the chapter! Sorry I took forever to update I've had a rough week. Between my Dad going to the hospital, the school year ending, and (smiles) meeting a really nice guy, I've been pretty busy for the past… long time. Anyway, hope you like it and please leave a review to let me know!