Chapter 2: Sleep Talk

Will POV

"Ok I'll see you tomorrow!" I called.

"Yeah tomorrow! See ya Will!" They called back.

I was just getting back from a party, celebrating the end of GCSEs. Unfortunately someone called the police on us and we had to split. Fast! I had had a couple of drinks but was fine. Hopefully my parents won't notice. Hopefully.

I fumbled with the key as I was putting it in the door. I walked in to see my father, sitting at the bottom of the stairs, staring at me angrily. Crap, what I do?

"Where have you been?" he asked loudly. "You were supposed to baby-sit!" Crap!

"I was out." I said innocently. "Celebrating, you know. No more exams. Start of summer holidays, no more school and all that..." My father looked at me suspiciously. Then his body relaxed.

"Well I suppose that is a good enough excuse." He said quietly. "But next time you say you are going to baby-sit, don't go and make other plans ok?"

"Ok, but you knew my Exams were finished, you think I would stay in and baby-sit and not go out and celebrate?" I smiled.

"I suppose." He mumbled. I loved proving my dad wrong, he was hardly ever wrong. "In that case I suppose I should give you this." He stood up and pulled his wallet out of his pocket, and handed me some notes from it.

"Whoa, Dad this is like £50!" I exclaimed.

"Yeah, err, congratulations and, yeah, just don't waste it all in a day ok?" he said, smiling. My dad was alright actually. Just wish I could have a bit more freedom.

"Is Emily still up?" I asked.

"Yes" My father replied. "You know she won't go to bed till she's seen you. She's in her room waiting"

Emily is my little sister. She's only 2 but she was pretty damn smart for a 2 year old. She was starting to talk before she was 1 and could count to 10 by the time she was 18 months.

I went up the stairs and into her room. "Will!" She cried happily, "Read me this!" she said holding up a Winnie the Pooh book. Her favourite. I laid her down in her cot and sat on the chair next to it and began to read.

Will POV

"Someone's coming!" the little one said, Angel I think her name was. We were all quiet then we heard someone outside the door. It opened and in walked a Werewolf. At least it looked like a werewolf. It had claws, snout, sharp teeth and... Wings?

It had wings too! Not bird wings like ours, but wings like bats' wings, leathery, and hairy. They were quite misshapen and looked damaged.

"Hello Will" the Werewolf smiled evilly. "We've got someone here for you."

In walked a small girl who you could tell was scared for her life and had been crying. My sister.

"Emily!" I Cried. "Emily!"

"Will!" She came over and tried to hug me through the bars. I tried to hug her back but it was awkward. I could see Max looking over at us then at the werewolf.

I felt something on her back as I was hugging her. Soft, and silky to the touch. I ran my hands over them and realised what they were. Wings! They'd put them on her too!

"What have you done to us?" I shouted at the Werewolf.

"Nothing worse than what we could do to you! Now shut up!" He roared.

"What's going on Ari?!" Max shouted. "Tell us!"

"Well seeing as you asked so nicely." He grinned evilly. "These here are the latest additions to your little 'Flock', as you so amply named it" He grinned evilly.

"You won't get away with this you know!" I said. "Our parents will be looking for us! Your going to go to prison for a long time!" The Werewolf, Ari, just grinned even wider.

"They won't be looking for you anymore. It's been 6 months since we took you." There's that grin again.

"You're not a very good actor you know? Of course they'll be looking for us, you took us out of our home, our parents will realise we're gone and call the police! I've watched CSI they'll find out who you are and where you took us like that!" I retorted, snapping my fingers."Why would they stop looking for us!?"

"We thought you'd disagree" he said slyly. He pulled a newspaper out of his back pocket. His jeans were ripped and torn, like the Hulk's clothes. He held it up so I could read the date. December 27th! But it was mid-June when they took us!

"What, you think I've never heard of Photoshop?" I said, trying to convince myself more than him. "Anyone can change something like that on a computer!"

"No that's about the right date" said Max. ""We were captured late August. That date seems about right..."

I looked from her, to Ari, to the newspaper, to Emily, who was still trying to hug me through the bars.

"Come on" said Ari, grinning yet again. "Well it's about time we got going. Places to go, people to see. You know how it is." He put his claws on Emily's shoulder and yanked her out of my grip.

"No!" we cried in unison. "No let her stay! Leave her alone!" I cried as they walked out the door and it was closed behind them. "Don't hurt her! PLEASE!" But they were already gone.

Ari POV

I could see him through the window, reading to his little sister. The parents were in the lounge watching TV. Perfect. We'd be in and out in less than two minutes and they'd be none the wiser.

I saw the boy put down the book, look down at his sister and sneak out the room. This was it.

"Right" I said to the 5 others on the roof, "Move!" We morphed into our Eraser forms, groaning as we did. It was a pretty painful experience, but necessary if we were get them. We unfurled our newly grown wings, jumped off the roof and glided onto the roof of their house.

"Ok everyone, not a noise. We go inside in 5 minutes, we get in, and we get out, if the parents get in the way, we kill them, but the kids must be caught alive! Do you hear me? Alive! The parents are expendable. Understand?" They all nodded their heads, as we moved towards the back of the house, on top of the boy's room.

I heard him come into his room and open one of his windows. He was heavy footed, as if he'd had something to drink. He was making this too easy for us.

I climbed onto his window sill, and saw him go under the covers of his bed. Time to go in.

Fang POV

"What do you think then? Do you think he's genuine? Because if not he's a damn good actor." I whispered to the others.

"No he's genuine." said Angel. "I read his mind when Ari came. He doesn't know anything."

Will was asleep in his cage. After Ari had left he was screaming for hours. Shouting insults and threats, pleading with them, begging them to let him and sister go. But they couldn't hear. Eventually he wore himself out and fell asleep. We had waited till we were sure he was fast asleep till we talked.

"What do we do?" I asked Max. Hopefully she would have thought of something by now. There was a long pause.

"I think we should help him." She replied finally.

"Are you crazy?!" I hissed.

"Fang's right, what do you mean help him? We don't know anything about him!" Iggy whispered.

"We know he was taken away from his family, experimented on, given wings! He's in it just as much as us. This isn't his fault. It's not liked he asked for this. Just because he's not familiar, doesn't mean he's not one of us." She retorted. No-one said anything. "Besides, maybe he can help us escape. Couldn't hurt to have him help us escape at least."

"I think we should help him too." Gazzy piped in. "I mean if Angel said he's genuine I've got not to believe that."

"Nudge?" Max asked.

"Yeah, same as Gazzy, he seems genuine, plus Angel says so." She said quietly.

"What do you think Fang?" Max asked me. I said nothing for a while. I was unsure of what to think, he could have had his memory wiped by the whitecoats, and be set to go off like a bomb. We know the whitecoats had done stuff like this before, but on the other hand he could be genuine. Finally I said, "I think we should help him, but not trust him yet. Have someone keep watch on him. Make sure he isn't a mole"

"Ok then, majority rule. We help him for now." Max said.

"Well, I think your making a mistake..." Iggy said. I wanted to say I agreed with him but I said nothing. Max was right. It couldn't hurt to have another pair of wings on the team, even if it is temporary. But something about him said I shouldn't trust him. How could he have 6 months missing from his life? Something must have happened to him in that time. I shouldn't trust him. Not yet...

Will POV

I closed the book and looked down at her. She was sound asleep. I picked her up and lifted her into her cot. "Goodnight Emily." I whispered as I walked out the room and closed the door quietly behind me, being sure not to wake her up.

I walked down the hall and into my room. It was only now that I realised how tired I was. I turned off the light and fell on the bed, with my clothes still on. I was going to have a wash, but that could wait till morning. Instead I pulled the covers over me.

I was starting to drop off when I heard something at the window. I ignored it, but a few seconds later, I heard the crash of glass. I poked my head out of the duvet and saw them. At first just figures in the dim light, but as my eyes adjusted I saw they looked bulkier, and ore animal like. They looked hairy, misshapen, and from what I could tell, they were wolves. At least four of them, with wings none-the-less! Was this a dream? I must have been a lot more tired than I thought. Then one of them lunged towards me, and grabbed me. I was about to scream, but it covered my mouth and stuck a needle in my neck.

My vision started to blur immediately. I saw some of them leave my door, and heard Emily crying. I could hear my parents shouting, but I couldn't make out what they were saying. I heard a roar, and a loud crash.

My vision left me completely, and all that was left, was darkness.

Iggy POV

I was on watch, or at least listen. It had been at least 4 hours since I started my shift, and thought about waking one of them to relieve me, but they were all so tired, after the commotion of today, I thought I'd just let them sleep. I could hear their breathing, it was slow and regular. Also Gazzy was regularly passing wind which was a sure sign he was asleep, and if none of the others noticed, then that meant they were sound too. I heard someone stirring across the room. Will.

He was waking up, but I decided to let him talk to me first. It was about five minutes before he finally spoke.

"Hey" he whispered.

"Hi" I replied. I paused. "I'm Iggy"

"Will" he answered back. There was another pause.

"What's that smell?" he asked, sounding like he was cringing. I laughed.

"That's just Gazzy. He has a tendency to make bad smells. Wreaks havoc with my nose." I chuckled. He laughed as well, but the type where he didn't really understand. He obviously hadn't looked me in the eyes yet. If he had he'd see they were glazed over. There was another awkward silence.

"We've, err, we've decided to try to help you. Get out. Get your sister" I said.

"Really?" he asked confused. "Why?"

"Because, you're in it just as much as us. We know what its like to be taken away from your family, have your life taken away from you, have wings fused onto your back." I said. "Have you tried moving them yet?"

"No, I haven't really got the chance." He replied.

"Well you should try. They'll get stiff and start aching otherwise." I advised.

"Well, they're already doing that but... may as well give it a go." He sighed. Then I heard him struggle and moan, and heard his wings open and start flapping, but stopped after a few flaps.

"It hurts." He said through his teeth.

"It will for now. After a while it will stop." I said. "How many cages over are you?"

"There's one empty one in between us, why?" he asked confused.

"I'm blind, I can't see you. But my other senses are heightened as a result. If you give me one of your feathers, I'll be able to recognise you by feeling your wings from now on, just like I do with the others." I said.

"Oh." He said, shocked. I could practically feel his eyes locking on mine, and heard a short intake of breath. "Err, yeah sure." I heard him pluck out a feather and him wince. "Here." I leaned out and felt around for the feather. Taking it I ran my hands across and around it and found it smooth like Nudge's but slightly stiffer and sturdier. "Thanks" he said.

"For what?" I frowned.

"Just thanks." I heard him lean back and from then on we were silent. I eventually heard him drop off to sleep again. He seemed nice but there was something about him which told him not to trust him entirely. It was probably too early to tell though. I heard Max stirring.

"Hey Ig." She mumbled. "Do you want me to take over?" She said sleepily.

"No, I don't think we need to watch him. But if you feel it's necessary." I sighed. I put my head down on the concrete floor and slowly but surely, nodded off as well.