Author's Note: WARNING. The ending to this, in my eyes at least, is pretty brutal. Sorry if it spoils it, but be prepared.
Chapter 22: Life As We Knew It
Will POV
I was staring out of the window of the car, watching the buildings go by. I had a giant grin on my face. I remembered every house, noticing the changes to the shops, a new set of playground equipment put in the park. I was so happy. The happiest I had been in months, maybe my whole life. Happy that my nightmare was over, happy that everything was okay, happy to finally be coming home.
"Will?" My father asked me from the driver's seat. "You alright back there?"
"Yeah, I'm good." I said, still smiling.
"Sorry your mother's not here too. She had to stay at the house and look after Emily. They're both really looking forward to seeing you again."
"I know. It's okay, I'm just happy to be home." I replied.
"I'm happy your home too." He said sincerely, smiling at me through the rear view mirror.
We turned left, and we were here, back at my house, back home. I could see it across the road. It was there. Exactly as I remembered it. Except for the dozen or so news reporters situated outside it.
I stepped out of the car and was quickly bombarded with questions and having microphones pushed into my face. "How does it feel to be home?" "What is your relationship with the flying children?" "Is it true you have wings too?" were just some of the questions I was able to decipher, before my father pushed his way in front of me.
"Okay, okay! PLEASE!" he shouted, holding his hands up, trying to get their attention. "My son has been through a terrible ordeal, and will not be answering any of your questions, and neither will I. Now if you will please, my son would like to go home, and have some privacy for now. Will may at some point in the future, reveal the details of what has happened, but that will be entirely up to him, when or if that will happen. Thank you!"
We pushed out way through the reporters, camera's flashing all around us as we did, before we made it to the front door, and entered.
"Wow, Dad, that was good." I commented on his speech.
"Yeah, well, I've had a bout a years worth of practice." He said. "Come on. Let's go see your Mum."
Three weeks later, and my life was slowly returning to normal. The reporters had backed off after I had an interview with a national newspaper, in which I told them I didn't remember much of anything about my kidnapping until about a week before I turned myself in, stating I had amnesia at the time, and couldn't remember I had been kidnapped. I said, I had never been to USA to my knowledge except for a holiday when I was 4, and the kids I was seen with in Birmingham, were a group of homeless children I had attached myself to after finding waking up with Emily, alone in the city. I said that they did look like the kids who had been spotted with wings, but I knew nothing of it.
When asked if I had wings I said "No, I don't have wings. That'd be ridiculous."
"Would you show me your back, to prove it?" he asked in reply.
"You want me to take off my shirt? What are you, some kind of sicko?" I told him. He dropped it after that, and suffice to say, that part didn't appear in the article.
I did tell my parents the true details of what happened, and at first they were sceptical, when I showed them my wings, they had to believe me. We decided it best to leave it be, and to not seek out a Doctor to remove them. When I was older, I felt the need; I would reveal I had wings to the world. For now, I just wanted to be normal.
On the subject of my parents, the reason my mother wasn't there to pick me up, was as she was 4 months pregnant! I was thrilled when they told me, and they told me they were going to move home, as there were too many bad memories here. I quickly agreed.
I was sitting on the computer in the study, surfing the net, and listening to music. It felt so good to do something normal like this. Although I was happy, I felt like I had a hole in me. I still felt terrible for betraying the flock, and although I had been extremely busy getting my life back in order, they were never far from my thoughts.
I scrolled through the music list, looking for something to cheer me up, when at the bottom of the playlist, I saw a song I didn't recognise. It didn't have a band or album name, and was simply titled "Click me." Curious, I played it, and was treated to silence. I tried to skip ahead to later on in the song, but my mouse wouldn't move. The whole screen had frozen, except for the music counter at the top, slowly ticking away. It said the song lasted for 7 minutes.
I was worried it was a virus, so I tried Control Alt Delete, but it did nothing. I tried turning off the computer, and even pulled the socket out of the wall. And yet it did nothing. I was about to head down the stairs and ask my father to see if he could figure it out, when I heard a voice.
Will?
I expected to see my father standing in the doorframe, but there was no-one there. I looked around the room, but I was alone.
Will, can you hear me?
I realised I still had my headphones in, and looked at the screen.
Hello? Will, say something, I know your there. Oh come on you run down, good for nothing... it said, followed by some loud banging noises, and static.
"Hello?" I said hesitantly.
Ah! Excellent, it's worked. Hello Will. How are you?
I looked at the screen, the counter ticking away, showing 1 minute and 3 seconds now. "Who is this?" I asked, confused.
Oh I'm fine thanks, yourself? It answered mockingly. Jeez, people in your time, they just have no manners do they? ... Anyway, surely you recognise my voice?
I pulled the headphones out of my ears, and looked at them, hearing the voice from them saying faintly, Will come on, put those back in and talk to me.
I put the headphones back in, and said "Sorry, I don't recognise your voice. Should I?
Well, last time you met me, it was rather fleeting. And I didn't really say much to you in particular. I'll just re-introduce my self then I suppose... It's me! The Dr.!
"Wait, that weird hobo from Birmingham?" I asked ludicrously.
That's me! Funnily enough, that's not the first time someone's described me in that way.
"How on earth did you get on my iTunes?!"
Not on earth actually I'm on the planet of Kalgoorlie. Well the space station orbiting Kalgoorlie, but it's all just referred to as Kalgoorlie anyway...
"Wait, Kalgoorlie is in Australia. I saw it on Lost, on TV." I replied
Well yes of course I know that! It's in Australia, but it's can be a planet too...
"Wait this is mental. I'm talking to a bloody song that claims to come from space. How do you know what I'm saying?" I asked frustrated.
Well I can hear you. Don't try and make me explain how, it's far too complicated for you to understand. Besides, you gave me a run down of what you were going to say when you told me about this.
"Wait, when I gave you a run down? What are you talking about?" I said exacerbated. The song still had 2 and a half minutes to go. Oh god.
Ah, yes, you said you'd say that. I meet you in the future and now I'm transmitting this into the past. Oh, you said I'd say that too! I'm getting good at this.
"What?!"
Oh yes that too! This is where you say "What do you want?" by the way. You'd better say it. If you don't you might just destroy life as we know it. Or knew it. I'm not sure what it would be if you're in the past.
"What do you want!?" I shouted, getting extremely annoyed with his ranting.
Good boy! I am supposed to warn you that... Ooh now, I've got to get this word for word. I have to warn you, that they still expect you to finish the mission. If you don't soon, they will kill them for real this time. Yep, that's defiantly right. Of course, I know you're not going to, or I wouldn't be talking to you now, but apparently I've already done it, so I have to do it to you now. It's all pretty much a big bubble of confusion that's set to pop.
"Wait, they want to still do the mission. But how? I'm not part of the flock anymore. And who'll they kill? And how can they kill someone again?" I asked confused
Well, where I'm from it's quite easy to kill someone more than once, but that's neither here nor there. Besides, I can't really say anything more than that. I don't really know what else to say now. I suppose I'll just have to wing it. He started laughing, but then stopped when he didn't hear me laughing. You see what I did there? Wing it? 'Cos of the flying bird kid thing? No? Ah never mind... I had best be off anyway. Got some stuff to do. I might not talk to you again, but I'm positive you'll talk to me, so till then, I shall bid you adieu.
I sat there in silence, confused by what had just happened.
Well goodbye then!
"Uh, bye." I said, bemused.
Tsk, kids today... No manners!
From then on there was nothing but silence, for the last 42 seconds of the song. I stared at the screen, expecting something else to happen. But nothing did. The clock ran out, my PC returned to normal, and I just stared at the screen, dumbfounded.
A week later, I woke up to the sound of screaming. My eyes snapped open instantly, and I sat up in my bed instantly. I listened out for any noises but couldn't here anything. It had been short and sounded like it had been cut off half way through. I would have dismissed it, except it sounded like my mother.
I looked at the clock on the other side of the room. 5:42 AM. The sun was just rising outside, and I could hear the birds chirping. I pulled a t-shirt on, and walked over to my door, and opened it slowly, so as not to make it creak. I listened out for any sounds, but hear nothing. I crept along the hall to the top of the stairs, and looked down. I saw a silhouette move through the shadow of the doorway to the lounge.
My body tensed. I began to hear some someone talking, but couldn't make it out. I made my way down the stairs, slowly. I made it to the bottom, having to jump the last 3 steps, or risk making the stairs creak. I landed softly, and walk to the door and stood with my back against the wall beside it.
"But if he isn't here to see it, he might not go back to the flock. If he see's us doing it, he'll know how serious we are, and that he has to go back." I recognised the voice instantly. Ari.
"No-one should have to witness the death of their parents. No-one should have to witness the death of anyone. I don't even know why I'm here." I heard Jeb reply. The death of their parents? What? I stepped into the doorway, and saw them with their backs to me, Ari in human form, Jeb, leaning over 2 figures on the sofa.
"You're here, because The Director said I need someone to keep me in line, Dad." Ari replied.
"Hey! What are you doing?" I shouted. They turned around and looked shocked to see me. I saw both my parents, bound, blindfolded and gagged on the sofa behind them I started to walk toward them, urging the power forward.
"Ah ah ah, no you don't!" Ari said threateningly, grabbing my mother, who was unconscious, and morphing his hand, holding a claw up to her neck. "One more step, and I rip her head off."
I stopped, and glared at him, feeling the power coming forward. "Now, you had better not go into that crazy macho mode you have Will, because if you do, both of them are going to die, right here, right now in front of you Will." Ari said forcefully, pushing a claw into my mother's neck, drawing blood.
I thought about this for a moment. I wanted to tear them limb from limb. But they would get to my parents before I could do that. "It's not that simple. I can't control it when I'm threatened." I told them stiffly.
"Well your just going to have to learn how to control it Will." Jeb said calmly. I stared at him, and saw the seriousness in his eyes. I closed mine, and concentrated, like I would to bring the power on, but instead, I willed it away. And it worked. I was surprised; I thought it would be a lot harder than that.
"Okay," I said, opening my eyes. "I'm calm. Now you're going to tell me why you want to kill my parents. I only just got them back." That was when I realised what The Dr. had meant when he said "Kill them again." I had thought I had lost them before. Now I was going to lose them again.
"You weren't supposed to have them back yet. You were supposed to split up the flock first." Jeb said.
"But I tried! They found me out!" I cried. "What did you want me to do? If I stayed, Fang was going to kill me!"
"You should have figured out a way, instead of just quitting. Now you've ruined it. Now we're going to have to do this." Ari said before suddenly swiping his claw across my mother neck.
"NO!" I screamed as I watched her body fall to the floor, dead. "NO NO NO NO!" I was going to be sick. This couldn't be happening. My vision left me for a moment, my head was spinning. "I'll kill you!" I shouted, starting towards Ari.
He grabbed my father, who was thankfully unconscious as well; oblivious to what had just happened. "Not if you want to see your Father die as well, you won't." He retorted. He looked unhappy, his face was green. He didn't look like he was all too pleased with what he had just done.
"How?" I sobbed. "How could you do that? She was pregnant. She was going to have a baby!"
"What?" Ari muttered. "They never told me that." He hissed to Jeb.
"What's done is done." He replied. "Will, we did not want to have to do this, we are just following our orders."
"Why? Why are you doing this to me? Why did you pick me out of thousands of people?" I cried, trying not to look at my mother's body on the floor, or the blood seeping into the carpet.
"You were never picked Will. You're just unlucky. You were born into it. Just like your parents were."
"What do you mean?" I asked him.
"These people here, they aren't your parents Will. When Max read that your parents were dead, it was true. They've been dead for 3 years now." Jeb explained. "These people here adopted you when you were a baby. Your parents were like you, they had wings. You're what we call the second generation. Your parents were the first."
I was stunned. If I had been expecting anything, I wasn't expecting that.
"But... but what about Emily. Is she...?"
"She's your real sister. Your biological Mother died giving birth to her. Your Father soon after. She was always going to be here with you though." Jeb told me.
"But, I remember the pregnancy. I remember her coming come for the first time!" I retorted.
"All faked, for your benefit." He said. I stared at him in silence. I was adopted? My real parents were dead. The woman I thought was my mother was dead too? This was all too much to take in. Then I realised my Dad was still in danger.
"Please, don't hurt my Dad. I'll go back to the flock. I figure out a way to split them up! Just don't hurt him!" I pleaded.
"I'm sorry Will. But you've been punished for not following your orders. We'll be punished if we don't follow ours." Jeb said to me sorrowfully. He then looked at Ari, and said simply, "Do it."
"No please! Don't please!" I shouted.
Ari hesitated for a moment before closing his eyes, and swiping his claw across my Father's neck the same as he did to my Mother.
The last thing I remember was the power suddenly flowing freely through my body, all around me. I could feel it in my veins, through my heart, through my soul. My vision faded to red, and everything fell into a hazy blur as I let the power take over...