It's time for another chapter. Just a quick recap, Mel has been kidnapped by a crazy whitecoat cowboy. There's a sentence you don't see everyday. *Cracks up and rolls around in the floor with tears in my eyes, clutching my sides, and gasping for breath* Okay, maybe it's not quite that funny, but it's still laughable. Anyway, this chapter isn't in a particular POV, but we do go back to the original flock (plus Elisabeth of course). Now, before I begin, I have something to say. Please, please, please, with a cherry and sprinkles and marshmellows on top, read 'NeoFlock' by Talon666. Trust me, you'll love it. It's very good and extremely well written. Think about it? Alright, here's Chapter 3, but keep in mind what I said about 'NeoFlock'.
Iggy walked over to the kitchen sink and turned on the faucet. He listened to the rush of water for a second before sticking his hands under. A second later, he brought one hand out from under the faucet and reached for the soap dispenser. He pumped it once and felt the soap fall on his hand. He lathered and then rinsed. He sighed as he shut off the faucet and reached for a dish towel.
Even though he wouldn't admit it, he was getting anxious. Elisabeth and Mel hadn't come home yet and it was almost six. They should've been back hours ago. What could be going on? Was it traffic or… something else? He shuddered. No. Elisabeth wouldn't let that happen. They were ok. Just late. But…
His ears pricked at a sound. It was the sound of the van pulling into the driveway. He let out a sigh of relief and his heart rate returned to normal. He heard gravel crunch as… one person walked up the driveway? He listened again to make sure he wasn't imagining it. He heard one set of footsteps walk up the porch, but they weren't frantic. It didn't make sense. He heard the door creak open and waited for an explanation.
"Hey Ig." his wife said sweetly as she sat her purse down on the kitchen table. She walked towards him and kissed his cheek tenderly. "Dinner smells great. Everyone upstairs?"
He kissed her back, but he was confused. Elisabeth wasn't worried that Mel was gone. Or did she know? And why was she late?
"You're late." he stated, throwing the dish towel into the laundry hamper. He decided to ask the simplest question first.
"I had a meeting." she said, slowly. "I thought Mel would've told you about it." She didn't know.
"Elisabeth," he began, "Mel isn't home. I thought she was with you."
Elisabeth's face fell. She had thought Mel would come straight home. What could have happened? No, not that. "I told her to come straight home." she said, beginning to panic.
Iggy sensed Elisabeth was getting hysterical, so he grabbed her arms and tried to calm her down. "Now sweetie, we don't know for sure if she's been… Maybe Felecia talked her into going home with her. You know how persuasive she can be."
Elisabeth shook her head. "No, she would've called." She had always told her daughter to call if she was going to be late or had a change of plans and Mel never forgot once. Why would she just forget today?
Maybe it's the party planning. Elisabeth told herself, trying to remain calm. That's it. In all the excitement it must have just slipped her mind.
"I'm going to call Sara." she said, pulling her cell phone out of her pocket. "You're probably right. Mel told me Felecia had planned a birthday party for her tomorrow. No need to worry." She dialed the number and waited anxiously for Sara Richards to answer.
"Hello? Richards residence. Sara Richards speaking. How can I help you?" Sara Richards was the kind of person who had to have everything just so and Elisabeth struggled not to laugh whenever she called.
"Sara? It's me, Elisabeth Smith."
"Oh, Elisabeth. Well, this is a surprise. How are you and your…amusing husband doing?"
Iggy and Elisabeth were the only people in town who had only been married once. Sara had divorced her first husband after two years of marriage. "Young love never lasts." she said anytime someone brought it up. Her husband's first wife had died of cancer after they had only been married for a couple of years. Iggy and Elisabeth were seen as unusual and Sara, being the biggest gossip in town, always wanted to know if they were having problems.
"Oh, we're fine." Elisabeth said, hoping Sara noticed the edge to her reply. She didn't.
"Well, that's great, but if anything does happen then you know you can come to me. So, what do I owe the pleasure of this phone call? A little late don't you think?"
"I was just wondering if Mel was over there. After school I had a meeting and she walked home by herself. I thought maybe she came over there to talk to Felecia about her party." Elisabeth held her breath, hoping that Sara would tell her Mel was over there and that she was perfectly fine.
"Well, no she's not here." Sara said, shocked. "How long has she been missing? I could have Bill make a search party." Bill Richards was the Chief of Police. "Normally it would take the station 48 hours before they'd file a Missing Person's Report let alone organize a search party, but seeing as Melody is Felecia's best friend I think he can make an exception."
That was the last thing Elisabeth wanted. "Oh, wait Sara. Mel just walked in. She must have been walking around. She likes to be by herself sometimes." Elisabeth hurriedly lied. She was still good at making up stories when the occasion called.
"Oh ok then. Well I'll suppose I'll talk to you later." Sara said and Elisabeth hung up without saying goodbye.
"She's not there Iggy." Elisabeth said, on the verge of tears. She had already begun to shake. Iggy wrapped his arms around her, but it was doing very little. Her only child, her little girl, had undoubtedly been kidnapped by the School. Who knew what she was going through as they stood there and did nothing. What would they do?
"Iggy, we have to go after her." Elisabeth said, getting out of his grip. She ran upstairs to their bedroom. She needed to pack some things. She heard Iggy thunder upstairs after her as she threw open their door.
She had begun hunting down materials when Iggy walked in. "Elisabeth, we can't just leave now." he told her.
"Iggy, we have to." she told him as she continued to grab things and put them in a small backpack. "She's our daughter and they've taken her. We have to get her back. We have to bring her home." Didn't he understand? Why wasn't he helping her? Why was he telling her no?
"It'd look suspicious if we left." he stated logically. "Besides, we aren't as young as we were sixteen years ago. We may be genetic hybrids built to survive, but they never expected us to last this long. It'll be harder than when we were kids. And another thing, we don't even know where she is."
She turned to him, her eyes red with tears. "So, you're saying all we can do is leave our daughter in the clutches of raving lunatics who want to section her brain and torture her? I thought you cared about her, about me. That's why I married you, because I knew that if anything happened I'd be safe with you. Maybe I was wrong."
He dragged her to their bed and made her sit down. "Is that what you think? You think that I don't care about her or you? Elisabeth, I'm out of my mind with worry. When I think of all the things they could be doing to her at this very moment, it makes my skin crawl."
"You're not acting like it." she replied coldly.
Iggy sighed, trying to shake off her comment. "Look, when a child goes missing the prime suspects are the parents. If we don't report her missing, then the suspicion rises. If we also turn up missing, then that suggests that we have dumped her body somewhere and are trying to hide any evidence. Do you want to go to prison? How would that help Melody at all?" He waited for her to speak.
He was right of course, but what would they do? Maybe they should file a report, after all Felecia's father was the Chief of Police.
She voiced her opinion to Iggy, but he shook his head. "It won't help Mel. We may get out of going to prison, but she'll still be trapped."
"So what do we do then?"
"We wait until Felecia's party. When Mel doesn't show up, Felecia will call wanting to know why. We'll tell her Melody got mad at us and ran away. We'll tell her she said she was still angry over the bulimic thing and that she was going to her Auntie Val's." He had carefully formulated this plan while Elisabeth was on the phone with Sara.
"Okay, but how do we prove she's there? Felecia will want to talk to Mel to make sure she's ok. What'll we do then?"
Iggy grinned mischievously. "Gazzy." he stated simply. "We give her the Gasman's cell number."
Elisabeth was confused. How would that help anything? "And giving her Gaz's number helps how?"
"Remember his ability?"
For a moment Elisabeth thought he meant Gazzy's ability to knock people out with his stink. Then she remembered his ability to mimic voices and she got where Iggy was going with his idea. "Right, he could sound like Mel and Dr. Martinez, but Felecia knows Mel really well. She won't believe it for long."
Iggy grinned again. "Angel lives with Gazzy. She knows everything Felecia does. She can give him any information he needs to pull it off."
Elisabeth nodded. She had to give Iggy props, he had a good plan. "Ok. I don't like it, but you're right. This is the best thing we can do."
"She'll be fine." he whispered, rubbing her shoulders like he always did when she was scared or worried. "She has us for parents and had the whole flock to raise her. We've taught her everything she needs for survival. She knows how to cook, first aid, how to drive, how to fight, and everything else that could help her. She'll be fine."
In an instant, they were teenagers again and Iggy was comforting her before their big battle with the Director. Her lips found his and they began kissing. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight, never letting go.
A light tap on the door brought them out of the past. They stopped kissing and Elisabeth got up to open the door. She saw Gazzy standing in the hall with the house phone in his hand.
"It's for you. It's Mrs. Richards." Elisabeth took the phone and before she put it to her ear, Gazzy said, "Hey, where's Mel? Are we going to get this party started or what?"
Elisabeth motioned for him to come in and put the phone to her ear. "Hello?" she asked.
"Elisabeth? This is Sara Richards again. I just wanted to make sure Melody was ok."
Elisabeth sighed. Might as well tell her the lie now "Actually Sara, Mel got into a bit of a fight with us. It's over the bulimic thing."
"Oh, I'm so sorry. What happened?" she asked and Elisabeth knew she'd be hearing this story told all around town. She knew she'd be followed by whispers wherever she went.
"Uh, let's just say she's going to be living with her Auntie Val for awhile. She says that she understands her better than Jeff and I. I've already talked to Dr. Martinez and Mel's on her way there now." As Elisabeth told her lie, tears ran down her face.
"Well, I'm sure Felecia would like to keep in contact with Melody. They were close. Can I have the number?"
Elisabeth gave her the Gasman's cell number, said goodbye, and hung up. At least that was over.
"Okay, I would love to know what's up." Gaz said.
"We all would." said a voice from the doorway. It was Max. Everyone had heard the phone call and wanted to know why there wasn't a party going on downstairs and where Mel was.
"They've taken her." Elisabeth told them. "Itex, the School, whatever, they have Melody." Fresh tears rolled down her face and Nudge, Ella, and Angel rushed over to her, their arms wide open.
"So, what're we going to do?" Fang asked silently. They all knew this day would come, but it seemed that it came too soon. And on her birthday too.
"What can we do?" Iggy asked. "We aren't as agile. She'll be ok. We've taught her everything she needs to know. She can take care of herself."
Max nodded. "You're right, but hopefully she won't be alone. Maybe she'll find other bird kids."
"Yeah." Ella said. "Let's not loose hope completely. Maybe she'll escape. Maybe she'll come home."
Fang shook his head. "She's too much like us. She won't come home if she escapes. She'll try to finish what we started. If she finds any friends, she'll drag them into it too."
And everyone knew he was right. That night, they celebrated Melody's birthday and hoped that she was going to escape. She was, after all, a member of the flock. She would be fine, she was a survivor, but that didn't make them worry any less. In the back of their minds, they weren't so sure they'd ever see her again.
So, how did that sound? I didn't want this to have a whole lot of the flock, so I decided that they weren't going after Mel. It would just be too hard to cover up. Well, keep reading and reviewing. I'll update again soon.
