Yo, sup guys? Well, I was insanely bored, so I thought I'd put up this chapter for you. Things around here are pretty crazy (I won't bore you with the details.) and I just really needed to write to work out my frustration. My life is pretty much the reason why I love to read and write. It's an escape. I just have to get away from all of the madness. All of my friends tell me I should be an author and maybe I will 'cause I've got a heck of a lot to say. But, for right now, I'm just happy with my fanfiction. Speaking of which, I probably should get to that. But, before I do, I have great news. Talon666 is back. He has already told me he will begin work on 'NeoFlock' and 'Deadline' ASAP, so you might want to look at it if you haven't already. Okay, now on with the chapter!
Light had begun to creep into Iggy and Elisabeth's bedroom despite the closed curtains. The digital clock on the night stand switched from 5:59 to 6:00, way too early to be up on a Saturday morning.
They both slept, unaware of anything going on outside of their dreams. Perfectly oblivious to everything. Peaceful. Relaxed. Content. And they would stay this way until they woke up. Then reality would come rushing back to them and they'd have to put on happy masks to fool everyone, including themselves. But for the moment they dreamed.
The corner of Iggy's mouth twitched slightly. He was lying in his normal position, on his stomach, happily snoozing away. He looked peaceful in sleep. He looked like he did back when he was fourteen years old when he first met the woman lying next to him.
Elisabeth rolled over, her arm thrown across Iggy's still body. She had gotten over her childhood fear of sleeping off the ground with lots of help and assurance from Iggy. All she did anymore, when she wasn't working, was sleep. She was mostly tired and depressed, but it was unnoticeable in her sleep. She looked truly at peace, relaxed.
There wasn't a sound in the whole house except for their deep breathing. It wasn't unlike the way the house sounded when they were awake. They didn't talk much. Occasionally one of them would turn on the TV just for some noise, but they never watched. They usually just left the room after turning it on. That's why on that particular day when the phone rang, they were both immediately aware of it.
Iggy groaned sleepily and nudged Elisabeth who groaned back in response. "Phone." he mumbled, pulling the covers over his head and trying to fall back asleep.
Who could possibly be calling at this hour? Elisabeth wondered, still half asleep. If it was Sara Richards again Elisabeth thought she just might end up killing her. She reached over to the night stand and picked up the cordless phone.
"Mmm?" she asked, drifting.
"Mom?" a little voice quavered on the other end. Elisabeth was so tired she almost didn't hear the caller.
"Mel?" she asked tiredly. She wondered why Mel was calling this early. Then comprehension fully dawned on her. "Mel? Sweetie is that you?" She couldn't believe her ears.
"Yeah Mom. It's me." Her voice was shaky.
"Iggy!" She shook him, pulling the covers off of him.
He curled his body up, trying to keep warm. The room was freezing. "What?" he asked, trying to yank the covers out of her hand. He wasn't fully awake and hadn't heard a word Elisabeth had said.
"It's Mel!" She threw the covers on the floor so he couldn't get them and go back to sleep. "She's on the phone!"
"Mmm." Iggy moaned. "Tell her to call back later when we're awake." He rolled on his side and then comprehension fully dawned on him too. He shot up like a bullet. "Mel? Why didn't you say so? Is she ok? What's going on?"
Elisabeth rolled her eyes at him, knowing it was just a wasted effort. She got back to her daughter. "Melody baby, are you okay? Where are you?" She was praying that none of this was a dream. She couldn't bear waking up and finding out that none of this was real.
"I… I'm fine. I escaped. I think we're somewhere in… Arkansas."
"We?" Elisabeth asked. "You… you found others?"
"She found others?" Iggy repeated. "Put her on speaker phone, Elisabeth. I want to talk to her too."
"Hold on sweetheart. I'm putting you on speaker." She pulled the phone off her ear and pressed the speaker button. Melody's shallow, shaky breathing filled the room.
"Mel, it's me." Iggy said, anxious to hear his daughter's voice. He missed her so much.
"Daddy?" She hadn't called him that since she was seven.
He smiled. It warmed his heart to hear her say that again. "Oh sweetie, you don't know how wonderful it is to hear your voice again. We missed you."
"I missed you too." she said, her voice cracking. "It's… good to hear you too."
"You said you found others?" he asked curiously. He was trying to draw attention away from the way she sounded, like she was trying not to cry. He knew she wanted them to think she was tough, brave, just like them.
"Yeah. Jewel and Skye. Jewel's twelve and Skye's fifteen. Jewel's sweet, but Skye, well, he's… difficult."
"Are you bringing them back with you? When do you think you'll be home?" Elisabeth asked, happiness welling up inside her. She couldn't wait to call the flock. They'd have a huge dinner and everything.
Mel didn't answer. Elisabeth's happiness was shot down. She now understood.
"Mel? You there? Melody?" Iggy asked, panicked. Why wasn't she answering? What was happening where she was?
"I… I… can't." she finally managed to choke out. "They're hunting us. Heather Mason… she's the Director. And ter Borcht. And then there are these three bird kids who work for the Director: Tanner, Willow, and Flint. I… I'm probably leading them to us by calling but… I… I…" She paused. "I had to tell you. I didn't want you to worry about me." she finished strongly.
"You better get off then." Iggy said, swallowing hard. It was hard to hear that his daughter wasn't coming back home, but he realized that deep in his subconscious he had a strong feeling that she wouldn't. She was too much like Max and her mother. She didn't want to endanger her family. He had learned to accept that a long time ago.
"I know. I love you." she told them one last time.
"We do too sweetie." Elisabeth said tearfully. "Always remember that. We're with you in your heart." She still wasn't very good at expressing heartfelt emotions, but she thought that, even though it sounded a little cheesy, what she had just said would help her daughter.
"We have faith in you Mel." Iggy said, wishing she didn't have to ever hang up, wishing that this conversation would go on forever. But it couldn't and he knew that.
"I know that too." And she hung up.
Iggy hung up the phone and set it back down in its charger on the end table. He stared at it for a second, trying to keep Mel's voice in his head for just a little while longer.
Elisabeth leaned her head on his shoulder, tears glistening in her chocolate brown eyes. Iggy held her tight, feeling her shoulders come up and down as she shook and sobbed.
Just then, the doorbell rang, interrupting their sad, quiet moment, and Elisabeth sat up. She wiped the tears off her face, grabbed her hair bow off of the end table, and pulled her dark hair back into a sloppy bun.
Iggy felt her move and knew what she was going to do. "You don't have to get it. I can. I will." He yawned, still very tired, and ran his fingers through his messy strawberry blonde hair.
"No." Elisabeth said, sniffing and shaking her head. "I need to get it." She climbed out of bed and picked her robe off of the ground, pulling it on. She decided that she ought to look decent, especially if it was Sara at the door.
"Wait." Iggy said, getting up. "I'll come with you." He wasn't wearing a shirt, but he could care less what Sara thought of him. He took a few steps toward Elisabeth, got his foot tangled in the cover, and did a face plant in the carpet.
Elisabeth giggled, just like when they were kids, and helped him get to his feet. Then she heard a noise that made her breath catch in her throat. Someone had opened the front door. The locked front door. She heard it close behind the intruder.
Iggy stood rigidly next to her, grasping her hand, listening to the footsteps downstairs. His face was blank as he listened closely and then suddenly he looked confused.
"Angel?! Gazzy?!" he called at the closed bedroom door. He couldn't believe it was them. They would've called first, but there was no mistaking their footsteps. He had heard them all his life.
Elisabeth heard a soft, vague, "Yeah" in answer and Iggy's face broke into a huge grin. He couldn't wait to tell them all about Mel being alright and her phone call. They'd be so happy.
"Bedroom!" he called down to them. But, wait why were they there and at six thirty in the morning on a Saturday?
Elisabeth heard them thunder up the stairs (a noise she hadn't heard in too long). They came to a stop at the closed bedroom door, swung it wide open, and tackled the both of them.
"How'd you get in here?" Elisabeth asked, hugging Angel tightly.
"You think Iggy's the only one who can pick a lock?" Gazzy asked, grinning. "He is my best friend after all."
"What're you doing here this early?" Iggy asked, anxious to tell them about Melody.
"I got a new power!" Angel shouted gleefully. "I couldn't wait to tell you!" Then she got a wide-eyed look on her face. "You talked to Melody?"
The Gasman looked astounded. "Mel? Why didn't you say something? Where is she? Did she bust up a couple of whitecoats?" He had a look in his eye that Elisabeth knew only too well, though she was used to looking down to see it, not up. The Gasman had grown in the last fourteen years.
"Calm down." Elisabeth said smiling. "We don't know anything about her escape except that she has joined up with two other mutants and that they're being hunted."
"Oh." Gazzy said, looking disappointed. "I take it she isn't comin' home then huh?"
Iggy shook his head sadly and they all stood in silence for a few minutes until Angel said, "But we can still talk to her. Or well I can anyways since it's my power."
"What is it?" Elisabeth asked curiously, slipping off her robe and undoing her hair. It fell all around her and a burst of coconut wafted through the room, making Iggy's heart race. He still loved that smell.
Angel looked like she couldn't contain herself, like she might explode. "I think it's my last power though, since it's been a while since the last time I got a new one." She held a dramatic pause for a few tense seconds before she said, "I can enter people's dreams and interact with them and stuff."
Elisabeth was interested, but didn't see how it could help considering Mel was all the way in Arkansas and apparently Iggy shared her thoughts.
"But Mel's in Arkansas. Or, she thinks she is anyway. Isn't that too far. I mean, if your mind reading powers don't work from that far then this one shouldn't either right?" he asked.
Angel nodded. "That's what I thought too when I first discovered this power. I was just thinking about Gazzy before I went to sleep and then somehow I popped into his dream, but I was fully aware of everything." She frowned. "I can't explain it right. But anyway, I wondered if it would work again, so I tried Total and that's when I found out I could talk with whoever's dream I happened to be in."
"Okay, but how do you know you can talk to Mel?" Elisabeth asked, thinking she knew what Angel was getting at.
"Well, last night I was thinking about her when I went to sleep and I popped into her dream. I didn't talk to her, but I just watched from behind a tree. She didn't know I was there because I stayed hidden. I didn't want to freak her out. So I woke up the Gasman and here we are."
Elisabeth pulled Angel in another hug. "Angel, you have no idea how much this means to me."
Okay, that was pretty emotional, just the way I feel. So, Mel got to talk to her parents and they stopped worrying. I also gave Angel a new power 'cause I wanted someone to give her advice about something later on. Well, I still would really love drawings of any of the characters from my three fanfictions, 'With Wings Wide Open', 'In the Blink of an Eye', and 'Solar Flare'. I'm posting all of the pictures I get on the last day of my summer vacation, August 26th. Don't know when I'll be updating again, but it should be around next Tuesday if everything goes good. Keep your fingers crossed. Read and review all of my stories. Nice long reviews please. And from more than three people. I know a ton of people are reading this story, but right now only three are reviewing. Come on people. Well, fly on!
