This is one of my favorite scenes in the history of my fanfiction writing (which isn't that long in the first place XD). I actually started to tear up a little as I proof read this, so hopefully you'll like it as much as I have lol.

Chapter 10: We Don't Mess With Emotions; Emotions Mess With Us

I looked into the mirror, carefully touching the places that were cut or bruised. I cringed a couple of times, but overall, it was okay.

Well...better than some days.

I turned on the shower and almost screamed when the warm water hit the arm that was burned, but I held it under the water until it became numb from the pain. It felt so different to actually take a long hot shower, and I made sure to enjoy every minute of it.

Too bad I can't get used to this, I thought as I dried myself off about 10 minutes later and put on my clothes, which were torn in some uninmportant places. When I walked out of the bathroom, I saw the whole flock hovering over the laptop. Fang glanced at me from over his shoulder and his eyes widened, like he was surprised.

"What?" I asked, sitting on the unoccupied bed. He snapped out of his stare and grabbed a First-Aid kit that hadn't been used.

"Nothing" he replied as he sat next to me and opened the kit.

I frowned at him, my arm starting to slightly throb. Just the sight of anything medical set me on edge.

"I can do it myself" I said defensively. He looked up at me with his eyebrow raised up, as if to say "if I allow you to do it yourself, I know you're not going to do it at all". We had a staredown for a few seconds before I held out my arm and quickly looked away, my chin resting in the palm of my hand with my elbow propped up on my knee.

I heard him chuckle and I flipped my middle finger at him.

"Itex is definetly up to something" I heard Nudge say as she typed in something. Angel turned to look at me and the blood seemed to drain from her face.

"Ember...did you have a sister?" Angel asked.

My heart skipped a beat, and at that moment, something other than my arm had actually started to hurt.

"Yeah..." I said, my voice sounding strangled in my ears.

"How long ago was it when you left the school?" Angel asked.

I didn't want to talk about this; not my sister. I wanted to run out of that room, spread my wings wide, and fly far away where I could escape it all and just cry my eyes out. But my body was paralyzed; the only thing that would move was my mouth.

"Its been 2 years since I left. I was 13, she was 6. But...she's dead" I finished, forcing the last words out. I felt shattered, shaken, exposed. My insides caved into a compact shell, waiting for me to burst.

It was my fault, it was my fault. I let her die... I began to think to myself.

"I don't think so" said Gazzy, who was still looking at the computer. I snapped back into reality, my eyes focusing on Angel's concerned face.

"What are you-Ow!" I said suddenly, my head turning to look at Fang. He was putting something on my skin with a cottonball, and it burned like hell.

"Stay still" he said, his eyes focused intently on what he was doing. I turned my head back around only to see that Nudge had brought the laptop over to the bed that I was sitting on. I looked on the screen and almost choked on air.

And yes, that is possible.

The small girl on the screen was scowling at the camera while showing her teeth in the most menacing smile that she could pull off. Her skin was a fair light brown, her long hair seemed to reach all the way to her lower back in wonderful ever-flowing colors of darkbrown, a hint of scarlet, and a small touch of black, just like mine. Even our eyes looked identical, and I could swear that we would be twins if she wasn't so young.

But those eyes, the ones that I remembered held so much passion and carefreeness in them; they were gone, replaced by tired eyes, as if she had given up.

"This says that this picture was taken a couple of months ago. In England. Apparently, this is what Itex has been working on" said Nudge. I skimmed the page, catching phrases like "...our new achievement...lost sister...essential to this project...powers beyond comprehension...".

They're using her as a guinea pig! I said to myself as I clicked a promising looking file with my free hand. The page opened up and filled the screen, showing a picture of my parents together, looking quite happy. Michelle Darwin and Lucas Finn, I read to myself.

"My parents..." I heard myself say. I felt something squeeze my hand, but I was too busy reading the article to see what it was.

"The married couple of 18 years, parents of experiment CS_013 and CS_666, died after experiments were taken. Their bodies were never found..." I read out loud, feeling my heart drop. I didn't really expect my parents to be alive, but a girl could always dream. Nudge came closer to the screen, I guess to take a better look. I had had enough of gazing at the faces of my dead parents, but for some reason, I couldn't look away.

"If they were married, why are their last names different?" Nudge asked.

"Maybe they kept their maiden names or something" suggested Gazzy, who also crowded around me to get a better look.

"It sounds like an alias name" said Fang quietly as he brought his head near the computer also. I glanced at my arm and saw that it was wrapped from the shoulder all the way down to my wrist.

"Both of these pictures were taken in England" said Angel, who seemed to come out of nowhere.

Wait...two pictures? I thought as I glanced back at the screen.

And I almost lost it.

On the page, below the information that we had already seen, was a picture of my family together. My dad, who was holding an 11 year old me up on his shoulders, laughing while having one hand wrapped around my mom's waist, who looked perfectly serene holding a 4 year old Melody in her arms.

My heart shrunk inside of my chest, and I stood up on the bed, literally jumped over everyone's head, landed on the floor and dashed out of the room, the tears that I couldn't hold back long enough escaping my eyes. I burst through the hotel doors, not even caring if the whole entire Northern population was there to watch me as I unfurled my wings and took off. But I only succedded in coming about 2 feet off of the ground before I plopped right back down to good ol' Earth on my knees.

Oh, God! I'm losing it! I can't even fly anymore! I screamed at myself, the tears now flowing freely down my face like a broken water faucet. Strong arms surrounded me, locking my arms down to my sides.

"Don't do anything stupid" said a slightly husky voice and I instantly knew who it belonged to.

I thrashed and screamed for him to let me go, although I didn't know where exactly I would go. I just didn't want to be there. I didn't want to exist. I wanted to sink into a nice, quiet, dark place and just sit there for the rest of my life.

But, of course, it's never that easy.

TWO YEARS! TWO WHOLE FREAKING YEARS AND I JUST CAST HER OFF AS DEAD! BECAUSE OF ME, SHE HAD TO SUFFER EVEN MORE!! I screamed, maybe to myself, maybe out loud. I couldnt even tell; I was just so numb on the inside.

I struggled to break free, but the more I did, the tighter Fang's grip around me became, until I just gave up and ended up crying into his shoulder for God knows how long. But he didn't say a word; he just stayed there like a rock, just holding me tightly to him.

O::O::O::O::O::O

Even though it was only for 10 minutes tops, it felt like eternity. Having to hold her there in my arms, crying her eyes out. I don't know why, but the grief that she felt radiated off of her body into me.

And it was one of the worst pains that I had ever experienced.

Every gasp that she had to take just so that she could start all over reverberated into my chest and sent stabbing pains deep within my body. I just wanted to lift her head up, wipe away her tears, and tell her that everything would be okay.

But I couldn't even do that for her. All I could do was sit there, holding her. She calmed down after awhile, but she wouldn't look up at me, even when it became completely silent and the night settled around us. I was about to say something when she easily disentangled herself from my death grip that would have broken a regular human's spine. She turned her back toward me and drew her legs to her body.

"Sorry 'bout that. I'm fine now"she mumbled, but I had caught a glimpse of her eyes. They were dead, as if her soul had walked out of her and just left a zombie-like carcass laying around.

I wanted to do something, say something, ANYTHING that would get her to look at me so that I could try to make it better. But I couldn't even bring myself to tap her on the shoulder because she looked so fragile and vunerable; as if one touch would make her shatter into a million pieces and I would never see her again.

Another stab of pain shot through my chest at the thought, so I got up and walked back to the hotel room. We had a window view of the parking lot, so I would be able to keep an eye on her from there. As I walked into the room, I saw all eyes flick toward my direction before disappointedly turning their attention back to whatever they were doing.

Jeesh, thanks for the heart-felt love, I thought as I went over to Nudge, who was still researching on the laptop. I closed it and she looked up at me with confusion. "Time for bed" I said and everyone was instantly claiming their spots.

That's what I liked about these kids. They were so low-maintenanced...at least when they had to be.

"Where's Ember?"Total asked.

"She's still outside. She'll be fine" I replied, keeping a straight face while putting my fist out. They all followed suit and were soon fast asleep.

Iggy was curled up on the floor, Nudge and Gazzy made a little ying-yang sign on the bed, and Total was snuggled close to Angel. I positioned myself in a chair that allowed me to look out the window with ease. She was still there, curled in that same tight ball, sitting as still as possible. I couldn't stare at her for too long, partially because the pain that I had felt earlier was coming back with full force. Instead, I turned my attention to the full moon, making my mind wander.

"Fang?" Angel called quietly. I raised and eyebrow to let her know that I was listening. "She's blocking me out again..." she whispered, the hurt clear in her voice. I glanced at her and saw her expression before I got up and went over to where she was and put my hand on her head.

"She just needs some time alone" I said. She looked at me with an "I don't believe you" look, but she was so worn out that she didn't even bother to argue. She gave me a small nod before getting comfortable again and falling back to sleep. I went back to the chair and resumed looking out the window.

Either that or she's planing something... I thought to myself, only allowing my eyes to glance at her siloutted figure every once in awhile, sinking into myself so that I could get lost in my own thoughts.

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