Wings in Alabama

Chapter 15

<pre style="line-height: 17px; white-space: normal;">I furrowed my eyebrows slightly and thought about that in disgust. I would like very much not to belong to him. I would also like very much like to kill the creature and it's creator with the world domination plan. We don't always get what we want though, do we?<br style="line-height: 17px;" /><br style="line-height: 17px;" />I tried to put humor into the subject. Like it would make a difference. "Last I checked, he did not pay for me. Technically, I do not belong to him."<br style="line-height: 17px;" /><br style="line-height: 17px;" />I hear Ashton exhale on his side of the observatory room. Probably in annoyance. "You don't get it, Rylee. The ignis-diaboluses are awful animals. When the director began favoring them and giving them special treatment, he put a sort of device in their bloodstreams."<br style="line-height: 17px;" /><br style="line-height: 17px;" />"So they're robots?"<br style="line-height: 17px;" /><br style="line-height: 17px;" />"Worse. If they touch you, or worse, leave a mark, you belong to them. If they touched you and didn't leave a mark, you'd have a chance of escaping. If they left a mark, it's like a tracking device. They'd always know where you'd be."<br style="line-height: 17px;" /><br style="line-height: 17px;" />"But the ignis-diabolus said that it'd disappear soon," I object.<br style="line-height: 17px;" /><br style="line-height: 17px;" />"It will. But that device will be stuck in your body. You won't be able to get it out. If you escape, they'd just bring you back."<br style="line-height: 17px;" /><br style="line-height: 17px;" />"Well, that's not gonna happen. I tried to escape, the place is too heavily blocked. And those other kids? I can't leave without them," I said. Ashton sighed and slumped on the bars of his cage facing me.<br style="line-height: 17px;" /><br style="line-height: 17px;" />We were silent for a while. It was so quiet, I could have died. Ashton finally brought up a new topic. "Should we continue the Questions Game?"<br style="line-height: 17px;" /><br style="line-height: 17px;" />"Definitely. You go first," I said. I sat with my legs criss-crossed and leaned against a bar, with my wings in between the gaps between two other bars.<br style="line-height: 17px;" /><br style="line-height: 17px;" />"Alrighty, who do you live with?"<br style="line-height: 17px;" /><br style="line-height: 17px;" />"In Michigan, it's just me, my mom, and my sister. Here, in Alabama, it's Uncle Mike, Aunt Kat, their dog, and my Michigan family. You?"<br style="line-height: 17px;" /><br style="line-height: 17px;" />"My dad. Mom was killed in a car accident a few years ago."<br style="line-height: 17px;" /><br style="line-height: 17px;" />"Oh, I'm sorry."<br style="line-height: 17px;" /><br style="line-height: 17px;" />"Thanks, but it's kinda okay. I mean, she was pretty distant from me growing up. My dad's trying to make me happy again by helping me out with difficult stuff like homework and baseball."<br style="line-height: 17px;" /><br style="line-height: 17px;" />I nod with his words. I can understand, the parent trying to be nicer to you when someone leaves. My mom wasn't so good at that when dad walked out on us, mostly because she was so upset that she was alone, but she was trying.<br style="line-height: 17px;" /><br style="line-height: 17px;" />"Okay now… tell me about the world domination thingy you mentioned earlier," Ashton says to change the subject.<br style="line-height: 17px;" /><br style="line-height: 17px;" />"There really isn't much to tell. I'd grown wings, jumped out of my cage, and flown up and down, teasing the fire boys, then something went wrong, I fell, and the director dude told me about a world domination thing. That's it."<br style="line-height: 17px;" /><br style="line-height: 17px;" />"Hmm…," Ashton murmured. He tilted his head back against the bar and huffed.<br style="line-height: 17px;" /><br style="line-height: 17px;" />I leaned in forward, then fell back against the bars repeatedly. I didn't really care that my head started hurting after hitting it for the tenth time. Ashton looked back at me and asked, "Are you emo?"<br style="line-height: 17px;" /><br style="line-height: 17px;" />I looked over at him and replied, "What the heck?"<br style="line-height: 17px;" /><br style="line-height: 17px;" />"Just askin'. You kept hitting your head against the bar and didn't show any emotion," he said with a shrug. I rolled my eyes and said, "No, I'm not emo. I don't cut myself, and when was the last time I looked like a miserable person?"<br style="line-height: 17px;" /><br style="line-height: 17px;" />He shrugged again and I leaned back against the bars. He started humming something I recognized as the Emo Song, but I didn't sing along. <br style="line-height: 17px;" /><br style="line-height: 17px;" />I started wondering. If I'd get out. If someone else got out. If my family misses me at all. A loud voice inside of me yelled, "Yes, of course they miss you!"<br style="line-height: 17px;" /><br style="line-height: 17px;" />A different voice, one that was much smaller and much quieter, disagreed.</pre>

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<pre style="line-height: 17px; white-space: normal;">Yes!!!!! I finally updated on this story! My apologies for keeping ya'll waiting for so long, but I started writing FLD and a bunch of other stories. Bad, Pearly!!! So, here it is!!! I updated two chappies because the 14th was really short.</pre>