Feathers That Won't Fly

Chapter XIV Focus: The Evils

"Calvin?" Oliver yelled in surprise. His green eyes darted up and down at Calvin's disheveled body. Calvin's hair was astray (which was normal), his legs were full of scrapes and gashes, and slimy mud and grime painted his skin. "What happened to you? Why are you here?"

Calvin, still distrusting Oliver, answered anyway, yet with skeptical eyes.

"I got in a Fight. Tom was killed back in D.C. Lisa is fine-well, alive. We got into a car accident...and ended near here."

"Yeah, I saw a car crashed by here."

"So, where have you been, and why were you such a dick?"

"You're the ones who left my father and I, and now he's dead!" Oliver Haddix nearly screamed. "Whatever, anyway, that wasn't me back there. I was being controlled by the Beast King or whatever. I have no idea how he got control of me."

"I'm sorry to hear about your dad, dude," Calvin said, obviously not sorry, "but Beast King? The Beast King as in 'The Legend of the Feathered Angel' Beast King?!"

"CALVIN, HURRY UP! WE NEED TO GO! MY PARENTS WILL BE BACK SOON!" Quinn suddenly screamed from down below.

Needless to say, Calvin grabbed Lisa, and Quinn grabbed some of her stuff, and they all headed to the rest of the group.

You might suggest I slow down with my story telling. Harley Quinn seeing Azlyn, and Calvin's angry reaction at seeing Azlyn, but no. I shall skip through that part because it is unnecessary and quite obvious the way that they acted.

One key thing that you may note, however, is the fact that Azlyn (reluctantly and cautiously) cured Quinn of her deafness and apologized for what had happened earlier. Note also, that Azlyn, (Lilly,) Kekona, and Oliver had found a working car (with keys!) beforehand, and they were off before Quinn's parents returned.

Speaking of Quinn's parents...
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"What are we going to do with our little liebling?" Ana Harland asked her husband.

Quinn's mutter and vater held sacks full of resources. They struggled along the sandy shore, hobbling back to their underground haven.

In a gruff voice, Rudolf replied, "We can't let her know about perceptors, but you know she's gotta be a trapper. How can we hide it from her?"

Ana's voice wavered at first, but strengthened towards the end, "R-remember that girl Angelica used to be friends with? The girl. Her name was... Azlyn, I think."

Rudolf nodded, but he offered, "She was just a normal girl, what about her?"

"Normal? Angeli told us later that Azlyn was adopted into an abusive home! She had cuts all down her arms. Remember how she wore long shirts all the time?"

Rudolf scoffed, "I do not recall. I recall meeting her father, though. He was an ass, so I can believe the story."

They kept trudging on for a bit, but they stopped when they got to the cover of their home. Ana turned and faced Rudolf.

"Her last name was Hunter. I heard rumors that she was the biological daughter of Syn and June Hunter. You know, our daughter could have been best friends with a perceptor. Why shouldn't she know?" Ana didn't wait for an answer, she proceeded to enter their home.

Something was off.

Ana spied muddy footsteps, and held her breath. They led to her and her husband's as well as her Angi's room.

When Rudolf came down, she put a finger to her lips and used that same finger to trace the path of the muddy prints. Rudolf's breath stuck in his throat as well. He motioned for them to split up.

Ana tiptoed into Quinn's room.

"Angi?" She whispered.

Please be here. Please be okay.

"Liebling?"

"Mutter?" But it was not Angi's voice.

Out of the shadows came a malicious looking young woman. She might have been beautiful, but she had chopped off parts of her hair so that each handful was not the same length as the next. Her boobs nearly spilled out from her tight, plain black (yet slightly see through) shirt. As if that wasn't enough, she had colorful tattoos of two red and orange Phoenixes across the top of her breasts, one on each. She had one ring on one nostril, and one stud on that same nostril. The worst was her teeth, all yellow, as if the foulness of her scratchy voice had tainted her teeth, and tilted her smile. The contrast of her teeth against her pale skin was frightening.

Before Ana could yell for help, the woman's hand was clamped on her mouth. Ana could smell her foul breath as it curled into her nostrils. It smelled of acid and expired blood.

"Now, I'm going to take off my hand, and you're going to keep your trap shut but to answer this question quietly, or I'll kill you with my bare teeth. Now answer this: Where's the girl, sweety?" The woman cackled softly.

"Who? My daughter? I do not know where she is..." Ana replied with shaky calmness.

"Not your stupid daughter, her friend. Azlyn, I think she was called."

"She is not here. Is she even alive? I don't know what you're talking about."

Instantly, with obvious frustration and zero patience, the woman stuck her sharp yellow teeth into Ana's neck and sucked it nearly dry like it was a peach. Ana's lifeless body slumped to the floor, her neck shriveled, and blood pouring out.

The woman in the black shirt walked out of the room, and waited for her partner to finish his job and come out of the other room.

An annoyed looking man came out soon after.

"Anything?"

"No," mumbled the female. "You?"

"Nothing. Had to waste the old man. I guess turning on that cellular connection didn't do jack s--- for us. Well, we can still use the GPS to track them. They shouldn't be too far, right?" The male said.

They dreaded the failure call to their boss.

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As I am focusing on telling you the evils, how about we head on over to the restaurant, and check up on our Winona and Lillia?

Winona licked some blood off of the Knife. She chuckled at her sister as she did so.

"Daddy says some people are coming our way. Isn't he the best! He's sending them as a present for our great work at guarding the Knife!" Lillia squealed with delight.

"Don't you mean my great work?" Winona scowled.

Lillia's gold lips turned to a frown, the glittery gold seemed to dance around as her lips moved. Much more childish than her younger sister, she said in a whining voice, "But I help!"

Winona glared, but laughed it off suddenly. The joy was too great. They were going to have a nice feast according to their father. He had noted that one would be especially tasty, and she was planning on saving that one for herself. Funny, even her usually dieting sister was excited to have a bite of their father's presents.

But you know what's even funnier? The fact that their father had neglected to tell them that one of their own kind was included in the feast as well.