Air Born | Generation Icarus #1

Tyler - And now I'm a freak

Mom dropped her glass, and a moment later, I was squashed between my parents. For a few seconds, I felt safe again.

Then Mom drew back, a strange look on her face. "Do they hurt? Could we see?"

Wearily, I unbuttoned the shirt and dropped it on the bed. As I turned away from my parents, my wings relaxed from their tight fold and partly opened.

"Good God," Dad said.

"May I?" Tentatively, Mom reached out and touched the bruised place between spine and shoulder blade where my feathered bones emerged. She stepped backward as my muscles twitched.

Dad swore under his breath. "It's as if they've always been there." For the first time in my life, I heard nervousness in his voice. "How could something like this just happen?"

I bit my lip.

"Tyler!" Mom cried. "When did this start?"

"I don't know. My back started hurting last week, and then it went all grey and bumpy, and then when I jumped out of the plane, they just sort of ... burst out."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Mom wailed.

"I don't know! I thought everything would be okay and I wanted to jump solo, and ..." All the things I'd told myself now seemed ridiculous, pathetic. "And now I'm a freak!"

"Don't ever say that," Dad said. "We've just got to figure out why this has happened to you." He took a deep breath. "And what we're going to do about it."

"I'll call the cops, they're still out there looking," Mom said, reaching for her phone.

"No!" Dad and I yelled. Mom flinched.

"You heard them," Dad said, grabbing my arm and pulling me close. "They were going on about his own protection. They're not going to let him stay home in his own bed, not when he's got wings growing out of his back! Not when they wouldn't even let us see him in the hospital. They'll take him away to God knows where. Believe me, Julia, I know what I'm talking about."

"You're right, you're right," Mom said. "But, what should we do?"

I sank onto the bed, relieved that it was no longer just my problem.

"There's no way those clowns who were outside the hospital will leave us alone once they find out he's here." Dad went to the closet and pulled out their overnight bags. "We have to get away for a few days, somewhere we can think clearly and make a plan."

"But Cherie ..." Mom began.

My gaze had been bouncing between them like I was watching a tennis match, hope slowly growing in my chest that they'd take control and sort it all out, like they always did. That I'd just have to follow orders, and everything would be okay.

But as soon as Mom said my little sister's name, I realised that my family would never be okay again. Not while I was around.

I was dangerous. A threat to everyone I loved. Who knew what other weird mutations I was going to go through? And what if it was contagious? I couldn't let Cherie suffer. Her life was only just starting.

Dad's career in the Air Force Space Command. Mom's job at the university. The happy life and comfortable home they'd worked so hard to build. They were going to throw it all away, just for me.

I couldn't let that happen.

My heart ached as I realised what I had to do. It was worse than the physical pain of the change. But before I broke it to them, there was one thing I had to know.

"Mom?" I said, my voice shaking. "Dad?"

They turned to me, despair in their eyes. I hated seeing what I had done to them, but I had to ask. "Was I ... am I really your son?"

There was a split second of soul-destroying silence and then they broke into violent exclamations. Somewhere in the middle of it all was the revelation that I had been artificially conceived. In vitro fertilization. IVF. A test tube baby.

It was then that all three of us began to comprehend that something had happened to my DNA during that process. Something had been added to the vulnerable embryo they'd entrusted to a doctor.

Whatever else happens in the rest of my life, whatever's left of it, I thought hysterically, I am never going to be able to trust a doctor ever again.

"Where did you have it done? Who was the doctor?" I asked. Furious that this had been done to me. To all of us.

Mom squeezed her eyes shut and rubbed her temples. "I can't think."

"It was something weird," Dad said. "The clinic was in Beijing, but the doctor was from somewhere in Europe."

I gaped. "What were you—"

"Mommy?" Cherie appeared in the doorway, blinking in the light and trailing her teddy.

"Sweetie, look, Tyler's home!"

Cherie blinked sleepily at me. "There's a man outside. I think he's lost something."

I froze, and Mom gasped. Dad swung around and pointed at me. "Tyler, get under the bed. You're not here. Julia, take Cherie to her room and lock the door. Start packing. I'll get rid of him."

As Mom swooped over to pick up Cherie, I grabbed Dad's arm. "It's me they want, Dad. I have to get out of here."

"We're all getting out of here. As soon as I've—"

"You can't take a six-year-old on the run! I mean, she's just a normal kid! Right?"

Suddenly worried, I glanced at Mom, and she nodded. "She was conceived naturally. Our little surprise miracle," she whispered, burying a kiss in Cherie's curls.

My heart cracked a little more. There was only one way I could protect them.

I waited till Dad had got rid of whoever was outside and Mom had finally decided I'd eaten enough. They were determined we would all stick together, but I knew they'd be safer without me.

I slipped out the back door while they were upstairs packing.