Black Wings

Chapter 4: Fear of the unknown

"Piper? Piper please say something. Hello? Piper?" My Uncle said as I slowly looked up at him, in response, he took a step back, "P-Piper, y-your eyes."

"My eyes, what," I said with poison on my tongue. Out of all of my family members, my Uncle Drew knew me best. I cocked my head at him as red began to swim in my irises, "do they scare you? Does this scare you?" I whispered.

"Piper," My uncle said with a  hint of fear in his voice, "we all knew that you were different, I guess we just didn't know how much it was." His voice quivered as he spoke. I clenched my fists and my body became tense.

"If I have to kill my own kind just to get her back," I said in a low hiss with a threatening tone, "then I will do just that." Swallowing hard I got up close and personal in his face. My heart pounded in my chest pumping my blood through my body. My arms shook in anger and revenge. My mind ran with different ways to kill. A cold sweat trickled down my uncle's forehead.

"Now now now Piper, if you keep that attitude up, I'm sure you'll never get Alice back." Never get Alice back. That was enough to knock me back into reality. I shook my head hard as brown flooded my irises again. I grunted and looked around at all the attention I had caused.

"What are you all looking at?" I hissed, "get back to work." And just like that, all of the doctors and nurses scurried away.

"I guess everyone here still remembers you too. With that tone of authority, I'm sure none of them have forgotten you."

"What?" I looked over at my uncle in confusion.

"Take a closer look at all of them Piper, what do you see?" Squinting my eyes, I looked at the back of all of the people rushing around in the hospital. To my utter surprise, they all had two bones poking out of the back of their white uniforms to a very unnatural extent.

"They're all-"

"Halflings," My uncle finished my sentence for me.

"What have the fates done? Why are they all here? Why are they not home? In the heavens? Where they belong?" My mind was racing with questions that were waiting to be answered.

"Piper, they were all sent down to earth because of their skill the Halfling medical field."

"Halfling... Halfling medical field? What? What is that? When was that created? We can heal just fine-"

"I am afraid that statement is false my dear," I shook my head in disbelief, "The hunters down here on earth have found a chemical that burns our wings."

"Yeah, that's titanium-"

"Piper it's a liquid." That shut me up faster than pizza on a rainy day could as my mind came to an immediate halt.

"No," it came out as a whisper, "no, they couldn't have, that's-that's impossible."

"Not anymore it's not," he looked down at the ground before looking back up at me, "take a walk with me." I hesitantly nodded my head and followed him as he walked. We went down to the basement and the sight I saw before me made me gasp, it was absolutely terrifying.

"What in god's name?" I said as I looked at all of Halflings laying on tables and recovery beds. White and black wings were seared blacker than the night sky. Painful moans and cries filled the room as if someone was playing a serenade on the violin, except the violin was out of tune, and the strings were broken, and the neck was cracked. My hand slowly found its way to my mouth that was wide open in absolute shock. Halflings of all gender,color and race were crammed in to the large basement, which felt smaller and smaller by the second. I watched as two doctors began to sedate and wheel a male Halfling into a room in the back of the basement. I began shaking in fear and I grabbed on to the sleeve of my uncles white coat for dear life.

"Wh-what's going to happen to h-him?" After a couple minuets of silence, I looked at my uncle and asked again, "what. Is going to happen. To him?" I said with more force and a dominating tone. My uncle opened his mouth to answer when he was interrupted with a blood curdling scream that came from the back of the basement. In an instant, I realized what was happening: the male in the back wouldn't have wings tomorrow.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I emptied the fluids from my stomach into the bush next to the hospital. Even though I hadn't had anything to eat today, I still managed to muster up some stomach acid and a couple chunks of last nights dinner.There was no way, no no no no, this couldn't be happening to my kind. This was a horrible discovery. Without your wings, you cannot go home.

I wiped the remaining fluids from my lips and took some deep breaths still hunched over the bush incase anything else came out. "What's going to happen to them? How are they going to live? What are they going to do? Will we be discovered?" I heard my uncle sigh behind me.

"Well, we are looking at some constructions for houses that can fit about 50 people. This means A. money and material and B. construction people. Whether it be Halflings that build these houses or actual people, that's what we are thinking of doing." I nodded not looking at him.

"So what you're saying is having a big family house for all the disabled Halflings?"

"Correct, like I said, time and money and people, but we have been considering it. We already have a house built for the guardians, but none for the disabled at the moment."

"Guardians? White or black?"

"White, the guardians are our warriors."

"Ohhh," I said in understanding, "So they're down here because?"

"Well, the fates want to try and fight off the hunters, which means losing a couple of our guardians rather than losing some of our workers."

"Ah, I see. So the guardians are here to guard us? Not the people?"

"No, the workers are here to guard the people and help them with what ever they need to help them with."

"Oh I see now, wow, a lot has changed since I've come down here."

"Yeah, your father is going a little insane with these changes and new laws." I turned around to find him scratching the back of his neck. For my uncle, that was never a good sign.

"What do you mean by, 'a little insane'," I said with a little bit of worry, "what else has he changed?"

"I mean, no one can give up their baby for adoption, all the little kids that were in the adoption center, well, there were handed out like candy. Families were forced to take these kids in and care for them. Male and female adopted kids will be our future warriors or guardians." I gasped in terror. Not only was that unfair, that was not right.

"So, no one can give their kid up for adoption anymore? We can no longer adopt?" My uncle nodded his head, "no baby for me and Alice?" he shook his head once again, "but what about jobs? We can still pick our jobs right? Right?" I asked hanging on to the little hope that I had left.

He shook his head and sighed, "I think he misses you Piper. He has not been the same. He's making the wrong decisions and he's being very unfair. His way of ruling needs to be stopped. Not only is he making adoption no longer an option, neither is abortion. Along with that, he's already pre-assigned jobs to the kids based on their placement in the family. The first child is the warrior, second is the doctors, third is the police, and fourth are store managers. If there so happens to be a fifth child, that fifth child is the janitor in the stores." He shook his head in distraught. I did the same, "Piper we need you back, we need you to straighten your father out. Please Piper, I am begging you, on the behalf of all Halflings, please finish your mission." I nodded in confidence. I needed to get this mission done, no matter how long it took me. The shorter the better cause then I would be able to be with Alice once again, but the heavens needed me, they needed a real ruler.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sorry its long and boring right now, but I promise, it will get a lot better soon. Please drop and comment peeps, loves ya'll.

~Piper