Fox Chase

Chapter 1

Fox Michaels is a lot of things, even if she doesn't know what exactly half of those things are. Her mothers in the looney-bin, she never knew her father, and she happens to be so smart she graduated high school when she was thirteen, and that is only the half of it. Normal human beings fall seven stories and break every bone in their body, she falls seven stories and gets up without a scratch, ridiculously inhumane strength, heightened senses and speed along with cat-like reflexes. Here's the part where some cliché fatherly figure tells her that with great power comes great responsibility, but she has no father figure, she has no one. She's the town outcast, not a single friend, and labeled either a delinquent or a nutjob by everyone. It doesn't bother her though, she's been alone for so long that the company of others just makes her uncomfortable.

She knows she brought the delinquent remarks upon herself always spray painting old buildings and bridges, getting into fights at school and breaking into abandoned buildings. Fortunately she's only been caught a few times and each time she's managed to convince the police that they should let her off with a warning. The nutjob remarks however would be because of her mother. Up until Fox was seven her mother was completely normal, but then one night she left all dolled up and didn't come home. The police found her wondering around the next morning muttering and babbling on about demons and repentance for her sin. She got better or so we thought, she became extremely religious and began attending church, holding prayer circles, the whole deal. However, by the time Fox was twelve she refused to attend church with her mother and put up a fight every Sunday complaining that church made her uncomfortable and that every time they went she got awful headaches and pains in her stomach. At first her mother would yell at her for telling lies and make her go, but one day when they stepped over the threshold of the church and Fox became so physically ill she couldn't walk her mother lost it. She took fox straight home and locked her in the basement for five hours, then she drug her up the stairs, and tried to kill her own daughter. The neighbors heard Fox's terrified screams and called police; when the cops arrived Fox was beaten, bleeding, soaking wet, and her mother was unconscious on the floor. She had tried to drown Fox in the bathtub, but Fox had managed to hit her over the head, knocking her unconscious. Her mother was committed to the local psych ward and Fox was bounced from foster home to foster home, but they never stuck. The parents would complain she was just too different, too damaged. She couldn't get along with other kids, and she didn't listen to the parents too all of them she was hopeless. When she turned sixteen they granted her emancipation and she's been alone ever since.

In two weeks Fox will be eighteenth but she feels twelve again. For the first time since her mother was locked away she's going to go and see her. Fox won't admit it, not event to herself, but she is terrified. She hasn't seen her mother since she tried to kill her, but now all she really wants is answers. She wants to know who her father is and why her mother tried to kill her, then she's going to go and find him. She doesn't care how far she'll have to go or what she'll have to do all she cares about is finding the only family she has left. Maybe even find out why she is the way she is, why she's so different. Now all she has to do is get up the courage to walk through those hospital doors, and with a deep breath and a shaky hand she does.

It's quiet as she waits for the nurse to bring in her mother; the hard plastic chairs and cold artificial air make her even more uncomfortable. She drums her fingers nervously against the large table never taking her eyes off the door. Finally the nurse comes in with her mother and a security guard in toe. For a moment Fox can see her as the mother she used to be, the mother who would tell her stories and sing her songs, who would take her to get ice cream while they played at the park and make her mac 'n' cheese. And then those memories are gone and she's staring down the woman her mother has become; six years older and a lot more fragile.